Your local newspaper: A dying institution?
You think books and libraries have it bad? Take a look at the state of our nation’s local newspapers.
Newspapers have always been a big part of my life. Wherever my family lived, we always got a local paper, and I still do. My father and husband were both newspaper reporters for a time, and I do some freelancing for my local paper now. I am an anomaly in my generation, and a complete weirdo to younger generations. (I know young people are getting their news from the internet, but I still don’t know what they line their birdcages and compost bins with, or how they pack fragile items, or quickly dry out their wet sneakers.)
Some would say we don’t need newspapers. We can get a lot of news from other sources. Citizen journalists, bloggers, and even libraries can fill some traditional newspaper roles.
I think there is a reason the founding fathers insisted on a free press, and it wasn’t just because blogging hadn’t been invented yet. We don’t just need newspapers for our daily Sudoku fix or to line our birdcages with – we need strong, independent, and diverse media.
Who else, besides a free press, is going to do investigative journalism? (as Leonard Pitts, Jr. asks in his column).
What else will force us to look outside our own worldview? (as Nicholas Kristof asks in his column).
It’s only preliminary, but a study conducted by scholars at Princeton showed that newspapers promote political and civic engagement.
Clearly, newspapers–like libraries–need to make some changes. They need to be where their readers are (I’m following my local paper on Facebook and Twitter). They need to become more interactive (my local paper has started publishing comments received via Twitter on the opinion page). They need to focus on their specialty (usually, their local community). They need to find new ways of supporting themselves. I just hope it’s not too late.
