Earlier today, I was pondering the concept of limits as applied to the newspaper industry. You’ll remember limits from calculus, if you suffered that far in school, as I did. If you didn’t, I’ll try to explain the concept as my Algebra II teacher once did. I don’t know why it occurred to him to try to explain it, since we were a year or two away from that, but here’s how he did it.
He said, think of an equation that gets you closer and closer to something, repeatedly infinitely, without ever getting you there. He stood facing a classroom wall, about four feet away. He said, suppose I infinitely repeat an operation in which I cut the distance between me and the wall in half. He stepped closer to demonstrate halving it to two feet, then again to one, then to six inches, then to three, then to one-and-a-half, and invited us to imagine the rest. Eventually, he’d be so close to the wall that a casual observer might think he was touching it, but he wouldn’t be; he’d be a micrometer away. Then half a micrometer, etc.
Anyway, he explained, that’s limits. A disturbing concept. Oh, and if you’re wondering where you might run into limits, think of the way the two legs of a hyperbola approach the X and Y axes, but never touch them. (I think. I could be remembering it all wrong.)
Back to the newspaper industry. I was contemplating the news that a former fellow State editor shared with me earlier today from Editor and Publisher, the bible of the newspaper industry. Ignore the fact that the item is written by Jennifer Saba, who if I remember correctly once interviewed me at an awesome press party in New York, and pay attention: The item had Gary Pruitt being upbeat about McClatchy’s future, and at the same time projecting further cuts of 20 percent in expenses in the coming year. And I thought, OK, so you’re saying you survive in this scenario, but survive to do what? Will it bear any resemblance whatsoever to the kind of public service that we all signed up to do in the last age, when newspapers actually had fully staffed newsrooms and editorial departments and so forth? I’m not talking here about my old paper or the company that owns it, but the entire industry. How many more years do you cut 20 percent, considering that you’ve already gone past cutting fat, muscle and bone and hacked off entire limbs, which any newspaper reader knows this industry has done? Sure, if you cut at that rate, 10 years from now you’ll still be a micrometer away from the wall, but what kind of room does that leave you in which to operate as a functional news operation?
I don’t know the answer; I’m just posing the question. I wish Mr. Pruitt all the luck in the world, and bright futures to my few friends left in the industry. But speaking of limits, there are also limits to optimism, and personally, I crashed through the wall awhile back. At this point, as the newspaper industry keeps hacking off limbs to survive, I have to wonder, again: Survive to what purpose? In order to accomplish what?
And just in case you think I’ve got a skewed view from my perspective (which of course I do; everyone does, and only fools tell themselves otherwise), I point to the e-mail I got a little later from the same colleague.
Here’s the second item to which he called my attention:
‘Editor & Publisher’ to Cease Publication After 125 Years
By Shawn Moynihan
Published: December 10, 2009 12:13 PM ET
NEW YORK Editor & Publisher, the bible of the newspaper industry and a journalism institution that traces its origins back to 1884, is ceasing publication.An announcement, made by parent company The Nielsen Co., was made Thursday morning as staffers were informed that E&P, in both print and online, was shutting down….
So let me ask you, as long as I’m being way existential, or Cartesian, or something, today: Is it possible for there to be such a thing as a newspaper industry, if there’s no E&P to chronicle it?
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We got word today that our newspaper’s readership has increased mightily in the last year. So, papers aren’t quite dead yet.
I’m not surprised that E&P’s print version has gone away. Trade “journals” are better served by the Net. But to kill the online version as well … also Kirkus Reviews. Auwe!
I was just marveling at how The State co-sponsored the Jobs Fair it reported on today….[insert snarky remark here]
I will probably let my “State” subscription lapse this year. I am currently getting local fluff news (who killed whom, prom queen, etc), comics (that I like), the AP wire news (one column), the death notices, and limited opinion. I also get a heck of a lot of advertising, and that is not the reason I take a paper. I’ve been reading a newspaper since (and probably while) I learned to read. But now there’s nothing there. Do I go to the N.Y. times, or WSJ? But why go to a newspaper that’s talking about another area altogether, and can provide no local news (not that “The State” provides real local news now)? It bothers me.
Karen,
You won’t miss The State. I cut back from 7 days to weekends only and then cut the cord completely last year. I still get TWO free weekly papers in Blythewood. I travel around the country and still see good newspapers doing their jobs. The State has transformed itself into an ad distribution mechanism wrapped around Gamecock news. That’s it.
The State is pathetic, sometimes 10 pages at best. There’s no investigative reporting, no news.
No one that reads that paper knows a single thing going on.
Then if you watch WIS or WLTX all you get is the health news.
This is essentially how Hitler took over Germany people.
Kept em all in the dark. Preached religious politics. Let criminals off the hook.
Yesterday I walked down to the Assembly Street branch of the Richland County Public library to do some research. I needed the October 1989 State newspapers. The very kind lady at the reference desk helped get me started. I was blown away by how much bigger and better the paper was back then. And not only did they have an immense amount of in-depth content but indeed there were tons and tons of ads. I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled to find what I needed. That was an eye opening experience. Sadly todays State is hardly worth reading with it’s trivial front page and bland content. Frankly if we went that extra millimeter I don’t think we’d lose much. The obituaries are about all that’s left of the paper worth keeping.
I’m sure the subscribers to “Buggy Whip Quarterly” were surprised as well when that publication went under.
It’s called creative destruction. Nothing lasts forever. Things change and monolithic organizations crumble when they can’t keep.