By Pepper Parr
October 8th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Second of a series on the changes taking place in print media and the challenge keeping the public informed.
In the period leading up to 2000 media found itself facing realty difficult times.
When Y2k (remember that event) was upon us no one really knew what was going to happen when we moved into the new millennium.
Newspapers were selling their printing presses and contracting the work out.
Media covered the event like a wet blanket – there were those that said it wasn’t really a problem while others suggested the machines that drive production would come to an immediate halt.
Media did a lot of reporting – but they didn’t pause to ask: what does this mean to us as an industry?
I don’t recall reading about any industry wide workshops; I don’t recall seeing anything in the way of op-ed pieces on what the industry needed to do in the way of changes.
Media covered disruption – without realizing that they were in line for some major disruption to their industry and they weren’t prepared.
The industry no longer had the aura of Watergate or the Pentagon Papers that made reporters heros – at that time thousands flooded into the industry wanting to be reporters. Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the subject of close to fawning news stories, television specials and movies.
By the late 1980s journalism schools were being closed. The number of students that graduated got smaller and smaller.
The age of the men and woman in the news rooms was made up of people in their late 40’s and 50’s – there was no new blood coming into the industry. And there were few MBAs on staff of the large newspapers.
Those that were public corporations had financial analysts looking at profits which were decent at the time – what those analysts didn’t see was that the boat was moving quickly toward a Niagara size waterfall.
When the disruption of the revenue sources began media didn’t have a Plan B – they watched is losses began to climb and subscriptions slowly slipped away.
The data relates to American newspaper – the number will not be much different for Canada
I believe the digital age, has taken us back to the days of the broadsheet and penny news, where people from all walks of life read or had the news read to them on a crowded street corner where verbal comments and often arguments ensued in real-time from all sides, the soap-box orators opining on and encouraging people to action while being cheered or jeered, a wonderful cacophony of human interaction with the only sign of government intervention was the loan policeman whose only job was to intervene in any disagreement that could possibly lead to fisticuffs, even in my time it was best to stay out of ear-shot of my Dad while he watched the news on TV. We all tended to distrust our governments back then and not fawn over them; A jurist of the time said (that) To live without the law and to live without ideas so that your very thoughts will make you a criminal” I believe is becoming ever more relevant.
Newspapers have thus far been the prime victims of the tectonic shifts in the industry. We are ardent followers of A.M radio. On a good day that means listening from 6:30 a.m. to 5 pm. Our favourite stations were ,640 CFIQ, 900 CHML and 1010 CFRB. Out of nowhere 900 went silent as did 630 CHED station out of Edmonton that I listen to when my Oilers play. Along with the closures we lost the very qualified and interesting talent who covered worthy topics. Google,Facebook, etc have gobbled up the ad revenue. Where will it end? Nowhere pretty and hopefully not in the form of state controlled news. We are luck we have the BG in Burlington as The Spec abandoned Burlington long ago.