Another Newspaper Closed Due to the Digital Age

I am a trained journalist. I have worked as a newspaper reporter, a magazine editor, and have edited a couple of books. Now I am writing my own fiction. But, I do have a rant. A big rant. It may be because of my training, desire and experience, but I really want to scream when I hear of another newspaper closing its doors. The last one has been the Tampa Tribune, after a mere 120+ years. Job loss, around 100 from the 265 employed. So, Tampa will only have one newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times.

Then, I heard that the newspaper where I am originally from is cutting its Monday edition. Okay, it still exists.

You might say, well Tampa still has one newspaper, and that may be true, but when I worked in the business, competing newspapers give different slants to stories. Such as, the presidential primaries are everywhere and one paper might endorse a Republican and the other a Democrat. If there is only one paper, you, the reader, are only getting that one slant. I say that is propaganda because both agendas will not be represented.

They say the reason is the digital age. News is now available on the web. And believe me, I get a lot of it from the web. But, when I want to really learn something, I prefer the written word. I want to get up close and personal with the subject.

My master's thesis was on how well people understood the written word from a newspaper when that word was not defined. The target newspaper reader had a 6th grade reading level at that time, some 35 years ago. I understand it is lower today; the last I heard it was 4th grade reading level.

So, tell me how can an average reader research a topic in-depth to arrive at an informed decision? That person is probably working, raising a family, and trying to keep a hot meal and warm sheets in the house. When are they going to have the time to research a topic in-depth? It's not going to happen. That is the journalists' job, and then to report it to Joe and Jane Public. Hopefully, they will have the time to look at the article and it will become food for thought.

Newspapers came into existence to educate and inform. Education was a key. Not the reading, writing, and arithmetic you get in school, the education on how to live in this world through politics, sociology, psychology, environment, etc. This has been on the downturn for some time but as I look at newspapers, I can still see some of this exists. In some places.

Now the information is being reduced to a minute section on TV or video. I think it is a losing battle, and I do not like it. Not at all. I want people to have the information so they will be able to think about topics. I want people to grow in thought. I want people to succeed, and that means being given many opportunities to know differing points of view.

Then, I could continue with what happens if we have a massive electrical blackout that lasts a long time. Where are you going to get the know of what is happening? Printing presses won't be running because the paper is out of business, computers won't be running because they need electricity to run. I guess we'll have to divert back to the bell ringer in the town square, "Hear ye, hear ye"...

Does anyone agree with me? or is it just me?

Until tomorrow...have a great day