We’ve watched the Star Tribune bow to the pressure for profits by dumbing down its content to woo the consumption-oriented, apolitical, twenty-something market. But its bankruptcy filing still comes as bad news for the Twin Cities media landscape. Like it or not, the Star Tribune maintains the only major newsroom in Minneapolis, with around 300 dedicated staffers.
Here and in other major cities, the newspaper isn’t just one of many forms of media–it’s the source that feeds all others. Radio, TV, and the blogosphere all rely on the content generated in the newsroom of the daily newspaper. So as newspapers slash staff and even threaten to fold, it’s not just newsprint readers that will suffer the effects.
Though I’ve seen little coverage of this ripple effect, the fate of the American newspaper has been the topic of increasing discussion and speculation. The Pew Center released a study last summer called “The Changing Newsroom” about the industry’s financial pickle. Here’s an excerpt from its section on “The Future”:
In part, this report is a portrait of how those papers are pushing the boundaries of innovation at a pace unthinkable a decade ago. At the same time, however, it documents the crippling impact of cutbacks triggered by the erosion of once-solid financial fundamentals. As we noted in introducing our findings, these two contradictory forces have effectively placed newspapers in a race—a race between innovating and cutting back. How quickly can newspapers invent a new journalism online, build an audience and find a way to monetize the product? And in the time it takes to do this, how much will further staff losses, and the accompanying loss of institutional memory and community knowledge, undermine their biggest competitive asset—the size and strength of their newsrooms? How much will they have to cut back on key subject matter? Will audiences drift away because their old economic model is shrinking more quickly than their new one is growing? Or will the investment in new technologies generate the income needed to sustain staffs large enough to produce outstanding journalism? Winning this race, editors sense, involves innovating quickly—on both business and editorial sides of the paper—with one hand and fighting off excessive cut backs with the other.
The automobile did no favors for the horse-drawn buggy business either, but visionaries knew people still needed to get around. We still need newsrooms (whether virtual or actual) and we need people whose job it is to keep us informed.
For thoughtful and thorough coverage of the Star Tribune’s efforts to make newspapering add up, check out David Brauer’s blog at Minnpost.com.
