Does Local Journalism Have a Future?
Local journalism is under threat. With the rise of social media and electronic retrieval of information, at little or no cost, traditional forms and methods of obtaining news and other information valuable to a community (local newspapers covering their communities) have been shrinking.
A lot has been written about the the changing direction of journalism and the decline of the newspaper readership. According to the Reuters Institute “for more than a century, local journalism has been taken almost for granted…The newspaper industry that has historically provided local coverage is on decline and it is not yet clear whether digital media will sustain new forms of local journalism.”
A Los Angeles Times article is also pessimistic. When veteran reporter Bob Schieffer was asked what the biggest threat to journalism was, he replied that local journalism is dying and disappearing. For many years newspapers were the gatekeepers and the providers of local news and were able to sustain themselves with advertisements. The model for newspaper revenue has changed drastically with online access to content and social media. Subscription revenues are declining (in the UK circulation has dropped more than 25 percent, in the European Union revenue is falling 10 percent each year, and employment in the American newspaper industry has fallen by 44 percent), readership has moved mostly online, and the advertising model has changed. Ad agencies are becoming “clever” when advertising online because they pay in “clicks” or “views”, therefore if a page or story isn't viewed it can't generate revenue. Many journalists and editors have reacted by changing direction to international or national reporting, or switching to completely different industries as noted in a New Yorker article titled "A Bit of Good News About Journalism".
The bad news is more troubling. The biggest problem that arises from the disappearance of local journalism is the “ecology of democracy.” As one article on that subject mentions “the problem is not that, too often,what journalists are offering isn't “food” at all, not as citizens see it…Where [journalists] see binary issues, citizens see complexity.” Local journalism provides the community with quality information based on research and investigation. The credibility of the reporting sources will in fact help with the empowerment of the communities by encouraging problem solving and making leadership everybody’s business by being an active participant in the betterment of their community. “ Incremental changes in the way journalists cover their communities can have significant effects over time.”
On the up side of local journalism one must note that there have been indeed several attempts to innovate the industry and the field. For example, James Harding in the Revival of Local Journalism Conference thinks that “pessimism about local journalism is overdone.” He continues that “whether local journalism for profit [or not]…the belief is that nothing is more important in the news than informing people of what’s going on where they live and where they work.” Good and reliable journalism isn’t in danger, it is the lack of funding. And in order to come up with the funding, one must innovate and create new revenue models.
There have been successful attempts in producing local journalism with the example of a newspaper in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Tyee, founded in 2003, has been one of those “innovaters” in the industry. It is a for-profit publication but its model can be adopted easily by non-profits as well. “[The] annual budget is funded by advertising and sponsorship. About forty-five percent comes through on going investments from Working Enterprises, a labor-union affiliated investment group, and from a wealthy British Columbian couple.”
[Photo: Flickr; GotCredit]
