For the next bunch of days, the TV stayed on, mostly tuned to CBS where we watched Walter Cronkite as he guided us through that wrenching time.
As important as newspapers were at the time, their ability to deliver timely news had been eclipsed by radio and then television.
The decline in the number of newspapers began long before the World-Wide Web. "The United States had 267 fewer newspapers in 1990 than it had in 1940." More importantly, readership of printed newspapers has similarly declined. "...fewer than 18 out of 100 Americans today buy a daily or Sunday newspaper. Back in 1946, 36% of the population bought a daily paper and 31% took a Sunday edition"
The discussion began with a clip from a Charlie Rose show on Future of Newspapers. In the show, three newspaper publishers discuss how they are dealing with the varied challenges to the newspaper industry. Robert Thomson of the Wall Street Journal observed that, from an advertiser's perspective, "Google devalues everything that it touches."
This point became a common theme throughout the evening as the participants talked with eagerness and anxiety about what would become of newspapers and, more importantly, journalism. The founders knew that we needed journalism, French noted, to keep our institutions open to all citizens.
The Telegram and Gazette's daily circulation is about 78,000. French described how the print edition promotes telegram.com with additional stories and features, all in an effort to strength the Telegram brand. The strategy appears to be working. Online readership contributed more than 600,000 unique visitors per month.
Subscription and advertising revenues continue to be hammered, however, by services such as Google and Craigslist, the latter siphoning off the lucrative classified advertising market. As a result, newspapers are considering a variety of subscription models. The Wall Street Journal has been able to attract subscribers for their strong business content, but the general population seems to be resistant to paying for web news. Alternate modes of payments, such as electronic micro-payments for selected content, led to a discussion thread about the particulars of how online payments would work. While many people are quite comfortable with regular online commerce, a good bit of resistance and fear remains. The division ran rather jaggedly across generational lines.
This, in turn, brought the group to another key theme: whatever newspapers, print or otherwise, do to survive in the next 5-10 years may only keep the current subscriber base, a group that is typically older than the general population. "People under 30 don't read newspapers," said one participant.
Amid all of the comments that addressed technical, political, policy, cultural, and aesthetic issues, French noted and the group agreed that people would pay for value, but that what they valued changed over times and across generational boundaries. People want good content and, for that reason, "The prognosis for journalism is very good."
Notes
Editorial disclaimer
I have known George for more that 45 years, since his college days. I owe him a great debt for teaching me my first guitar chords back during the Great Folk Music Scare of the 1960s. I also owe him deep thanks for his friendship with my mother and with me over these many years. He's the real deal.
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