Printed Matters

I have a confession to make: I can’t remember the last time I bought a newspaper.

As a journalism student, I should probably be ashamed. But I’m not. Because there is no reason, as far as I can tell, to buy a newspaper any more. Not in this day and age, the age of the Internet, where I can get all the news I want (and more) on countless news websites, on blogs, in my email and even on my cell phone. All for free, when and where I want it, fully searchable, in as much depth as I desire, from many different sources and voices, complete with multimedia and even in different languages if that’s my wish.

Why would I want to get my hands all inky flipping through the dead-tree newspaper? It makes me feel guilty about the impact I’m having on the environment, especially when I know I can get the news faster and in greater depth electronically.

I am not alone. A study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found last year that, for the first time, the Internet has surpassed newspapers as the primary source of news for Americans. For people aged 18 to 29 – the next generation of news consumers – the trend is even stronger, with the Internet garnering almost twice as much attention than newspapers for news. Coming up right behind that age group is Generation Next, the first generation of kids for whom the Internet has been around their entire lives. For them, newspapers will be interesting only as museum artifacts.

Mind you, I have had occasion to read a print newspaper here and there. For a subway ride, I’ll grab a free Metro or 24 Hours. In diners, I’ll grab a copy of the Toronto Sun that someone has left behind. When I get to the college, there’s a free copy of the Toronto Star waiting for me. And many community papers are delivered to homes and businesses free of charge.

With all this freeness going on, one can be forgiven for wondering how newspapers stay in business. News companies are wondering too. Late last year, The Canadian Journalism Project tabled a list of newsroom cuts and closures over 2008 on its website. It was prefaced like this: “Warning: it ain’t pretty.”

And it wasn’t. The Toronto Star laid off 160 people in April; the National Post stopped delivery to the Prairies in October, then laid off 560 employees in November; CTV cut 105 jobs; the Globe and Mail announced an indefinite hiring freeze. The beat goes on. Not even on the list: the parent company of the Toronto Sun laid off 600 in December, and Metroland has a hiring freeze in effect.

Yes, these are hard times for newspapers and other news companies. And with pressure on advertising budgets from a deep global recession, 2009 could shape up to be even worse. So, as a journalism student, shouldn’t I rally behind my industry and start buying newspapers again? No chance, because that would be like sticking a finger in the dike. It won’t make a dewdrop of difference when there is a tidal movement toward the Internet and away from inky gray pulp. Let’s just face bald facts: the printed newspaper is dying, and no amount of hand-wringing and charity newspaper-buying is going to keep it alive. There is no crash cart for obsolescence.

What newspapers must learn to do is reach their readers where they want to be reached: on the Internet. And they must learn how to make money from delivering the news over the Internet, because quality journalism needs to be bankrolled and democracy demands quality journalism.

This is an exciting, if intimidating, time to get into journalism. Right now, nobody seems to have the answer, so the next generation of news managers are as likely – dare I say more likely – to find the solutions than the old guard. Vive la presse!