You may have heard the saying, “democracy dies in the darkness” and you are probably aware that the Washington Post has this as its slogan, written just below its broad name on its website and print editions. Some translate this saying in many ways, but one way I am going to interpret this is by how there’s a darkness coming over the news world, and it is bad for democracy.
Local news is in trouble. Whether it is your local newspaper or news website, those news sources are hanging by a thread. Since 2004, about 1,800 newspapers folded, at least 200 counties in the United States have no newspaper at all, and around 30,000 reporting jobs have been lost between 2010 - 2020. Larger news publications, such as the Miami Herald which had 70 jobs cut early last year, are seeing this disaster. The pandemic worsened this situation, with more than 85 newsrooms closing nationwide.
Newspapers and news websites are dying, and that means there are fewer chances of communities being informed of what is going on in their town or small city, as well as having their voices heard when it comes to local issues that effects them. Local newscasts may help, but these half-hour programs in the morning and at night have a wider audience to cover and less time to cover important issues. Podcasts could help, but how many of these podcast hosts are really practicing journalism?
Why is this happening? You might be thinking that more people are getting their news for the Internet, and therefore, newspapers’ circulation is falling. True, but those newspapers have an online version of their publication as well, with reporters publishing their work on both media. You may have heard about the online ads posted on these news websites are not generating enough revenue to maintain these websites, because Internet ads cost less than print ads.
This is all true, but there’s a lot more going on. Most people are introduced to news stories when they go on Google and Facebook. Whether they are searching for a particular news article or getting their morning news, those two major platforms are the place to go to. Unfortunately, Google and Facebook do not pay news publishers for the value those articles generate on their sites. They also dominate the digital advertising world and news publications, especially smaller, independent ones, are no where near Google and Facebook’s revenues. This prevents smaller newsrooms from generating money needed to pay their reporters’ salaries, hire more reporters and other news staff, and expand their reporting.
You might have heard about Australia putting its foot down a year ago when its government created a bill to get the two platforms to pay Australian news publishers, which both Google and Facebook were not happy about at all. Luckily, the law was passed earlier this year. It would be nice for the United States to consider this.
But there’s another, more bigger reason why so many newsrooms are closing all over the country, and that is hedge funds. According to CNBC, there are many newspapers in America that are “owned, controlled or in the debt to hedge funds or private equity groups. In fact, hedge funds and other financial firms control half of the daily newspapers in the United States.” While having hedge funds in control of daily newspapers like that, it sounds like it may be a good thing or else those newspapers would have folded long ago.
But that’s not so. By buying up struggling newspapers, hedge funds are looking to build up profit by laying off seasoned journalists and reducing the size of the newsroom. It also means fewer chances to report on corporate and political misdeeds and unethical financial behaviors. The hedge fund owners are also more interested in making money than informing the local communities, and therefore focus on making a profit rather than focusing on digital subscriptions, which is something many news sources are turning to to sustain their newsrooms. Some of these hedge funds, most especially Alden Global Capital, which Vanity Fair calls the hedge fund vampire, are known for reaping the profits they’ve made “that can still be made from print advertising”. Even Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post has said Alden is “one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism.”
So, the news world is in big trouble because money talks, and the way news publications did make money no longer works. Thanks to internet ads, Big Tech, and hedge funds buying up newspapers all over America, darkness is coming over our country and democracy is shaking as that darkness comes over. With fewer news sources, there are are fewer chances of keeping those in power accountable for everything they need to be held accountable for. There are also fewer opportunities to investigate corruption and other unfavorable activities happening right in our neighborhoods. And finally, fewer opportunities for people to have their story told so their neighbors can learn from them and find out who is being affected by something or someone unethical.
With that, people would be less aware of what is happening in their part of the country, and therefore uninformed during the election period. They wouldn’t be informed enough on who or what to vote for, be it Congressional races, state elections or even the local school board. They may not even vote at all because they don’t know what is going on. Even worse, they wouldn’t know what issues to care about because no one is reporting on them.
Again, democracy dies in the darkness.
Last week, a Brooklyn news website that I regularly wrote for went on indefinite hiatus. Its editor/publisher had a lot on her plate these past few years, and it was not easy to sustain the website enough to hire more people to cover important news stories. She has taken a step back due to the many commitments she had, both professionally and personally, and I completely understand. Sadly, though, this leaves a void in local news, for both Brooklyn and NYC, even though there are other news publications. In the media capital of the world, local news is struggling.
Now there is some good news out there: the nonprofit model for news publications appears to be growing, and might be a better idea than being owned by for-profit companies. We shall see, but it looks like it would be much better if the U.S. government considered the route Australia took and got Facebook and Google to start paying publications rather than reaping the awards themselves.
Until then, I highly recommend you all to subscribe to your local news publications. You might have seen those paywalls by now, and are frustrated by them. It’s understandable; you want to read what could be a fascinating article. But by paying a few bucks each week, you are helping a newsroom keep that reporter who wrote that fascinating article on-staff to continue reporting and working on many more articles in the future. So, you’re not just paying to read; you’re helping to pay someone’s salary as they work to keep everyone in the area informed.
Now, you’ve seen me make a request at the end of each newsletter for readers to pay a monthly subscription for this newsletter. While I won’t be putting a paywall anytime soon, it would be appreciated. However, if I were to choose between my newsletter and a news site that needs funds to keep on going, go with the latter. I’m just one person here while that news site has dozens.
According to Forbes, one of the founding fathers, James Madison, once said: “a popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy or perhaps both.”
Please keep that in mind, and feel free to discuss this week’s topic in the comments section below.
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