Newspapers as we know them are becoming scarce. Hundreds of daily papers have gone out of business, with the remaining barely hanging on. Thousands of editors and reporters have lost their jobs, and news stocks have gone down over 80 percent. Newspapers are not the only media in trouble, but they are certainly threatened.
"The news industry is in great turmoil," North Carolina Scholastic Media Association Director Monica Hill said. “It isn’t meeting the challenges of the current economy.”
An obvious problem is that actual newspaper production is being cut back due to the high price of printing. However, having papers online is much more cost effective for producers and consumers alike, as there is no cost for print and no cost to view the papers’ websites.
Trying to capture audiences of all ages is also difficult for newspapers, as most of their real readers have gotten older or have switched to reading online. Some people are still interested in reading printed papers. The majority of students at DSA that were interviewed said that they would rather The Gallery be a printed paper.In another poll conducted at DSA, 9 out of 20 people said that they would read The Gallery more often if it were online. The overbearing reason for those in favor of an online edition was the convenience.
Another large change that is taking place within the news industry is the amount of reporters that are hired to cover stories. “The biggest change in reporting that I’ve experienced over the years is that much more is now expected of reporters. I was a features writer and it was common for me to write fewer than five stories a week,” Daniel Goldberg, Herald-Sun reporter, said. “Newspapers fell on hard financial times and one of the ways that news companies have attempted to deal with the problem is by reducing the number of people who work for the paper… At my paper and many others that I’m familiar with, a reporter is expected to write two stories every day–one full story every four hours. It’s very challenging to track down all the information that goes into a story in that short amount of time, so the result is that reporting doesn’t go as deep as even the reporter would prefer.”
With the news itself transforming, it’s hard to see what will happen. Papers that are managing to stay afloat amid the economic times are strained, and the quality and depth of stories is changing. However, dedicated reporters are still fighting for the news industry, sometimes just for a paycheck, other times because they enjoy it.
“I believe that it takes at least six months and sometimes more to really get to know the people, places, issues, history and quirks that make up a beat…Once you get into the groove you start to ask the right questions and know where to go–or who to ask–to find the answers that tell the story,” Goldberg said. “That’s the exhilarating part of being a reporter. There’s a feeling of being on the inside of something, of knowing your home in a way that most other people probably don’t.”
Newspapers have been around for hundreds of years, and hopefully they won’t die out completely. Thanks to dedicated reporters and the curiosity of the general public, it seems as if the news will continue to be important in everyone’s lives.