The death of print exaggerated

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Created on Wednesday, 17 November 2010 02:45

by Alana Bergstrom

Standing at the front of the third year journalism class here at the University of Regina, I asked “Who thinks they can have a solid career in print?”

At first not many hands fly into the air. A look of deep thought crosses many faces, and from the back corner the question, “what do you mean by print?”

A question that seemed to merit a simple answer, yes or no, was actually difficult to answer.

Where future journalists see themselves in the print industry is unclear. It seems there is concern whether there will even be a print industry to work in. 

Much of the press over the last few years is telling us that print is dying. “Who killed the newspaper?” asks the Economist. Vanity Fair outlines a scary death for print titling the article, “Is this the end of news?”

With headlines like that it’s tough to see nothing more than a grim future for print. The industry is knocking on heaven’s door, or is it?

Then, there are those who say no.

“I think newspapers are going to be with us for some good long time yet,” said Marc Edge, a communications professor at SamHoustonStateUniversity in Texas.

“Papers are still the most effective medium for local advertising,” he added “If I was a local car dealer wanting to advertise cars I would probably choose the local newspaper.”

Edge, like others in the industry, believes the perception of a failing print industry is a myth perpetuated, ironically, by the media. The American media has reported the death of print and the fear has spilled over into Canada.

“I think unfortunately, because we live in North America, people have confused what is happening to the newspaper industry in Canada with what has happened to the newspaper industry in the U.S., and it’s very different,” said former editor-in-chief of the Hamilton Spectator David Estok.

“I think the biggest difference is that in the U.S. a lot of these papers that failed are papers that were in two newspaper towns, and it was the second one that failed. The weaker one,” he said.

In Canada these days it’s rare to have more than one paper in each city, and where there is more than one paper, they serve very different segments of the population, he said. As a result the death of print is not a Canadian concern, if a true concern at all.

Edge agrees.

“As Canadians we are inundated with American media. The media narrative south of the border usually transfers to Canada as well. We didn’t suffer as badly with the recession as America did, so our newspapers aren’t as poor,” said Edge.

Exaggerating the level of poverty the American (print) industry is facing is also a business tactic, said Edge. Even when their newspapers were making money, they were crying poor.

In the U.S. it’s illegal to have cross ownership between newspapers and broadcast organizations, something the print industry would prefer to be legal. If the American print industry can convince the government they are going to die, they may get what they want.

“The poorer they can look, the easier it is for them to say ‘if you don’t let us join together you will no longer have papers,” said Estok.

Both Edge and Estok are not denying the industry is sick. Subscriptions are down and so is advertising. But they believe papers are not dying because what they do is too important.

“The thing that sometimes gets lost is that the demand for readable news is greater than it ever has been before,” says Estok.

“And newspapers will still be on our front step in 10 years. They may look a little different, and not come six days a week, but they will still be there to be read with your morning cup of coffee.”