The author argues that local news papers should be externally funded (government, NGOs) to keep them in existence.
One main argument brought forth is that newspaper uncover scandals, which is for the public good and ultimately saves money by preventing and couteracting corruption.
This seems completly insane. The reason local newspapers are failing is because nobody reads them. People obviously do not care what is written in them to an extent that would keep the paper alive. Funding them will not make people read them.
The idea that state funded journalists should be recruited to uncover corruption and then report about it is unbelievable. The one reason journalists can uncover what the government can not is because they are independent of the goverment. If you want to fight corruption you don't need journalists in between.
I agree that government funding doesn’t make sense, but newspaper were dying because nobody read them. Many pivoted and are profitable but are now being killed by companies like Alden Capital. Denver Post has large readership and has been profitable for a long time, but it was gutted by private equity and forcibly, slowly, killed.
There are profitable local newspapers, like the Colorado Sun.
They were trying to kill the division of the newspapers that write and investigate local news. The newspaper have resources like brand recognition, local relationships, and sales people that are being used in ways that produce more profit than when they were strictly related to news. Look at digital first media / media news group / adtaxi as an example, there are similar doings for other groups. Buy local newspaper -> gut writers room -> use remaining resources to sell digital ads and other goods.
To add, there's also quite a bit of what recently has been described as "enshitification."
The news source starts out ok, somebody makes a metric [1] to describe "ok," sources start chasing metric, stories all start sounding like they're written by an algorithm, soon you wonder if they all got replaced by generative AI a while ago, and nobody noticed (kinda like radio DJs). Reuters exemplifies this. I used to read Reuters. Now I barely skim.
"ChatGPT, write me a generic story about a missile strike." "ChatGPT, write me a generic story about the Ukraine War, with absolutely no context, onsite reporters, or investigation."
"20,000 artillery rounds per day?" Seriously? Every 4 seconds? Does anybody on the news even look at how big a hole a 155mm artillery shell leaves? No. Just the same video reel of patriotic photos and then Zelensky photo shoots.
I saw one video the other day of a bomb squad trying to disarm a shell from WWII. Even with shielding, it still shook buildings for 100's of yards in every direction. 20,000 of those. Per day. Its like the only thing news sources can report on is stories with keyword "missile" because those used to get clicks. The algo says write this.
[1] Ex: viewers, view time, page views, ads, social reposts, qtr. profits, clicks, engagement length, ect...
> The reason local newspapers are failing is because nobody reads them
I don't believe that's true. The subscription cost for most newspapers barely covered the printing and distribution costs. Small, local-focused newspapers were surprisingly largely kept alive by the massive margins on printing classified ads.
The person who used to spend $1-per-word at their local paper to advertise they were selling a car or having an estate sale can now list that for free on craigslist or facebook. And the local business can buy more targeted advertisements on facebook, google or twitter.
As odd as it seems, Craigslist probably did more to kill the local newspaper than social media, search engines or private equity firms.
This seems completly insane. The reason local newspapers are failing is because nobody reads them. People obviously do not care what is written in them to an extent that would keep the paper alive. Funding them will not make people read them.
The idea that state funded journalists should be recruited to uncover corruption and then report about it is unbelievable. The one reason journalists can uncover what the government can not is because they are independent of the goverment. If you want to fight corruption you don't need journalists in between.