What's Black and White and Not Read All Over?

This morning the dwindling number of people in the Metro Atlanta area who read the print version of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution are in for a change. In a desperate (some would say vain) attempt to forestall or possibly even prevent the historic daily from going the way of the dinosaur, today's edition will reflect a major rebranding and retooling.  If the advance word from the paper is to be believed, the new and improved AJC will have more news and less opinion, and will deliver the news in a briefer, more concise manner.

Now, I'm no expert on journalism, especially print journalism, but it seems to me people who want their news in a condensed version will turn to TV or radio, not to a print version of a newspaper.  And that, in a nutshell is the uphill battle facing the newspaper industry.  

When I was a kid, the Journal and Constitution were two separate papers during the week, one came in the morning, the other in the evening.  On the weekends, there was one edition of the combined papers.  In 1982, the two papers combined staffs and in 2001 the separate editions ceased. Today's changes are the latest in a long string of attempts to hold on to the dwindling subscriber base and stem the tide of lost advertising revenue. The AJC's changes come in the midst of the loss of literally dozens of well known newspapers who have closed their doors or retreated to an online-only version.

Here in Atlanta, making fun of the AJC is as much a part of the culture as dogwoods, azaleas, grits and Braves baseball.  We make fun of how out of step with public opinion the paper's editorial staff is. We invent cute, derisive monikers for it (my favorite is still the one I first heard when I was in Elementary school: The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.)  I suspect the same is true of the paper or papers where you live.

Newspapers are without a doubt a large part of the history of our country.  Thomas Jefferson was regularly attacked by the newspapers of his day, but nevertheless was a tireless defender of the press. He famously said if he had to choose between having a free press without a government or a government without a free press, he would choose the former.

Think of the great news events of history, and for many an image of a newspaper headline announcing it will come to mind.  But the fact is that since the advent of radio, each advance in communication technology has rendered previous technologies less relevant.  Sometimes, a technology can successfully reinvent itself, as radio did in the 80s and 90s with the advent of modern talk radio, but often this only delays the march toward oblivion.

For many years now, newspapers have been propped up by classified ad revenues as income from display ads has declined steadily. Craig's List has put a huge dent in that final bastion of profitability, and papers around the nation are facing the tough decision to throw in the towel.

There is no doubt that print journalism as we have known it for all of our lives is in decline, and that this decline will continue.  It is my hope that somehow the best of those news organizations will figure out a way to take the level of in-depth news coverage and bring that into an inline environment.  I hope it.  I doubt it.  There are many challenges to online versions of newspapers being viable.

In the meantime, I plan to do something today that I have not done in many years.  I am going to buy a copy of the AJC and read it. 

Comments

[auto glass arizona]

Wow thanks for point that out. I had never thought about it that way until now. I have to agree with you. I don't know very many people who read the paper most just pop on the computer and google or read the yahoo head lines ect. This does motivate me to run out and get a paper and read it not just get the coupons. Thanks again take care.