If you work at a newspaper, of the industry.
But last week was National Newspaper Week, and many of our trade press reporters and colleagues pointed out how the corporate media behemoth Gannett has gobbled up and gutted the lion’s share of the nation’s daily newspapers. At least that seemed to be the gist of their social media postings that floated by during downtime.
Used to, the Abilene Reporter-News and the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal both had daily carrier delivery in these markets, but they pulled back from our towns a decade or so ago.
Sometimes you can find an A-J on a convenience store rack in Crosbyton or Matador, but not always.
And if you want to read an article online via most daily newspapers’ websites, they drive you away with their endless ultimatums for you to subscribe in order to view the one story you wanted to see.
Full disclosure: I spent a dozen years of my career in Gannett and Morris organizations (in addition to two decades more with New York Times, Hearst, and Cox) and I’m not picking on any newspaper group specifically.
That's what the staff directories say on their websites. I hope those counts are underrepresented.
The Abilene Reporter-News and the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal as recently as a decade ago had robust newsrooms of more than 50 staffers covering their cities and counties that surrounded them, but no more. The Abilene newsroom now has a staff of nine, as does the A-J.
That's what the staff directories on their websites say. Hopefully, those numbers are underrepresented.
The page counts are down, too, and many stories have a statewide or regional focus from their shared newsrooms. In Texas, Gannett owns the newspapers in Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Lubbock, San Angelo and Wichita Falls.
Local coverage in these newspapers has plummeted.
Weekly newspapers are a different animal. Daily newspapers appear to be unsure how to get by on a shoestring budget, but weeklies have always existed in a resource-restricted environment and have had to figure out ways to cover the news with limited resources.
Our weekly newspapers may not have a lot of employees, but we have set a goal to work with volunteers, stringers, freelancers and contractors to deliver the information that binds the community together.
In the absence of local coverage, all news succumbs to the onslaught of national coverage: Instead of reading about local policy decisions, people read about the blacklisting of Dr. Seuss books. Instead of learning about their own local candidates, they consume angry takes about Marjorie Taylor Greene or AOC. Instead of discovering what matters to their neighbors, they’re fed issues from fights taking place far away.
Picking sides and demonizing those we disagree with replaces real news.
In this corner, I’d rather have a cup of coffee with someone and talk about what Spur can do to keep a café going.
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