Gerald Ensley wrote this excellent article in The Tallahassee Democrat Today
The View From Here
We'll remember it as Terrible Tuesday: The day last week this newspaper cut 25 employee positions.
That followed layoffs of 10 employees in August and two longtime managers in September. Co-workers huddled, whispering, worrying, crying.
This round was particularly painful in the newsroom, as it claimed four veterans: editor Ron Hartung and editorial writer Bill Berlow, who took voluntary buy-outs, plus editor Zilpha Underwood and reporter Bruce Ritchie. Combined, they had 93 years of service to this newspaper.
Yes, this is a bad year for the economy and all industries. But it's the worst year ever for newspapers.
Hundreds of journalists lost their jobs in Florida cities such as Miami, Tampa, Palm Beach, Gainesville and Ocala. Thousands of journalists were cut loose nationwide in cities such as Atlanta, Milwaukee, Fort Worth, Newark, Tacoma and Savannah.
The Christian Science Monitor quit being a newspaper: It will publish online only. Reportedly, the Tampa Tribune will follow suit in January.
Common wisdom holds that the Internet is killing newspapers.
Eighty percent of newspaper revenues come from print advertising — which is shrinking like a mud puddle in the desert. Classified ads in particular have galloped away to online. And efforts by newspapers to make up ad revenues online — "monetize the Internet," as our business people call it — have been only mildly successful.
The Internet is also killing newspapers by dividing our attention: We now have to feed the beast of online, because the readers expect it. And we have to put out a print product, because that's where the money is even as it declines.
You can serve two masters if you have enough people. But without the money, you don't have enough people.
"It's a bloody time for newspapers," said Lou Heldman, a former Tallahassee Democrat executive editor who now teaches at Wichita State University. "The whole industry is in search of a new business model."
Yet, I would argue the Internet's biggest impact on newspapers is how it has changed readers.
Between CNN and the Internet, readers have come to expect all news now . That demand for now forces newspapers to cover things that can be reported quickly online and updated constantly (to give the appearance of more now ): robberies, shootings, traffic accidents, arrests.
Such things qualify as news because they just happened. But they are really just statistics that do little to inform the decisions you make about your life or community. And because we have to expend manpower on the now , we have less manpower to cover the issues that do affect your life, such as City Hall decisions or environmental controversies or changes in school policies.
The Internet also is eroding our legitimacy. Newspapers have always been held in contempt by those who confuse our mix of information and opinions as promoting an agenda (which isn't true).
But the Internet has accelerated that contempt. People understand you have to be an expert to be a plumber, a hair stylist or an accountant. But they assign no value to the skills and filters of journalism. Everyone blogs, everyone posts — ergo, everyone is a reporter.
That's hooey. Gathering and delivering information is a craft. A cub reporter can deliver a half-good story when he or she walks in the door; the other half comes with practice, learning and the editing of those with experience.
Our most painful loss is Ron Hartung, who has been this newsroom's writing coach for most of his 32 years. Ron's role was a recognition of the value, impact and necessity of correctly crafting the written word. His departure is a signal that craft is held in less regard.
None of this is to blame readers — though folks who read newspapers only online for free aren't doing us any favors. Readers didn't invent the Internet, they just fell in love with it when it became available.
Nor is to say the Internet hasn't done some good for newspapers. Once readers could access 1 million sources online, it was clear local papers could no longer remain a smorgasbord of general information. We had to surrender the national and international stories we couldn't deliver very well to focus on the local stories we could deliver best.
Newspapers will survive and find ways to meet the economic challenges: Someday, several newspapers may share a single regional printing plant. Someday, local papers may be a 10-12-page insert in a national newspaper.
But we are a labor-intensive business. We need people to gather and deliver information.
And a lot of good people are being lost in the march through change.
Four of them this week.
Contact Senior Writer Gerald Ensley at (850) 599-2310 or gensley@tallahassee.com.
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