Newspapers Today

Part I

As in the case of books, newspapers are now owned in large measure by conglomerates (large corporations that have numerous, and often diverse business interests). Many U.S. media conglomerates are owned by corporations outside of the U.S.

Those who favor conglomeration say that it can strengthen the operations of companies involved. For example, by combining news operations, a newspaper that also acquires a TV or radio station (or both) can use a single newsroom and team of reporters to provide news for all of the owned news outlets. If one of the media outlets had a weak news department, this can bolster their operations. Thus, to some degree news operations can be improved while reducing the total number of employees involved.

Because "personnel" represents the most expensive operating cost, corporate shareholders benefit. The problem is that many media corporations focus almost entirely on profit. For employees and consumers there can be significant disadvantages.

1. First, in the case of newspapers the emphasis on profits often translates into aggressive cost cutting -- reducing staffs and trimming news coverage. For example, to cut costs several large newspapers have recently closed foreign bureaus and laid off reporters and photographers. By then depending more on wire services such as the AP, news sources and perspectives are reduced.

2. The emphasis on profit instead of quality means that salaries are kept low -- especially for entry-level positions. This typically results in a "brain drain," where talented people leave the profession for better-paying jobs in other fields. Some cost-conscious employers have even encouraged senior (experienced) employees to leave so they can replace them by rookies at entry-level salaries.

3. Next, since local ownership is replaced by absentee ownership, local needs and interests are often sacrificed in news coverage.

4. The emphasis on sales can also mean that, regardless of news value, to stimulate sales and ad revenue the content of the newspaper may be designed to pander to the predispositions and prejudices of readers and to the goals of advertisers.

For example, in a news story on the death of a well-known person, a newspaper in North Carolina (a major tobacco state) deleted reference to lung cancer as being the cause of death. A newspaper in a conservative area of Florida consistently highlights news that will find favor with conservative readers. The same type of criticism is often leveled at liberal newspapers.

In order not to lose an advertiser, another newspaper bows to pressure and deletes a story that reflects badly on an advertised product -- even though the information is something the public should know.

There comes a point, of course, when the results of cost-cutting impacts newspaper subscriptions. We've probably all flipped though an unfamiliar newspaper to find that beyond the ads there were only generalized wire copy stories and press releases (self-serving information from various institutions) that had little relevance to the community. Possibly the only local news consisted of poorly written contributions by area stringers (people who, receive money on a per-story basis for covering local events in their spare time).

This graph shows the change in the status of newspapers from 1920 to 1996 (the last year that statistics were available).

The group owned newspapers (graph on the left above) range from 20 to a high of 1,200. The number of dailies (graph on the right) range from approximately 2,000 to a low of 1,500.

Note the rapid increase in group ownership of newspapers. (The dip in 1996 ownership is due to many daily newspapers closing down.)

The graph on the left shows a typical breakdown of advertising revenue for a city newspaper.

Note that most ad revenue comes from local advertisers. This is followed by classified ads. For most newspapers (excluding national newspapers, such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal) national advertising represents a distant third.

Today's Leading Daily Newspapers

In 2007, USA Today reported a circulation of 2.6 million, making it the largest newspaper in the United States. These figures are from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the agency that monitors newspaper circulation.

The Wall Street Journal, which targets businesspeople, came in second in circulation with two-million subscribers. Each weekday the Wall Street Journal publishes five different editions -- three national regional editions, an edition in Europe, and an edition in Asia. In addition, "the Journal" counts almost 686,000 on-line subscribers in its circulation figures.

The New York Times now ranks third in U.S. circulation with 1.6 million subscribers, and The Los Angeles Times is fourth with 1.2 million subscribers. The latter represents a significant drop in circulation.

Canada’s most widely read daily newspapers are the Toronto Star, and the national Globe and Mail.

Wenever the people are well-informed,
they can be trusted with their own government.

--Thomas Jefferson

Checkout Tabloids

Although not generally considered newspaper, at least in the traditional sense, supermarket tabloids such as The National Enquirer actually exceed all other newspapers in overall circulation. There has been considerable debate as to whether these weekly tabloids should be classified as newspapers, magazines, or something in between.

The content of tabloids range from "somewhat believable" to "total fiction." With headlines such as "Two-Headed Woman Marries Two Men," and "Two-Headed Woman Has Baby With Two Heads" (complete with created "photos"), the tabloids strain many people's tolerance for freedom of speech.

Countries that try to justify censorship often point to such stories as evidence that government control of newspapers is needed to protect naive audiences from such travesties of truth.

At the same time, after losing several multi-million dollar lawsuits, the tabloids have become rather careful about saying anything about a person that could be considered libelous. (They get some people to sign releases allowing them to publish a "created" story about them without worrying about repercussions.)

The tabloids have encouraged an aggressive breed of photographers known as paparazzi. These photographers shadow famous people in an effort to get candid and revealing photos. Payment for such photos can range into the tens-of-thousands of dollars.

Although famous people -- especially actors -- bemoan the invasion of privacy by paparazzi and the tabloids, they also depend on them for their fame.

"Leaking" a seemingly embarrassing story on some aspect of their lives has put more than one actor on the front page of tabloids at a time when they felt they needed a boost in their visibility and fame. It is not unusual for the "mainstream press" to then pick up the story, resulting in an even bigger boost in the person's popularity.

"Bad press" isn't necessarily a detriment to a career. As one famous person said, "I don't care what they say about me, as long as they keep my name in front of the public."

The Computerization

of Newspaper Production

Today, computers control almost every phase of newspaper production.

First, wire services such as AP send a constant flow of news via telephone lines and satellite links into the hard drives of newsroom computers. Editors can search on key words to locate needed stories.

Once stories are located, they can be pulled up on computer screens to be edited or rewritten as needed.

Reporters also write their stories on computers. Today's reporters make extensive use of the Internet for doing research. Some revelations appear on the Internet days or weeks before they appear in newspapers or on TV.

Internet Research

Reporters routinely do background research on stories by doing computer searches through search engines such as Google and through newspaper archives (stored computer files of stories that were previously published in the newspaper).

With billions of pages of information, the Internet is now regularly relied upon by reporters for researching stories.

And then there are blogs -- short for Web logs -- which are now read by about 35% of Internet users and many news organizations. The writers of blogs use web sites to post personal reactions to events, news of the day, rumors, and even their own personal diaries.

Blogging has created a million eyes watching over the shoulders of journalists.

-Matthew Felling, media director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, Washington.

When a story is finished it is sent to the editor for review. A reporter can also send stories into the newsroom from "the field" via a modem telephone link, in somewhat the same way we send e-mail via the Internet.

Digital Photography

Computers have also taking over newspaper illustrations. Drawings are routinely created by computers. Most newspaper photographers no longer use film cameras. Nikon digital Digital cameras and photos save considerable time and money.

Once taken, the photos are uploaded into a computer for cropping, color balancing, sharpening, etc. Once the digital photos are saved in a file, they can be delivered to the newsroom in person or via modem from a distant location.

News channels such as CNN regularly get digital photos and videos from viewers -- generally sent in via cell phones.

Complete newspaper pages are now composed (assembled) on a computer screen. Completed newspaper pages can then be printed out full size to make plates for the printing presses. Some newspapers paste up the individual page elements on a page dummy, which is then photographed to make an offset plate (printing plate) for the printing press.

The larger newspapers can transmit these pages to cities across a country to regional printing facilities -- which is how the New York Times, for example, can be on newsstands in Los Angeles within a few hours of being finished in New York.

In the next section we'll summarize major historical developments in a chronological order, and list a few major Internet links.