Karin Dryhurst

Don’t Throw Out Newspapers Yet

Senator John Kerry has joined the Speaker of the House in calling for a newspaper rescue after his hometown paper faced threats.

He called for a series of Senate Commerce Committee hearings after The New York Times threatened to close the Boston Globe. The announcement came as a House committee held a hearing to address Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion of an anti-trust exemption for newspapers.

But Rep. John Conyers was unmoved by the demise of his own state’s newspapers (the Detroit Free Press recently cut its weekday delivery).

He compared the industry to the struggling car companies.

"All of a sudden they need help, they need a lot of help and they need it fast."

But like the auto industry, the trouble for newspapers was far from sudden. They have increasingly struggled over the last decade—and have seen declines in advertising share for 60 years.

It’s only now that lawmakers are paying attention because ad revenue has declined so severely that papers are actually getting shuttered.

Though I have said anti-trust exemptions will not provide relief to the newspaper industry, I am disheartened by the reluctance of some members of Congress to admit the fundamental role in democracy that journalism plays.

Studies have shown the contribution of newspapers to vibrant elections.

While online news sources have proliferated in recent years, a gap still exists in original content and in readership. Online readership of newspapers during the week is at 4 percent of the population in the top 81 markets. Newspaper readership has been calculated at about half the adult population.

This will surely change. I have faith that creative Internet news sites can partner with traditional news organizations to fill the gap in the watchdog reporting our democracy needs. But creative policies, like one proposed by Senator Benjamin Cardin, must encourage both new and old media in order for these partnerships to happen.

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Posted at 11:52 AM, Apr 24, 2009 in Media
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