Is the Daily Newspaper Still Relevant?

During our weekly staff meeting, our team regularly discusses what’s happening in the media.  Who is taking over a new beat, which anchor moved from mornings to evenings, what new publication is launching, etc.  This past week was no exception.  As Scott mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, hundreds of journalists at 24 Gannett-owned papers in seven states, including the Arizona Republic, walked off the job this week to demand an end to cost-cutting measures and a change of leadership.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this walkout goes unnoticed – after all, daily newspaper readership continues to decline, and more and more people are getting their news from aggregator sites and social media. So, the fact that reporters won’t be conducting interviews or writing stories this week may not matter much.

But it does matter.  Newspapers are an essential part of communities and critically important to our democracy.  The media plays an important role providing information that shapes attitudes and public opinion. I know there is plenty of criticism about the media these days. It’s good to be a bit skeptical about what and how news is made available to us.

The hundreds of journalists that our team has worked with over the years are ethical and professional and regularly strive to produce quality content.  They deserve a workplace that respects their efforts.   We deserve to reap the benefits of those efforts.