Future Gazette: Out of Control

Why Future Gazette?

For 35 years I have worked in the newspaper business. I have been a general assignment reporter, managed an outlying bureau, been a political reporter, city editor, business editor and, most recently, editorial page editor for the mid-sized daily where I've been employed for most of my career.

During my years in the business, the industry has obviously changed tremendously. Now, as I near the end of that career, and as I have begun to teach college classes on journalism, I wonder more and more about the future of the industry.

I've also delved into newspapers of the 19th century as part of some research not directly related to journalism. In the process, I've been interested about some of the changes in the past century and more, but I've been far more amazed at how little basic news coverage has changed.

Young Benjamin Franklin's newspaper was the Pennsylvania Gazette. There is little question that it helped establish the template for what newspapers would look like on this continent -- something different from those of Europe. The Gazette was more cheeky toward authority, more populist and offered more homespun advice than most of what was published across the pond at the time.

So, what is the future of the Gazette in the 21st century? It looks bleak, at least for the ink-on-paper format we've known for the past few centuries. The corporate boards and academics are working hard to figure out what comes next, but I'm not sure the answer will come from them. Perhaps there is a 21st century Ben Franklin -- or thousands of Bens and Bernadettes -- who are already in the process of creating a new journalism form on their own.

That's more exciting than ideas generated at a facilitated meeting with flip charts and consensus ideas.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Out of Control

Today's distressing but hardly unexpected news:

The Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other papers is preparing for bankruptcy. According to several news sources, it has hired an investment bank and legal firm with experience in bankruptcy.

This comes on the heels of last week's announcement that the Rocky Mountain News is for sale, but the deadline for the sale and the fact that the paper is losing money big time make it seem unlikely that such a sale will occur. If not, the paper is expected to close.

As someone who has read both the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post for 30 years or more -- and I prefer the Rocky -- it is troubling news. But anyone who pays attention to journalism's problems has wondered how a moderately sized city like Denver has managed to maintain two competing daily papers for so long. Most cities went to a single paper long ago.

There's been talk for several years that one of the papers would close -- or perhaps stop putting ink on paper and become an entirely online product. I hope the Rocky finds a way to continue online, at least. As Colorado's oldest newspaper -- and according to one news story I read, perhaps the state's oldest continuously operating business -- it would be a shame to see it go.

As for the Tribune Co., it has been on the ropes for a long time. Most people I talked to doubted whether a real estate guy like Sam Zell could turn it around when he bought it a couple years ago. Apparently he couldn't, at least not in this economy.

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Out of Control

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