The Tyee story Postmedia Cuts Confirm Newspapers’ Days Are Numbered documents how Postmedia is planning on major cuts to its newspaper holdings across the country. Since buying the Canwest papers it’s been losing money and responding with cuts and more cuts.
From the Tyee story:
In Vancouver, the Sun and Province will merge newsrooms.
For readers, this week’s cuts mean poorer quality newspapers. Postmedia plans to have reporters file a single story, and then editors will create versions for the two newspapers. Short and snappy for the Province, longer for the Sun, for example. It’s not real competition, and fewer people will be available to cover the news.
This is not only not real competition, it’s not even good fake competition. It also makes no sense. Why have two papers that will literally print the same stories, just tweaked slightly to fit the given format of a broadsheet vs. a tabloid? If Postmedia wants to save money, they could just kill one paper entirely and allow the survivor a smidgen of integrity and perhaps an opportunity to develop a unique voice, perhaps even draw a few new readers. There are no other local major dailies in the Lower Mainland, so it’s not like they will lose out to direct competition (The Globe and Mail and National Post [the latter also owned by Postmedia] are nationally-focused so while they may eat into the readership of the Sun and Province, they target a somewhat different audience).
The story’s writer, Paul Willcocks, doesn’t offer possible solutions to the death of newspapers, but cites a need for an urgent discussion on the matter, bringing up the old “bad for democracy” bit–which is certainly valid when news (in all forms, not just newspapers) either dries up or becomes so thoroughly controlled by a small number that it no longer focuses on anything but serving its own agenda–but I don’t think we’re there yet.
And frankly, I don’t think there is any way to save the traditional paper. People get their news from TV and the Internet now. They get quick, bite-size chunks in free dailies like 24 Hours and Metro. Will they get the same depth and breadth of coverage as they would have during newspapers’ heyday? It really depends on the source. A paper like Metro doesn’t try to be comprehensive. A web site like The Tyee does, but the fear there is that without a sustainable revenue model, Internet-based news providers will also fail and whither, just like newspapers.
On that point, people want to read content for free and without ads. To that end, they resist pay walls, they use ad blockers, they get their news from Facebook or Twitter. We are in a time of transition and there’s no clear path going forward on how news will survive, especially quality long form and in-depth reporting that simply can’t be done for free.
But however news reporting moves forward, I don’t think it will be through the traditional newspaper. It’s dying and there will be no miracle revival.
Prediction: Postmedia will formally merge The Sun and Province into one paper within a year. Likely name: The Sun-Province. [UPDATE: As of October 8, 2017 both newspapers are still sputtering along, so resist the temptation to make wagers based on my predictions, unless your intent is to lose money.]
As a postscript, the rise of the Internet has not only hit newspapers hard, but other print media, too. A few days ago I walked by Mayfair News on Broadway for the first time in quite awhile. This was once one of my favorite places to buy magazines as they had a huge selection. Today they have what appears to be half of one aisle devoted to magazines, about 1/6th of what they used to have, with the rest of the store converted over to a dollar store model, shelves stuffed with cheap plasticware and other small goods. On the one hand, it makes me sad to see the change, but on the other I admire their resilience and ability to adapt to a changing market.
