CTNewsJunkie reports about five possible buyers stepping up to the plate to save the newspapers around New Britain and Bristol. Over at the Journal Inquirer Chris Powell is not impressed. He suggests that what the newspapers need is not tax breaks, but a community to be involved with. I posted about this on a mailing list about journalism that I’m a member of and generated quite a discussion which I want to chronicle a little bit of here.

First, I should note that I don’t always agree with Mr. Powell’s opinions. We have had some very interesting email discussions in the past and I look forward to similar discussions in the future. Some people got stuck on the first part of his opinion piece. I will skip over that part. What is important to me is the relationship between news organizations and community.

Another caveat that I would add is that I don’t want to get into the role of State government in fostering community at this point. That is a large and complicated issue that perhaps we can explore a bit later. The interesting questions to me right now are if there is a relationship between the decline in civic involvement and newspaper reading, if there is, which is the cause and which is the effect, and finally, if there is a relationship, what can or should be done about it.

One person wrote, “Newspapers are in decline everywhere and it has nothing to do with ‘community disintegration’. It has to do with an outdated and failing business model that has been overtaken by technology.”

This is an argument I just don’t buy. According to the Newspaper Association of America, total paid circulation of newspapers has been in a fairly steady decline since the mid 80s, long before Craig Newmark started siphoning away some of the classified advertising revenues.

The response is that "Papers aren't folding because of a lack of readers, but from lack of revenue". Yet that argument doesn’t stack up all that well either. Yes, advertising revenue was off 9% in 2007 to only $42 billion dollars. Advertising revenue also took a big hit back in 2001, but even with both of those big hits, 2007 revenue is still greater than it was a decade ago.

On the list, I commented, “I would suggest that the problem isn't even completely lack of revenue. The problem in many cases is that the revenue doesn't meet the desired ROI by investors. This is compounded by newspapers not being able to meet their debt obligations as a result of LBOs. Indeed there are problems with the business model, but a large part of that may be in terms of capital structure and expected return rather than in terms of revenue.”

Another response was “the reality is that paying people to write interesting stories in order to attract eyeballs for advertisers is no longer cost effective". I don’t buy this hypothesis either.

In reply, I wrote, “If I thought that local papers were actually paying people to write interesting stories in order to attract eyeballs for advertisers, and if I thought that local papers had advertising sales people that understood the value proposition of the newspapers, I might agree with you. However, Tracey's post reflects an opinion that I hear all too often, that local newspapers are not writing interesting stories that attract eyeballs and that is a big part of the problem. On top of that, most of the advertising that I've seen seems to have moved from advertising that understands the local community and is sold cookie cutter like any other bulk advertising. The problem with this is that as there are more sources for advertising, the value of bulk advertising is plummeting. However, at the same time, the value of niche advertising is doing well.”

Many other people hopped in with stories about how the local newspapers in their areas are not producing interesting journalism, and it is the online hyperlocal sites that are reporting the news that people are seeking. Still others have noted the role of technology in helping promote community that goes beyond the idea of community being primarily geographically based.

So we come to the chicken and egg problem. Are we seeing a decrease in newspaper readership because of a decrease in community involvement? Or, are we seeing a decrease in community involvement because newspapers are not covering community news as well as they used to? I don’t have a good answer to this and would be interested in seeing more research in this area.

While Mr. Powell might be calling for the State Legislature to be doing a better job in addressing issues of community, it seems like others are calling on newspapers to also do a better job of addressing issues of community. Mr. Powell talks about the issue of illiteracy in many of our cities. Perhaps, we need better coverage of school board meetings and how our schools are addressing education. Perhaps we need journalists to step into the schools and help students understand the importance of telling their stories and reading the stories of others. I do believe that whichever came first, journalism can help address some of the issues that seem to be leading to the demise of so many local papers.

I guess this leaves me with the fundamental question: How important are news organizations in your community? Unfortunately, it sounds like they are not nearly as important as they should be in many communities and we all need to find ways to work together to rectify this.