Do I root for that? I am only trying to describe reality. The print media continues to erode in a number of ways. The trend does not make the news like it did maybe a dozen years ago. We have become so conditioned to seeing it happen. So it's not "man bites dog" anymore. The question is the pace at which it will continue.
Some people made sensational predictions about this when the process was just starting to become noticeable. Best example was Michael Wolff. He's a writer I admire because he refuses the "shackles" that many journos seek to wear. He will write borderline gossip sometimes using his own judgment to weigh veracity. And you cannot bat a thousand doing this. But we learn far more from his books than from many other writers who follow the old rules.
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| Michael Wolff (NPR) |
We proceed with our lives knowing there still is a Morris newspaper. Yes it's right in front of us. The Anfinsons had to come along and rescue it. Are they heroes? Well I don't know. The information we really need for our day-to-day lives can be dispensed through online systems. People have to sense the need and see that the appropriate services are dispensed. There's very little need for anyone to make money directly from all this.
Keep paying more?
Looks like the Morris newspaper is raising prices. Can they really take the risks in doing that? People have to make an array of adjustments as prices steadily go only up. Remember how people started laughing at the Federal Reserve when its top people said inflation was merely "transitory?" The Fed made the word "transitory" famous.
Yes, Social Security does get adjusted upward, some. But inflation over the long term can wreak serious effects. We can never take "hyper-inflation" off the table as a possibility. "The Fed" is under such pressure to take care of, to massage, this golden cow idol of the "stock market." People have been talked into getting their "401Ks" over so many years. The siren song: "The market only goes up over the long term." FOMO: "fear of missing out." Try telling my late parents who were young in the Great Depression about how the stock market is this shining jewel for trust.
Not like yesterday
Stevens County once had a nice little weekly newspaper in Hancock. I was the sportswriter for that paper for 15 years. I am proud of having done that. But the paper is simply gone. I mean it's gone as a stand-alone entity which in my mind is all that mattered. The Morris-based paper now tells us that it simply incorporates the old Hancock Record. It would be nice to believe that.
Even if it did, the amount of Hancock news would be offensive for the Morris-oriented readers. Ahem, I think this is exactly what has happened.
Even with a lot of Hancock stuff, I do not see the Morris paper of today as filling the void caused by the outright cancellation of the Record. So that's my opinion. Don't lecture me on how the Record truly stays alive through the Morris paper. I used to do two full pages of sports for the Hancock paper. And oh my, the Morris paper came out twice a week through my whole 27-year tenure there. And it was often a quite big paper.
The Canary supplement regularly had large ads for the auto dealers, full of photos (which I took) of cars for sale. Do you still see those? Well I don't think so. Car dealers have learned the obvious: that prospective car buyers use the Internet. Oh, they still have ways of making maximum profit: such clever people of course. Car salesmen are the best at that, bless their souls.
The previous owner of the Morris paper was all set to close the place, according to a well-placed source I have in Central Minnesota. I'm sure the current owners keep it going by trimming certain costs as with benefits for employees, which is surely their prerogative. But is it simply a blessing that we continue to have a newspaper? The chief frustration for me is this: the paper treats its website as if it is merely vestigial.
You all should know that there are many papers out there that strive to be more dynamic with their web presence. My Central MN newspaper friend is quite in that category, feeling no reservations at all about connecting with the public through the paper's site. He even does a video podcast! And, he is most convinced that these efforts help and do not hurt his print product. Certainly it creates good will.
IMHO the Morris paper creates no good will with its website and can in fact seem offensive with its attitude. It's like "if you're really looking for helpful background with what is going on with our school and community, you'll just have to pony up and 'buy our weekly paper.' "
OK well fine but is this really a token expense for people now? Now, in this age where inflation keeps rearing its ugly head? Does it really make a difference when you plunk down a couple of dollars at Willie's or Casey's to buy a paper? A paper that might have sports coverage in it that is a week and a half old?
The paper comes out only once a week and by the paper's own admission, we cannot rely on the U.S. Post Office to deliver our paper in the proper timely way. And why is that? The P.O. prioritizes Amazon deliveries? So that's it. And why is this happening? Well of course it's because Amazon is paying for it. Might newspapers pony up more to stay competitive? Well they can't. Newspapers are famously on the ropes, pilgrims.
A quiet end, most likely
When the time comes that there is no Morris newspaper, it will not be a big deal. It would have been a big deal a dozen or so years ago when Michael Wolff was doing his hand-wringing about the newspaper business. Newspapers simply were not down for the count, yet. They were probably making more money than they claimed. Isn't that human nature? I mean to plead poverty? But poverty was on the way. It has just taken time.
One last footnote: I would consider myself fortunate if I could be the same type of writer as Michael Wolff. Wolff points out the curious relationship between the press and government where the two really need each other, even while papers proclaim that they are "watchdogs." Certainly the Morris newspaper is no watchdog. It exists to give us "happy news" ad nauseam. We learn nothing from that. "All our kids are above average." I don't believe it.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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