Newspapers are dying and no one can do a thing to save them. The reasons are varied and complex, but the upshot is a continuing erosion of newspaper readership brought on by a changing media landscape spurred by new digital technologies that have led to a decline in advertising dollars. That’s a fancy way of saying the Internet is gunking up the whole works for newspapers.
Am I upset that newspapers like the El Paso Times are struggling to stay viable? Not really. Aside from the fact I spent nearly 10 years as a newspaper employee, I don’t have any particular attachment to newspapers - anymore. Yes, I think it’s sad that newspapers are falling by the wayside. Their long history and contribution to society is a key factor in the historical development of our nation. And I’ll continue to subscribe to the Times despite the fact that it takes five minutes to peruse the entire publication. No offense to my friends and former colleagues at the Times, but the reality is I no longer need the El Paso Times to tell me what is happening in the world. Besides, who wants news that is as much as 24 hours old by the time it lands underneath my car every morning? Like an increasing majority of Americans, I happen to rely on the Internet to provide me with news and information that is relevant to me.
I write all of this not to sound glib or anything. I write these things to illustrate exactly why newspapers are failing through no fault of their own. According to industry reports, newspapers are in deep trouble. The industry decline actually began a long time ago with the invention of radio followed by the arrival of television and presently, the Internet. According to economist/sociologist/author Gary Becker of the University of Chicago, newspaper circulation across the country proportionately has gone down from about 65 percent in the late 1910s to less than 12 percent today.
When I first began working at the El Paso Times in early 2000, the Sunday circulation numbers exceeded 100,000. Today, the Sunday circulation stands at 83,121 while the daily circulation stands at 72,174 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. By industry standards, the Times is actually doing a good job of staving off the erosion given the fact that newspapers all across the country are closing their doors and laying off tens of thousands of employees. But the reality is that the tide is strongly against the El Paso Times.
From an economic standpoint, producing a big-city daily doesn’t make much sense any more. The El Paso Times operates a massive press that occupies a three-story structure on North Campbell St. in Downtown El Paso employing about 400 people from pressmen to reporters, photographers, editors, advertising and circulation personnel. By contrast, some of the most successful Internet news sites are putting out ample amounts of news and information services utilizing a small handful of editorial staff, computers and servers.
Becker writes in his blog that “Although the printed newspaper industry is doomed, and will be missed by those of us that remember newspapers in their heyday, they are being replaced by good substitutes in the form of blogs, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, online news gathering by various groups, including newspapers, and other electronic forms of communication.”
I sense strongly that newspapers like the El Paso Times will always be around but in a much lesser form akin to a neighborhood newsletter. Those who will keep newspapers alive for now will be older folks who have vowed, to paraphrase Charlton Heston’s famous quote, “I’ll give you my newspaper when you take it from my cold, dead hands!"
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Roy Ortega may be reached at rortega54@elp.rr.com.
