The New Journalism

Kelly Heyboer, writing for Jersey Blogs, asks, “Is it time to write the obituary for newspapers?” I don’t think so. Even though the newspaper industry is undergoing a major structural transformation, few prognosticators, if any, have a crystal ball accurate enough to predict the exact outcome of such a fundamental industry shift.

The impact of print newspaper circulation shrinkage in our own backyard of Bridgewater and Somerset County is undeniable. It’s easily observable in the heavily reduced on-site reporting for state and local proceedings; as, for example, in meetings of elected officials. Newspaper bureaus do their best, but it’s simply not possible to cover the entire waterfront with a severely reduced staff.

One of the major casualties is full, on-site coverage for boards of education meetings. It was hard enough for a reporter to sit through often interminable, long-winded meetings and be able to capture the one moment or two where someone might bring up a controversial topic, or try to slip through a crucial, but otherwise undetected item. Lack of funds for full coverage of public meetings has made it impossible for editors to even consider such full-time coverage. The public is the ultimate loser in this seemingly endless circulation slide.

However, I am an optimist on this matter. Blogger Chris Hedges writes – as reported in the Star-Ledger – that transferring news gathering to the Internet is an illusion. He goes on to conclude that, although “bloggers and internet addicts . . . can produce stinging and insightful commentary . . . they rarely pick up the phone, much less go out and find a story.”

Hedges claims that, “at least 80 percent (of all reporting) is done by newspapers and the wire services. Take that away and we have a huge black hole.”

I agree with that assessment. Take, for example, the latest flap over the proposed salary increase for Bridgewater’s Township Administrator. Without the original reporting and follow-up of an on-the-ground writer like Kara L. Richardson of the Courier News, you wouldn’t have known anything about this until the game was over. As it turns out, her story on the topic prompted two editorials, one in the Courier News, and the other in the Star-Ledger.


Note: 1.) Responsibility for any omissions or errors of fact in this blog post are strictly my own. 2.) Richardson’s story may be found at: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/NEWS/808050381/1012/NEWS0201

Courier Columnists

The Courier News has several good paid columnists. One of those is the recent addition of Jay Jefferson Cooke, new to the newspaper’s staff.

I remember when, in the early 1990’s, Carol Hunter and her husband, Tom Perry, were a team on the C-N. Carol rose to the rank of editor (close enough, I can’t remember her exact title!), while Tom wrote columns. Those were hectic days, especially in Bridgewater and Raritan, where things got hot on the Board of Education. Today, when that happens, hardly anyone takes notice, because there is no continuous coverage of what goes on there – a place where most of the township’s and borough’s real estate tax dollars are spent.

Back then, both the Courier News and the Star Ledger (even the weekly Messenger-Gazette) had dedicated reporters attending just about every meeting. It’s a situation that kept the voting public and parents very informed. Now, the school board and administration hardly get any attention, because there is rarely anyone on the scene.

Tom Perry’s columns often referred to the goings-on in school affairs and in local politics. He was very good at it. He named names and got his facts right. He was a straight-shooting columnist who felt responsible for what he wrote and was generally respected by his readers.

Jay Jefferson Cooke’s columns are more personal, and very different in style from those of Tom Perry, but both guys (ditto for Michael Riley) share the same quality of good writing which comes from the heart, the gut and the intelligence. That doesn’t mean that a person always will agree with such a writer. But it usually assures that the reader will be drawn to what such people write and will give the topic some consideration.

I missed Tom’s columns after his departure. Although Cooke's subject matter is somewhat different, he helps to pick up the slack.

Will Newspapers Make the Cut?

In its early days, when television took hold and began to expand across the country, many people thought that the days of radio broadcasting were numbered. Confounding many experts, though, broadcast radio did not disappear, but gradually changed its programming and prospered.

Who would have predicted that decades after the rollout of TV, today’s old-fashioned, analog airwaves would still be filled with over-the-air broadcast stations pumping out talk radio, sports and music? Would anyone have dreamed that Sirius and XM would be delivering specialized radio programming via satellite and getting customers to pay for it? Or that existing radio stations are now upgrading their broadcasting systems to carry superior quality HD (high definition) digital channels for free?

New Jersey already has 9 such radio stations broadcasting 12 HD radio channels, with more coming. From Central Jersey, we can already pick up HD radio from neighboring states as well.

Today, the print newspaper industry faces a challenge similar to that of early TV, as it grew to become a major competitor to radio. This time, it’s the Internet and cell phone technology which have both reared up to spar with print media. However, just as radio did not die out with the growth of TV, print newspapers will not go away. As they are already doing, newspapers will adapt and use the Internet as a complimentary delivery medium to their print operations.

No one now knows just how far the transformation of the newspaper industry will go, because the answer is bound up in two factors: 1) The inability to forecast with any great accuracy the unpredictable, long-term behavior of the buying public and, 2) The lack of information about how new technological innovations and marketing techniques will affect consumer behavior 5 to 20 years out.

Not all newspapers will make it, but those who are nimbly adaptable should thrive in an information and entertainment market in which their delivery systems will be a combination of newsprint, Internet and other, yet-to-be-discovered formats.

Note: 1. For specific information about the location and call signs of broadcast HD radio stations, see http://www.hdradio.com/find_an_hd_digital_radio_station.php 2. Traditional AM/FM radio receivers cannot pick up the new HD radio channels; a new receiver is required.

Heading Off Problems at the Park Commission

One of the problems that still faces the Somerset County Park Commission is its apparently sloppy practice of awarding contracts. The prognosis is not good.

The current batch of commissioners, acting as a whole, cannot seem to grasp the simplest concept that the public is able to judge its recent behavior in awarding a $225,000 contract and clearly perceive it as wholly inappropriate. That advertising contract is the latest example in the denouement of the park commission’s ongoing missteps. Three vendors were in a pool, but only one bid on the project. Doesn’t that mean that the solitary bid should not have been accepted and that the commissioners should have gone back out and found more bidders?

Was Rick Fontana, Somerset County Freeholder and liaison to the park commission, at the meeting when this occurred? If so, what did he say? If he wasn’t present, what is he doing about it? According to press reports, park commissioner Robert Horowitz seemed to be the only one present who argued forcefully and “protested the method used to solicit professionals to join a commission pool to vie for such work.”

I’ve observed Horowitz at one or two prior commission meetings, and it’s usually discernible when something is bothering him. He seems to have a sense when all is not right and he is not bashful about expressing it to his colleagues on the commission.

Interestingly enough, the same Courier News article which quoted Horowitz, disclosed that a large chunk of the contract “would pay for newspaper, magazine and signage advertising, including (to) the Courier News and Home News Tribune.” That’s a good example of getting something out on the table for all to see.

The park commissioners should be bending over backwards to choke off even the slightest appearance of what could be perceived as conduct unbecoming of public servants.

See Courier News article, “Park Commission contract generates questions.” at http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/NEWS01/801180338/1006/NEWS06

Newspapers Deliver

Several days ago, in two area newspapers, I read about how the Somerset County Park Commission still seems to be having difficulty in making fundamental changes to its procurement practices. That underscored to me how we rely almost exclusively on the accurate reporting of two journalists, Martin Bricketto and Joe Tyrrell, to stay on top of what’s going on with the behavior of the commission and with the oversight responsibilities of the Somerset County Freeholders.

When the Wolff and Samson report was released to the public last year, a furor broke out over the policies and practices of the park commission. I attended several public meetings and heard supporters of the status quo walk up to the mike, talk about how things weren’t that bad at the commission and that “media frenzy” was largely to blame for stirring up the pot. The message seemed to be that if only the press would go away, the bad news would go away.

Well, when a tree falls in the forest, it still makes a sound, even though no one is there to hear it. It just so happens, in this case, that when the trees of the park commission scandal began toppling over, somebody was there to listen to the crackling of the branches. Some of those who heard the noise, like it or not, were reporters sitting in public meetings of the freeholders and of the park commission, taking notes, asking questions, digging up facts, and bringing that information back to newspaper and Internet readers.

There was no media frenzy. I read all of the columns and attended many of the same meetings at which reporters were present. I don’t recall them writing about anything that did not actually happen, or that the public did not deserve to know.

The Circulation Crunch of Bridgewater Newspapers Affects Us All

Two newspaper vignettes caught my eye this past week. Both reflect the inexorable force that new technologies can have on markets and companies. The first was a small, dry, relatively innocuous article in the Star-Ledger which mentioned that, because of declining circulation, management will approach its various unions, seeking help.

The second was a three-column advisory by the editor of The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen. It explained that although the Courier News had been printing the official newspaper organ of the diocese since that newspaper’s inception in 1996, that the C-N was “shutting down its presses and moving its printing operation to the Asbury Park Press in Freehold.” (Both are owned by the parent company, Gannett.) Arrangements have already been made to have The Catholic Spirit printed elsewhere.

I love newspapers. I read as many as I can lay my hands on. I scour them; I vigorously mark up stories with comments; I clip articles of note and they accumulate, much to my spouse’s dismay. I never fail to pick up a copy of the local press when I travel, because, next to talking to the locals, it is the best and quickest way to get insight into a community.

But the Internet has been intruding for a long time, and it continues its slow, negative impact on the daily dissemination of printed news. The plethora of cable news channels is not helping any. The resultant decrease in circulation, of course, shows up directly in a newspaper's bottom line, forcing it to gradually cut back and to find economies in order to survive and, above all, to constantly seek innovative ways to address its audience.

You might think that this doesn’t affect you very much, but it does, and very directly. One of the casualties is a sharp drop-off in the consistent coverage of public meetings by reporters. You don’t get to fully know what’s really going on, as you once might have.

In the 1990’s, when I was on the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education, and before that, when I attended many board meetings and was an active participant on committees, the Courier News and the Star-Ledger employed dedicated reporters to show up and to extensively cover the meetings. When reporters called me, they knew what to ask. Brother! Did that keep me on my toes.

Today, newspapers simply can no longer afford widespread, physical coverage of public meetings. For economic reasons, this happens now only when there is a major issue at stake, something that editors are reasonably sure you will want to read about. Like for instance, the shenanigans of the Somerset County Park Commission, or a controversy affecting a school referendum.

Bridgewater Newspaper Trivia

Did you know that the Courier News of Bridgewater played a major role in the rollout and progress of USA Today? I’m going by memory on some of this, so I stand corrected if there are a few holes. USA today – the nation’s largest newspaper – was founded 25 years ago, largely through the efforts of Allen Neuharth, a self-labeled S.O.B. according to his 1989 autobiography, Confessions of an S.O.B.!

What I now recollect from Neuharth’s book is the classification of his corporate opponents as “good S.O.B.s” and “bad S.O.B.s.” The former, he wrote, worked to obstruct his progress in establishing USA Today but were not particularly mean, while the latter pursued the same purpose, but were malicious, not to be trusted, and had to be watched closely.

If I remember accurately, Bridgewater’s Courier News facility was a prime founding contributor in the publication of USA Today, the nation’s first newspaper to offer color on a wide scale, while keeping stories short and not referring readers to an interior newspaper page for story continuation. Both newspapers are part of the Gannett media organization.

Additionally, the Courier News became an executive feeder source for future USA Today top executives. In the early days, for example, there was Tom Curley, Courier News publisher in 1983-1985; and Ken Paulson, who was managing editor of the C-N in 1980-1984. Both rose to prominent positions at USA Today. Later, a few other people also followed their path from Bridgewater, N. J., to USA Today’s headquarters in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

That newspaper now has a circulation of about 2.3 million. With printing locations throughout the U.S. and abroad, it also boasts one of the print media’s most popular web sites.