How Dying Newspapers Threaten the Republic

There's so much bad news being reported each day, it's sometimes hard to keep up. So if you're just now learning that many of the country's largest newspapers are in deep, deep trouble, I'm not surprised. First came the news that the Rocky Mountain News had been put up for sale and, if not sold (which is likely if not inevitable), could be liquidated in January. Then it was announced that newspaper chain McClatchy plans to sell the Miami Herald. And just today the New York Times revealed plans to borrow as much as $225 million against its Manhattan headquarters, and the Tribune Co. -- which owns many newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and the LA Times -- filed for bankruptcy.

Considering the financial crisis, the bad economy, and the generally terrible state of the newspaper industry, none of this is especially surprising. Yet it is jarring, and disturbing, to imagine a United States in which major cities lack credible daily newspapers. Industry analysts have been issuing warnings for years that the day is coming when major and formerly successful newspapers will begin to die completely (as opposed to continuing the slow bleed they've been suffering for years). Looking at the publications I mentioned above, the one that seems almost certain to disappear is the Rocky Mountain News. It's difficult to see a buyer emerging in the next month for a struggling newspaper in an inhospitable market. (On a personal note, my father spent several years working for the Rocky Mountain News, which makes its impending death all the more sad.) With respect to the others, I don't know enough about the particular situations to make an informed judgment, but the fact that they're struggling so mightily is concerning enough.

Perhaps the disappearance of newspapers is inevitable. They've struggled financially for years, and that trend is very likely to continue and, as we're seeing, even grow worse. But if newspapers were to die out completely, it could be devastating to the health of American democracy. Most of the best reporting online continues to come from newspapers with a Web presence, and even the most impressive television reporting lacks the depth found in the average newspaper article. It's certainly possible that newspapers could be replaced by the growth of hundreds of online outlets doing original reporting, but we're a long way from there at this point.

I'm concerned that we could be headed for a future in which television news plays an even more dominant role in "informing" the American populace and frivolous commentary continues to crowd out serious journalism and original reporting. There's also the risk of completely losing good coverage of local and regional news. What's going to happen when a major newspaper folds in a city with no serious alternative? I fear we're going to find out soon enough.