The great American newspaper ain’t what it used to be. At practically every newspaper in the country except for a fortunate few, hard times have reduced page count, eliminated news beats and resulted in the layoffs of thousands of journalists.
The hardest hit, Margot Susca reports in her new book, Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy, have been the chain newspapers — Gannett, GateHouse, Lee Enterprises, et al. — purchased and squeezed by private equity firms like Alden Global Capital. Nationwide, the percentage of newspapers owned by private equity rose from 5 percent in 2001 to 23 percent in 2019; they include such storied titles as the Chicago Tribune, the Orange County Register and USA Today, as well as scores of smaller papers. Some papers have been reduced to zombie versions of their former selves as the new owners have shaved them down to minimize costs, depriving readers of the comprehensive coverage they enjoyed in the golden age of newspapers.
Susca, an American University […]
This is a much deeper trend then covered in this article. There continues to be a fundamental abandonment of the first amendment, and protection of journalistic freedoms, by the elites in this country. While this administration, and even some Republicans, will whine on about the death of Alexei Navalny, you hear not a word about Julian Assange rotting in prison in England for the practice of Journalism. The hypocrisy of the ruling elites is astonishing. The best part of the article was left for the last paragraph: ” Did you just brush up on your Milton Friedman? I think like a scholar and practitioner of journalism and democracy, not a peddler of stocks and bonds, because once we view constitutionally protected news organizations like any other widget in a capitalist economy, then our democracy is doomed. But look around, we’re already feeling the effects of that extraction as the investor class gets richer and misinformation spreads like a virus in the void left by a weakened local newspaper system.” Don’t say you weren’t warned folks.
At least less newspapers means fewer trees will be cut down which is at least one good thing.