Pricey Editor:
As we speak is one other unhappy day within the newspaper world, with information of the closure of the venerable St. John’s Telegram, the every day serving Newfoundland’s capital metropolis for greater than 140 years.
The demise of print newspapers continues, because the shift to digital platforms renders the method of placing ink on newsprint antiquated and, in lots of circumstances, redundant as a lot of a information outlet’s content material has already appeared on-line.
I suppose it was inevitable. Time marches on.
However was it inevitable?
What if large firms — many with American possession on the monetary helm — had not gained management of so many Canadian newspapers, together with scores of once-successful neighborhood newspapers that had served their trustworthy readers so properly, for thus a few years? May impartial possession have been in a greater place to resist the arrival of the web and fierce competitors from afar?
What if newspaper corporations had not responded to the brand new wave of competitors by cheapening their product; by shrinking newsrooms, counting on wire or shared information copy?
The shift to digital content material has not been the saviour many newspapers — massive and small — have been relying on to save lots of their bacon. Revenues have been disappointing, outcomes for once-faithful print advertisers have been disheartening. A lot of these advertisers are actually abandoning their newspapers and in search of higher outcomes on-line, usually on social media platforms.
Maybe it might have been totally different if newspapers had listened to their core readership who have been merely asking for trustworthy, concise, well timed reporting. Readers needed to be told and entertained. That by no means modifications. Devoted, well-trained journalists are in the most effective place to ship on these calls for.
Alas, the hum of the Goss presses and the frenzy of the old-time newsroom are being silenced … and that, sadly, isn’t about to alter.
Warren Goulding
Chemainus, B.C.
