Local News Death Spiral

Can Local Journalism Survive?

Our regional newspaper is in a steady decline. In the mid 90's there were nearly 400 reporters working for the Hartford Courant. Today there are just over 50. The Courant no longer has a newsroom. Printing of the paper has moved out of state. Local and regional coverage has diminished considerably. The local section of the paper is down to about three pages of stories. Obituaries have taken over the rest of the section because they produce revenue.  

The Hartford Courant is a part of Tribune Publishing which is owned by Alden Global Capital. Their focus is on the bottom line, not journalism. 

Not Much There Anymore

Occasionally, I get updates from "The Save Our Courant Team. 

Last week The Financial Times published an important look at the issues facing local newspapers in the United States, with The Hartford Courant front and center.

You can read the whole article here, but we wanted to sum up the major points. Here were our takeaways: 

Takeaway No. 1: The Courant keeps getting smaller

As the Financial Times reports, The Courant's newsroom has dropped from nearly 400 employees in the 1990s to about 52 currently. Nearly a third of the staff has left the paper in the past year alone.
 

“If you work at the Hartford Courant [today], you’re either completely crazy or you still love your job or a combination of both,” one veteran reporter says.

Takeaway No. 2: Alden Global Capital is bad news

Alden Global Capital is the largest shareholder of Tribune Publishing, which owns The Courant. Alden is notorious in journalism circles. From the Financial Times:
 

To the thousands of journalists who work for Tribune Publishing, which includes venerable papers such as the Courant and the Chicago Tribune, there is one name that they see as the biggest threat to their jobs and their papers’ future: Heath Freeman. Freeman is the president of a secretive hedge fund named Alden Global Capital. As such he has become the “personification of the new vulture capitalism that has invaded what was once, not long ago, a business that cared about its mission and its civic role”, says Ken Doctor, a media industry analyst, referring to the broader sector. 

Some employees of his companies and bankers who have cut deals with him refer to Freeman as “the Grim Reaper” and “destroyer of newspapers”. 

Takeaway No. 3: It could get worse.

Alden is following a familiar formula... one that spells bad news.
 

The situation at the Courant is now following a familiar playbook for Alden-backed papers, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former Tribune journalists, many of whom insisted on speaking anonymously. Under Alden’s watch, the newsroom’s phones and television were disconnected. Then its printing plant was shuttered, eliminating 151 jobs.

Freeman’s modus operandi is inspired by the slash-and-burn, “zero-based budgeting” practice that became famed on Wall Street for its success as much as its brutality. The Freeman recipe: get rid of the newsroom and sell the real estate, helping recoup the purchase price of the newspaper, then go through every line item in the paper’s expense sheet and cut. Lay-offs are typical. The result? “Ghost” papers unable to produce much in the way of original local journalism.

Takeaway No. 4: It doesn't have to be this way 

Not all local newspapers are experiencing this level of cuts. New ownership for The Courant would mean a new life for America's oldest continuously publishing newspaper.
 

[The] rallying cry to save the Courant is being echoed around the country as other small newspapers try to find wealthy, free-press-minded investors to save them from hedge funds and private equity. Beyond The Washington Post, billionaires in the past decade have bought the dominant newspapers of Los Angeles, Boston, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis.

Thank you, as always, for your support. If you have any ideas or want to get involved, please let us know. You can reach us at courantguild@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

The Save Our Courant team

Does It Matter? 

Yeah, it does. Beyond the day to day reporting of events around us, the importance of true journalism runs deep. The American Press Institute puts it this way.

Though it may be interesting or even entertaining, the foremost value of news is as a utility to empower the informed. The purpose of journalism is thus to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.

Newspapers were in trouble long before Alden Global stepped in. Declining readership and declining revenue are taking a toll. The trend has accelerated because of digital media. According Pew Research, more than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often. Survival of print journalism may well depend on it's digital footprint.