Newspaper Woes

Since moving to the Bay Area, I have become an avid reader of the San Jose Mercury News.

This past weekend they announced some bad news, not just for them, but for aspiring journalist everywhere. The newspaper owned by the Denver based MediaNews cut 50 jobs, including 20 from the newsroom.

I first heard about the announcement on KLIV radio in San Jose. I don't remember who was reporting it, but they were making some good points, about how the newsroom has shrank but the city is larger. How some beats are being dropped because there simply isn't enough staff.

This made me ponder. Are newspapers shooting themselves in the foot? We all know sales are down, but are we hurting them more by reducing the amount of people we have to report news? The less and less news that gets into the paper, the less attractive it will be to people. And with less journalist, there will be less news covered.

Pulitzer Prize winner Renée C. Byer felt that newspapers were already shooting themselves in the foot by putting so much effort into online, that they were producing a lesser quality print product which has turned people off.

This is basically what might be happening with newsroom layoffs. Because there is less news being reported as a result of less journalist being staffed, the quality of newspapers are declining, thus turning people off to print.

I could be wrong. I am sure the Mercury and newspapers all around the country have thought of this. There are plenty more reasons why newspaper sales are down and cutbacks are necessary, but instead of trying to dig up it looks like the industry is digging itself a deeper and deeper hole.