8A, Approve Contract with Eureka Recycling

Home Browse Search

At least 120 newspapers in the U.S, have shut down since January 2008, according to Paper Cuts, a Web site tracking the newspaper industry. More than 21,000 jobs at 67 newspapers have vaporized in that time, according to the site. More bad news could be coming this week as newspapers struggle to meet challenges posed by changing reader habits, a shifting advertising market, an anemic economy, and the newspaper industry's own early strategic errors. Amid the decline comes concern over who, if anyone, can assume newspapers' traditional role as a watchdog, For more than 200 years, that role has been an integral part of American democracy. "I know it sounds somewhat cliche, but when you have competition with [the Arizona] Star, it makes both entities better," said Jennifer Boice, an editor who has devoted more than 25 years of her life to the Tucson Citizen. Competition naturally breeds better journalism is the credo of many newspaper veterans, And better journalism means an engaged and informed public, "The winner is the community," Boice said, "They get better information quicker and more of it." Despite arguments like Boice's, newspapers are losing their relevance in the lives of a majority of Americans, particularly younger readers. Many industry analysts agree many more papers will soon become extinct. Most two-newspaper towns will likely disappear, perhaps by the end of 2009, some experts say. Among the next newspapers to go, experts say, are major metropolitan dailies relying on an expensive business model that requires costly newsprint consumption and gas-guzzling deliveries, The quirky San Francisco Chronicle is reported to be circling the drain, If it were to close, San Francisco would be the first big U.S. city without a major daily paper. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Boston Globe are bleeding about $1 million a week, according to a media report issued by the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism, Experts say more big-city papers are expected to follow the example of Gannett's Detroit Free Press, which started cutting back on print edition delivery in December. The challenges facing newspapers long predate the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Daily subscriptions per household began a steady decline in the 1920s, yet the newspaper industry adapted and thrived despite competition from radio and television, But easily accessible, high-speed Internet connections and smart phones have dramatically shifted the way people get their news. Ironically, news is still in strong demand. It's abundant, accessible and usually free on the Web. The outlook is so grim that the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a membership organization for daily newspaper editors, canceled its annual convention in April after deciding that "the challenges editors face at their newspapers demand their full attention,"