Paper or Plastic: The Newspaper Crisis

I prefer paper when it comes to news. Most folks under thirty choose internet news. Who can blame them? First and foremost, it's free. It reduces paper usage big time and is therefore green. And news hits online before coming out in print, so online junkies are often the first to receive breaking news.

Newspaper are going broke. The business model of newspaper is dying a quick, merciless death. Advertising revenue is down. Readership is down. Newspaper efforts to generate revenue online have failed.

I lament the loss of newspapers because the quality of American journalism is high. Once papers are gone, we won't find a substitute news source with anywhere near the professionalism of the print media. Voices like Limbaugh's will gain even greater traction and this is the last thing our democracy needs.

Television can't fill the void, and online news sources fall far short of the content available through the press. Where does that leave us? Nowhere good. Collectively, we will be rely on less data, and worse data, in forming opinions about important matters of public policy.

We will be too easily fooled and that's the real problem.

Too bad we've gotten so accustomed to expecting everything for free on the internet. Despite its many blessings, constant online access has its downsides and the suffocation of the newspaper industry heads the list.

How to stem this tide? Congress is considering legislation which would allow newspapers to become non-profit corporations and thereby receive more favorable tax treatment. The reduction of their taxes may allow them to remain afloat but that step would come at a large cost: non-profits are not allowed to make recommendations about elections. So much for freedom of the press.

Without a major change in consumer spending patterns, newspapers are done. I can't help but wonder, though, why newspapers are less deserving of Congressional bailouts than, say, AIG or GM or Bank of America. So write your congressman today and recommend that the newspapers get some of that bailout money. Save the fourth estate. The quality of our democracy depends on it.