Newsrooms’ demise hurts democracy

by J Scott Christianson, Columbia Daily Tribune Columnist

A couple of weeks ago, one of Denver’s two daily newspapers, the Rocky Mountain News, folded after nearly 150 years of continuous operation. It was done in by a convergence of several forces: the Internet, media consolidation and the current recession.

At the Rocky Mountain News, classified advertisers were largely lured away to free services like Craigslist, Ebay and Monster.com. Subscribers logged in to MSN and other news sites instead of waiting for the familiar “plop” of the afternoon paper on the front porch. And many of the display advertisers scurried away to Google, Facebook and other online advertisers who could guarantee clicks for their dollars.

Unfortunately, the Rocky Mountain News is probably just the first major paper that will fold this year. Already Hearst Corp. is talking about shutting down the San Francisco Chronicle and is limiting the online content at all of its papers in an effort to force readers to either pay for online access or purchase a paper. The Wall Street Journal has cut back its newsroom staff, and Philadelphia Newspapers LLC — which owns both The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News — just declared bankruptcy. The list of failing and faltering papers gets longer every day.

A contributing factor to the demise of these papers has been the consolidation of print media into large media corporations. These companies are driven by their stock prices and simply take too much…