I often talk about the changes traditional media is going through these days. The fall of the daily newspaper was made clear to me yesterday as I thumbed through our local daily paper on the day after the Presidential Inauguration, and the day of the largest Women’s March in our country’s history—two impacting news stories from a national and local standpoint.
While keeping in mind that, traditionally, the Saturday newspaper is the smallest of the week’s editions, I was flabbergasted to find that this paper-thin newspaper contained the following…
Section A: Local, Regional & National News – 4 pages, Stocks & Mutual Funds – 2 pages, Comics – 2 pages
Section B: Sports – 4 pages, Puzzle – 1 page, Classifieds – 1 page, MLive Ads – 2 pages
This $1.50 newspaper contained 8 pages of news/sports. What it didn’t contain was advertising from local or national businesses. Not one ad.
A business cannot survive in this fashion for very long, and I can only imagine that our local daily newspaper will not be printed for much longer, and likely, no one will notice when it stops. Today, the majority of people receive their news on-demand in an endless variety of online mediums, no longer waiting for their news to land once a day in their newspaper box in the front yard.
As I read about the Women’s March online, I think about tomorrow’s newspaper featuring yesterday’s news.
RIP, my friend.