The Future of Journalism

...a discussion we're having

Apr 05, 2022

Raise your hand if you have an opinion about the future of journalism. Oh, look at all the hands in the air! This column is for you.

Saturday, March 26, an all-star panel of journalists gathered in Capital Square during the Des Moines Partnership’s Festival of the Book. Jan Kaiser, Beaverdale Books, asked me to put together a panel to discuss the Future of Journalism, and to my delight, everyone I invited to be panelists said ‘yes.’

Nine of us had 60 minutes to address the issue. Smile.

“The beauty of this panel,” said Susan Patterson Plank, executive director of the Iowa Newspaper Association, “is that it represents different approaches— for-profit, not-for-profit; online-only and those focused on print and many working across multiple platforms; some are focused on driving revenue through subscriptions or advertising or events or frankly a combination of approaches. That diversity of approach is healthy as the industry finds its financial path forward. There may not be one answer. The answer may depend on the audience or the community being served.”

Patterson Plank opened our discussion.

In Iowa, there are approximately 250 newspapers, and 83% of adult Iowans read a newspaper in print or digitally. No one covers a community like a hometown newspaper.

“The future of journalism isn’t at risk,” she said. “What challenges the media is the business model. And in some rural communities in Iowa, that’s because there are economic challenges that impact many local businesses, from newspapers to hardware stores.

Also on our panel were Craig Crile, Founder of Group C, a digital advertising company; Kathie Obradovich, editor-in-chief for Iowa Capital Dispatch; Douglas Burns, Carroll Times Herald; and Carol Hunter, editor of The Des Moines Register.

Obradovich left a significant job at The Des Moines Register to lead the States Newsroom project, called Iowa Capital Dispatch. They offer hard-hitting investigative journalism and coverage of the Iowa legislature. This is a nonprofit model. No ads. Easy to read. Informative. We’re lucky to have them.

If the adage follow-the-money is cause for skepticism, I suggest that given a solid wall between funders and content providers, there is no more reason to suspect a contributor would have any more say over content than a major advertiser.

Hunter has the tough job of leading a legacy newspaper through a time of corporate mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing. As if that isn't a full-time job, her managerial role now includes overseeing multiple newspapers in addition to The Des Moines Register. To her credit, she willingly agreed to be on the panel, even on the heels of making some unpopular decisions with readers, cutting five days of print Opinion, and the Saturday Register’s print edition.

The main points Hunter made: The risk of more newspaper closures and the consequence of news deserts is real and growing. The loss of independent news organizations threatens democracy and community cohesion, removing watchdogs on the powerful and eliminating a source of reliable news about the shared interests that bind a community.

There's no one solution, suggested Hunter, but there may be many solutions: subscriptions, outright donations, nonprofit models, etc. Said Hunter:

“But they all rest on journalists doing their jobs well, producing accurate, trustworthy work, and on people who care about their communities and small-d democratic government enough to support journalists' work by reading and subscribing.”

Hunter’s latest Register hire is columnist Rachelle Chase, who will combine multi-media storytelling to her opinion pieces.

Rachelle Chase will use a combination of multi-media to reach Des Moines Register readers. Left: Laura Belin, Bleeding Heartland blog. Right: Susan Patterson Plank, INA

Douglas Burns is saddled with leading newspapers in Carroll and Jefferson. He once described newspaper publishers as going through a parade of indignities. But he’s been proactive. And because of his forward-leaning vision and collaboration with others, including Pulitzer Prize winner Art Cullen, the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation was created in August of 2020, eight months into the Covid pandemic.

Some were critical and skeptical of journalists creating a non-profit model.

Well, it’s no joke. On April Fools’ Day of this month, Art Cullen announced in his Storm Lake Times newspaper that he and his family were buying the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune, the Cherokee Chronicle Times, and the Area Advertiser. A feat that wouldn’t have been possible were it not for a generous contribution to the foundation from a random stranger in California who heard about the Iowa journalists through an interview on NPR. Read Courtney Crowder’s story.

Craig Crile addresses the issue from an advertiser’s perspective. He develops digital marketing for clients:

Writing or advertising for mass appeal seems to be ending. "Mass" is relative and much smaller now than ever and will remain as more niche publications become available. We can speak directly to an audience based on interests, location, or political affiliation.

Reporter/analyst Laura Belin’s online publication, Bleeding Heartland, is an example of a highly regarded niche publication. Belin accepts some online donations but will not accept money from those she could potentially cover. This narrows her revenue sources considerably.

And yet, it is that overall community coverage that creates cohesion.

In short, our panel did not come up with a magic bullet but rather the scatter-shot environment of journalism in 2022.

We didn’t even touch on various proposed legislation in congress trying to address the issue. That’s a story for another day.

Let’s make you publisher-for-a-day and see how you do with a few old-fashioned math ‘story problems.'

Try these::

Problem One

If Jane doesn’t pay to subscribe to the newspaper and reporters can’t work for free, advertisers go elsewhere; who will pay for the stories?

Problem Two

It costs XX.XX to deliver one newspaper to XXXXX. Jane pays < than it costs to deliver the newspaper. Who pays for the paper to be delivered?

Problem Three

If Jane lives in XXXX and buys her clothes, food, and furniture XXX miles away, who will advertise in her local paper, so she doesn’t have to pay 90% more for her subscription?

Problem Four

Ronald J. Glump was on the city council. He is a local contractor. He gets his friends on the city council. They all vote to give Glump a large contract to build something for the city. The cost ends up more than promised; Glump doesn’t pay his employees, and the workmanship of the project suffers. Once built, a piece of the roof falls off and kills Jane. No one knew the building was deficient. The local paper didn’t cover the story because there wasn’t a local reporter covering the council to hold Glump accountable. Who is responsible for Jane’s death?

Select the answer:

A: Jane. B: Taxpayers. C: Contributors. D: Advertisers. E: Mark Zuckerberg. F: Politicians. G: Corporate Greed. H: None of the above. J: All of the above.

As Socretes once said, there is no solution, seek it lovingly.

In the meantime, subscribe to The Des Moines Register, The Carroll Times Herald, Iowa Capital Dispatch, Bleeding Heartland, and support the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. The Des Moines Business Record is another resource for business news and features about local leaders. Watch for a story there about the future of journalism coming soon.

If you’re interested in this issue regarding congressional action, check out the following legislation in congress: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/antitrust/

Julie Gammack and Guests

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