Denying the Problem Won't Solve It

Howard Weaver, McClatchy's vice president of news, says in his own blog (http://editor.blogspot.com/2008/06/time-is-fire-in-which-we-burn.html) the problem with his company's newspapers is not with journalism, it's with revenues. He said the audience for McClatchy newspapers and digital sites has gone up. It's cash flow that's gone down.

I like Weaver's optimism and the strength of his conviction that McClatchy can reinvent itself to be a handsomely profitable newspaper company. I hope he's right (I still own stock from my ME days in Minneapolis which at the time McClatchy owned.) But I don't agree there isn't a problem with journalism at his and other newspapers, right now. You simply can't remove dozens of staff members from a newsroom and do the same level of work. Ask any editor.

That's why sites like MinnPost, the Chitown Daily News and dozens of others journalism sites are taking root and gaining eyeballs. They're filling gaps, offering local news and analysis the local daily newspaper isn't. That's good news if citizens are served, especially while newspapers figure out what businesses their in.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that in the end, when it comes to public service coverage, newspapers are at least as fervently in the game as they've been in the past. But understand that there has been an erosion and that unless we get that, the problem with journalism will grow even bigger.