Our local newspaper has been shot through its journalistic heart.
From what I hear, it will only be available online, behind a paywall, from this day forward.
I take no pleasure in wondering if it will be done and gone, out of circulation within a year.
And you can't even joke about sticking a fork in it...because it's digital.
Once a thriving publication dating back to 1904, it has been declining in readership for too many depressing years to count. Even I, a multi-decade subscriber, let mine lapse a few years ago when I had been reduced to reading it with a red sharpie in hand, circling spelling mistakes and grammar gaffes like a demented English teacher, scrawling on errors in proper names, historical inaccuracies, and some mighty dreadful syntax.
I do not recommend starting your morning with that level of frustration. It's horrible.
Part of the problem is that many of the paper's editorial staff work miles away in another city. I don't know if it is a matter of not having time for us or simply not knowing if they've underreported our local news. Quotes from local residents seemed to have disappeared. Most articles rich in content were inserted from the AP. Photos supporting local news stories looked like they'd been resurrected from those on file. A local hometown photographer from the 1970s who earned a residual every time they used one of his antique pics was happy to be of service, but it might have been nice to see a picture highlighting one of the local annual festivals while actually showing locals who were still among the living.
Oh, and the obituary page (relegated to the Sports section, a very odd decision) ran almost as many corrections as obituaries near the end of the physical paper's tenure. I feel those errors wouldn't have happened if some hometown folks who'd known the dearly departed had glanced at their tributes for a few minutes during pre-publishing.
On more of an optimistic note, I also predict that someone else will take up the mantle and produce a decent FUBU* physical newspaper in the future. Just like the cool cats are rediscovering small towns, bookstores, record albums, Levis made without spandex, and cane sugar, I bet they will be hungry for some good old fashioned hands-on news at some point.
Flap it open loudly in the sunlight on a Sunday morning; relaxing on the porch, coffee in hand. Gather the kids and tell them what's going on around town.
Doesn't that make for a nice story?
*For us, by us.
#mushroomtumbler
