The Decline of Newspapers: A Threat To Democracy
By
Allan C. Brownfeld
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The importance of a free press to a democratic society was recognized by America’s Founding Fathers. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson declared, “The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Newspapers are in a serious state of decline. This decline accelerated so rapidly in 2023 that analysts now believe the U.S. will have one third of the newspapers it had as of 2005 by the end of 2024.
Most communities that lose a local paper usually do not get a replacement, even on line. There are roughly 6,000 newspapers left in America, down from 8,891 in 2005. According to a report from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Of the papers that still survive, a majority (4,790) publish weekly, not daily. In the U.S., 204 counties, or 64%, have no local news outlet at all.
“Simply put,” wrote Buffalo News owner Warren Buffet, “If cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the internet had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed.”
From 2005 to 2021, about 2,200 American local print newspapers have closed. From 2008 to 2020, the number of American newspaper journalists fell by more than half. The annual report from Northwestern University’s School of Journalism indicates that since 2005, nearly 2,900 newspapers have closed, eliminating the jobs of two-thirds—-43,000—-of newspaper journalists. In 2023, an average of five papers disappeared every two weeks.
Jon K. Lauck, a historian at the University of SouthDakota, writes in Middle West Review, which he edits, that the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois had 70 people in its newsroom in 2000 and now has fewer than ten. Since 2015, the newsroom at the Omaha World Herald has contracted from more than 200 to 62. Sunday circulation, 302,000 in 1980 is now about 40,000.
When I worked in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a regular part of our schedule was meeting with reporters from hometown newspapers who checked on a regular basis on what the local member of Congress or the Senate was doing. I remember meeting on a regular basis with reporters checking on what was going on. Today, in 21 states, no newspapers have a correspondent in Washington.
Between 2009 and 2014, the number of Washington, D.C.-based reporters for local newspapers accredited to Congress declined by 90. Arizona and Indiana, for example, have 9-member congressional delegations—-but not a single accredited reporter. Members of Congress act differently when they know that no one is carefully observing—-and reporting about—-what they are doing.
There was a time when Americans based their opinions on a common and shared set of facts. Most people learned what they knew of the world from the nightly newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC. When they went to the office, the gym or the classroom they discussed public affairs with the same set of facts at their disposal. Now, with cable television, the internet and social media, everyone has different—-often contradictory and often inaccurate information at their disposal. Those who watch CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News all have different and contradictory information in their heads. Even election results are different. Those who assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 may genuinely have believed Donald Trump won the election because their sources of information told them that he did.
We now live in a society in which newspapers with real investigative reporters are in decline and opinion reigns supreme—-on websites, podcasts and partisan t.v.networks. Truth, as a result, is in decline and opinions held by many are based on totally false information.
When I was growing up in New York City, we had four morning newspapers—-the Daily News, the Mirror, the Times and the Herald Tribune. In Brooklyn, there was also the daily Brooklyn Eagle. We then had a group of evening papers, the Journal American, the World Telegram and Sun and the Post. They represented a variety of perspectives and points of view. Our local newsstand also had a multitude of foreign language newspapers——in Italian, German, Yiddish, Greek, Norwegian, Spanish, Chinese and even in Gaelic, spoken by many Irish immigrants. While we confront an immigration problem at the present time, many forget that our country’s whole history is a story of immigration.
It is sad to remember the large variety of newspapers we once had and the way they have largely disappeared. I remember the many papers I once read in different places, and those which printed my column——-the Houston Press, Phoenix Gazette, Richmond News Leader, the Washington Evening Star and Daily News, the Philadelphia Bulletin——all gone.
Now that we have a government——but fewer and fewer newspapers keeping a close eye on what it is doing—-Thomas Jefferson would probably recall his earlier statement about government and newspapers as being somewhat prophetic.
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