Around WW II, there was a popular song by Noel Coward, called “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington”. Today, that song could be adjusted to “Don’t Let Your Daughter Read the Newspapers, Mrs. Worthington”.
Just as young Lotharios lounged around the theatres to mislead and corrupt innocent (and, not so innocent) young girls, today’s newspapers are hanging around your home and similarly corrupting and misleading your daughters (and sons!) away from your family’s values.
Journalists today attend the same journalism schools and all produce the same liberal “mainstream” news. Same-sex marriage, euthanasia, sex with multiple partners, homosexual rights and abortion, for example, are all portrayed in newspapers as reasonable and progressive ideas, which everyone, i.e. those who are knowledgeable and informed, support, and only “dinosaurs” reject. The fact that this philosophy of life is having a horrendous effect on our society never hits the radar of these journalists and their editors: nor does the possibility that the majority of the public doesn’t go along with such an outlook, which the media incorrectly assume represents the prevailing orthodoxy. However, the fact that journalists are out of touch with the real lives of Canadians, only serves to alienate many readers, who find the content of newspapers a convincing example of a world gone mad.
It is little wonder that journalists today are not held in high esteem. In fact, according to an Angus Reid Strategies poll, released on May 1, 2008, journalists rank very low: politicians (25%), lawyers (44%) and journalists (49%) in respect by the public. In fact, regarding respect, the profession of journalism has shown the most noticeable slump of any other profession. In 2008, less than half of all respondents say they have a great deal or a fair amount of respect for journalists (49%), compared to 73% in 1994.
Newspaper Circulation in a Free-Fall
Newspaper readership today is in a free fall. Who wants to experience indoctrination by way of the second hand views of liberal journalists, all too many of whom write a spin on the story, rather than the story itself? This is the pattern followed by most journalists today (although thankfully not all). That is, one no longer reads the newspapers for the “news” because, mostly, one gets only a journalist’s spin on the news.
It does not help either that the media - print, TV and radio - are a virtual monopoly, by way of “convergence”, i.e. the purchase by one media company of a number of different media outlets. The result of this convergence is that the daily news is increasingly all the same - all mined from the same news source.
For example, the Globe & Mail newspaper is a division of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., and the Asper Family conglomerate called Can West Global Communications Corp. not only owns many newspapers across the country, such as the National Post and Vancouver Sun, but also the Global Television Network. The result is that the news from these outlets is controlled and predictable.
Newspapers Facing Hard Times
Newspapers, however, are facing difficult times today in that their circulation rate and advertising is noticeably decreasing. There are several reasons for the decline in newspaper circulation (in addition to the distortion of the news). The internet is now almost the only source of news for those 18 to 35 years of age. Young people take the position that it is not reasonable to spend money on a newspaper, when one can obtain the news for free off the internet. Consequently, newspapers today are read mainly by those over 55 years of age – which does not spell longevity for newspapers.
The newspapers still holding on are those which have managed to adapt to the internet by taking on thousands of subscribers on-line, (for example, the New York Times). CanWest Global Communications Corp. has beefed up its online presence with elaborate versions of its local newspapers’ classified section and has specific sites which deal with auto, real estate and job-hunting themes.
Sun Media, owned by the Quebecor group, has focused mainly on boosting its Canoe.ca brand with online video, interactive content and entertainment portal Canoe.tv.
These on-line subscriptions decrease the demand for costly overhead by newspapers, such as printing plants, circulation systems and newsprint. The current, worrisome economy has certainly not helped the situation for newspapers either.
Tracking the Decline in Newspapers
Despite these efforts, newspapers are feeling the pinch.
The Toronto Star, which at one time had the fourth largest circulation in North America, laid off 160 employees in May because its profits have fallen 25% to date in 2008. Also, the previously profitable community newspapers, called the Metroland Group, owned by the Toronto Star, have been hit by the downward trend.
In November 2007, Sun media laid off 16 editorial employees
The Montreal Gazette (owned by CanWest Global) cut 45 jobs in April 2008.
According to the Canadian Audit Bureau of Circulations (November 2007), average weekday newspaper circulation in Canada for the six months ending September 30, 2007 have decreased for the following Canadian newspapers: Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Hamilton Spectator, Globe and Mail, National Post and the Toronto Star.
In the US, circulation of the top 25 newspapers has fallen 7.4% in the past three years. Sunday circulation is down 4.5%.
Advertising has fallen and has been taken up on the internet. That is, readers who might have paid for a classified listing 10 years ago, are turning to popular free websites instead.
The above numbers in the U.S., however, do not accurately portray the actual disaster facing newspapers there, because the US industry’s Audit Board of Circulation last year made changes to allow the newspapers to include items previously excluded from the circulation figures, such as allowing copies of newspapers, distributed free to hotel guests, to be reclassified as “paid” circulation, and to include newspapers distributed for “educational” purposes to be regarded also as “paid” circulation. These changes might make newspaper circulation look better on paper, but they do not accurately reflect their problems with the decreasing number of subscribers.
Similarly, in Canada, major newspapers are also now circulating discounted or free copies to the public in order to keep their numbers up so as to manufacture the appearance of a robust circulation.
It apparently has not occurred to anyone in the newspaper industry that if they provided the news straight, fair and balanced, they might not be facing such difficult times. |
