Saving the dinosaurs: Why there’s a future for community newspapers

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Suppose there were eight communities in Minnesota that were suddenly going to lose their libraries. Or about to lose their hospitals and clinics. Or about to lose their public safety departments. Or about to lose their schools.

That would probably be big news — front-page news in this newspaper, right? Instead we first read that eight small cities in Minnesota are about to lose their newspapers in the editorial pages. The fact that this calamity took several additional weeks to merit mention in the news pages is both ironic and disturbing. So many Minnesota communities have lost their newspapers, maybe eight more is not even worth a blip on the business page anymore.

It’s just like another dinosaur keeling over and breathing its last 66 million years ago. Eventually extinction is not newsworthy.

Yes, I know that newspapers no longer have the status of the above-mentioned institutions, but there was time when they did. There was an old saw passed around a few decades ago that you’ll never have a progressive community without a good newspaper. It was probably a newspaper editor who said that.

Newspapers even earned a mention in the First Amendment of the Constitution. And Jefferson famously said, “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. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them.”

But newspapers ran into a double whammy. First there was the realization in the great American moneymaking machine that newspapers were very profitable. At one time, nearly every newspaper in the state was owned locally, and was a flourishing enterprise. But as the family owners went through generations, they often sold out to media groups. The community newspapers were a hot commodity. In some cases, the media groups were sold to enterprises that had nothing to do with the news, as was the case with eight Minnesota dinosaurs. They were only cash cows, and when the milk ran out, they were gone.

Which brings us to the second whammy — the milk ran out. The internet killed newspapers not because it offered news in way the new generations could easily digest, but because it took away the lifeblood of newspapers — advertising.

For example, let’s take the newspaper I was employed by for 20 years, the Hibbing Daily Tribune. It was once a family business, and the family members were often deeply involved in the enterprise. But as time went by, a new generation sold out to a media group that covered northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Then one day, the new owners hired a consulting firm to modernize their holdings. What was the name of this firm? “Profits Plus.” You don’t have to be Carnegie or Rockefeller to see where this is going.

A few years ago, the Hibbing Daily Tribune ceased publication, and became part of a regional newspaper. The community once had nine full-time journalists working to gather the news; now it has a couple.

Is electronic news filling this void in community enlightenment? Not even close. Now, I think eventually internet news will become much better. It’s already starting to show signs of becoming more robust, honest and skilled. But for those eight communities without a newspaper, there is a vacuum that won’t be filled anytime soon.

Is there hope for the dead-tree version of journalism? Yeah, I think so. Let’s look at those eight communities and three factors that could help them resurrect a newspaper that can bring them the news of the city council, school board, county board, sports, obituaries, horseshoe tournaments and weddings.

First, every one of those communities has a news staff in place. That’s a start. The new era of newspapers will have to go back to the old model of local ownership. If it’s not local, the decisions will be made based on greed and not on preserving democracy in America. In each community, a Glen Taylor, who saved the Star Tribune, or a group of Glen Taylors must step forward.

Already a national media company has announced it will try to resurrect two of those eight newspapers.

Second, there must be broad-based community support. The citizens need to rally around the notion of having a means in their community to make them informed voters, enthusiastic sports followers and educated coffee-shop regulars.

And third, there must be advertising, or some kind of other nongovernmental support. It’s been suggested that government step in to save newspapers, but this is like the fox stepping in to fix the chicken wire on the hen house.

There are examples in Minnesota of thriving newspapers. They should be studied. There are at least two newspapers in Minneapolis, the Northeaster and the North News, that are independently owned and hanging in there. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder has been around for 89 years and is still family-owned.

You know, not every dinosaur that breathed in that toxic cloud when the massive asteroid hit the earth 66 million years ago croaked. When you see a robin skimming over the ground, a cardinal brightening up the landscape or an eagle soaring high above, those are dinosaurs. They are the last, brilliant evolution of the dinosaur.

Every one of those cities needs and should have a newspaper, and I think they will. If a community should lose its newspaper it should be because it no longer serves an important purpose for the citizens, not because some hedge fund can’t squeeze another buck out of it.

Newspapers may never again be those titanic beasts that thundered over the earth, but the new dinosaurs, the ones that fly, still have a place in our communities. It’s up to the communities to decide the future, not only of their local newspaper, but of their own quality of life.

Al Zdon is a journalist who lives in Mounds View. Recent news coverage on this subject includes “New community papers filling void” (April 27). The Star Tribune Editorial Board weighed in with “What’s lost when newspapers die” (April 28).