Several major metro daily newspapers have announced changes of ownership in the past week, reviving the idea that the days of print journalism will soon be over.
It's true that the industry is changing, but the sales announcements that make the biggest splashes are in major metro dailies. Smaller, suburban hometown dailies have a brighter future, thank you very much. Just ask Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway investment firm has bought several.
The most recent sales wave was made when the Washington Post Co. said it was selling its flagship newspaper to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Less of a surprise was the news that the New York Times Co. was selling the Boston Globe. The Times said it would sell the paper to John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
This is not to say that either paper is likely to disappear into the annals of history, leaving barracuda reporters out of work. It does mean a corporate refocusing of missions. Corporations, after all, have a duty to make money for its shareholders.
The Washington Post Co., owned by the Graham family, will likely change its name as it concentrates on its profitable education and other divisions, especially Kaplan, the tutoring firm. Bezos, known for his long-term outlook, may well let the Post emphasize what it does best -- gather, prepare and deliver the news to a large and solid customer base, providing a home for hard-charging investigative reporters, otherwise known as barracudas.
Boston, with its many sports fans, academics and culture corners, is returning to local ownership in the person of Red Sox owner Henry.
Here's a question bothering many observers: Will Bezos and Henry use their newly acquired media monsters to assail readers with their own political beliefs and agendas?
Answer from this corner: Hardly. Those days ended with the era of William Randolph Hearst, with his front-page editorials attacking those who disagreed with his views. The Graham family didn't do it at the Washington Post, and neither did the Sulzberger family at the New York Times. Whether Rupert Murdoch will succeed in doing it at the Wall Street Journal is an open question.
There is as yet no solid evidence that he's trying. The WSJ has long been known for its pro-business opinions on the editorial page, but Page One and its news columns have been straightforward.
Newsroom staff and editorial (opinion) page staff may talk to each other, but one should never influence the other. As for the advertising department, the separation from the news operations should be like church and state -- keep them apart.
At one time, it was possible to identify a newspaper's political leanings by its name alone. Today, a general interest newspaper avoids politicizing its news coverage and focuses on neutrality, much like sports referees and umpires who are charged with enforcing the rules. That's what reporters and editors do: Enforce the rules by exposing wrongdoing and embarrassing government officials into changing their ways. Realistically, that's the only weapon journalists have -- embarrassment. They can't arrest and prosecute wrongdoers, but they can alert law enforcement officials to corruption and crime, who then take up the cause.
Today, reporters and editors are more dedicated to their journalistic mission than ever, and less inclined to follow the dictates of the publisher-owners. At least, that's the hope here.
A single newspaper may be the only game in town for those with a journalistic talent for investigating, reporting and writing. But there are many towns.
Time was, talent gravitated to major cities. But as suburbs expanded, they became fertile ground for local papers, which grew in size and profitability as highways made access easy. Newsday, for example, was founded at the end of World War II, when Long Island was still largely farmland. In New Jersey, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike became, in effect, housing subsidies, enabling many to move out of New York City, yet retain their jobs. But they still wanted to know what the local government was doing with their tax money, and that's where local daily newspapers stepped in, all the while providing space for local advertisers.
There's no denying that technological devices have changed the news industry, with more changes to come. That said, there will still be a market for major newspapers that have the talent and resources to do things that smaller dailies cannot, even as they continue to fill a local mission.
After all, who in Des Moines cares about issues in Philadelphia?
Reason enough for local editors to give readers the local news they need, want and deserve, and tenacious reporters are the ones who uncover it.
Barracudas rock!
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