Prepare yourself for the demise of your daily newspaper. It’s going the way of the typewriter.
No, not next week. This is not a breaking new story. Your local newspaper might hang on for years, and newspapers in some form are sure to survive in some form for decades.
Technology and the marketplace is doing to them what it did to the typewriter.
If you’re old enough, you remember the typewriter. It’s how most people formally put words on paper before personal computers and printers came along. The old technology has now become a collector’s item.
AP reporter Russell Contreras insisted this wasn’t all just a fad, but the reality was buried deeper in his story:
“It’s almost impossible to gauge recent typewriter sales. Almost all of the original manufacturers are out of business or have been bought out and become different companies. Moonachie, New Jersey-based Swintec appears to be one of the last typewriter makers, selling translucent electronic machines largely to jails and prisons.”
IBM is one of the companies that got out of the business of manufacturing typewriters. In 1975 its Selectric, electric typewriter accounted for about 75 percent of typewriter sales in the U.S., according to Reuters. Those typewriters cost about $5,000 in 2018 dollars.
The New York Times that year projected total sales of typewriters for the year at about 1 million.
Only 11 years later, “as personal computers and daisy-wheel printers began to dominate,” the Selectric brand was retired,” says an IBM history. The Selectric was replaced by the Wheelwriter, but it lasted less than a decade as typewriter sales suffocated beneath an avalanche of computers.
Computers were faster, neater and easier to use than typewriters. A typing error could be fixed with a quick backspace, delete and rewrite. Draft documents could be edited and rewritten as they were read without need for retyping a sheet of print smeared with handwritten editing changes.
Computers made it easier and more convenient for people to type what they wanted to type, and so typewriters died.
Faster, easier
The internet now makes it easier and more convenient for people to read what they want to read.
As a result, where went typewriters so too are headed newspapers, the PEW examination of the fast-changing world of news makes clear. The Pew study has so far mainly attracted attention because it found more Americans now get their news from social media than from newspapers.
Given that social media is hero to some and bogeyman to others, its rise was the obvious big news for most journalists.
“Social Media Top Newspapers as a News Source” the AARP, the organization representing the bastion of continuing newspaper readers, reported online. But therein might be the important part of this story that got the least attention.
Far fewer than half – 39 percent to be exact – of Americans age 65 or old still get their news from newspapers, according to Pew. That’s the AARP crowd, and they are the core demographic for news on-paper.
AARP, for those who don’t know, was found as the American Association of Retired Persons but now just goes by AARP. Most of today’s AARP-qualified Americans grew up reading newspapers and still cling to the tradition. Habits are hard to break, and yet they are breaking.
More important, however, are the habits not forming. Behind the old folks, the market for newspapers is fading fast, according to the Pew numbers. The people who would be the newspaper readers of tomorrow just aren’t there.
Chilling numbers
Among Americans 50 to 64, only 18 percent now get their news from newspapers. That falls to 8 percent among those age 30 to 49. And back in the 18 to 29 age group, the number drops to 2 percent.
Two percent.
Pew didn’t survey teens and pre-teens, but that group surely goes below 2 percent. And behind them, well, a lot of young children now grow up playing with an iPad or similar notebook.
They are part of a new Jetson generation of Americans. The iPad is their tradition. By the time they reach their teens in high school, newspapers could be something they first learn about in history class.
The market realities recorded in the Pew numbers cannot be ignored. Local daily newspapers as Americans have long known them are destined to die. It’s not a question of if; it’s a question of when.
What happens afterward is the big question.
A multi-media world
“The medium is the message” as the late philosopher Marshall McLuhan observed long ago, and the new, online medium is playing havoc with the world of news in all sorts of ways.
Love newspapers or hate them, they do, or did, have a history of adhering to certain factual standards. They do, or did, try to check information before publishing it.
They weren’t, and aren’t, perfect. The journalists who worked for them did, and still do, tend to lean left. They make plenty of mistakes, too, because in a business where dozens of decisions go into the construction of every story mistakes are inevitable.
But newspapers have long had rules. Reporters usually didn’t, and don’t, make things up, though that happens. See the sad case of Mike Ward at the Houston Chronicle.
The thing is, Ward lost his job.
The Chronicle investigated his creation of “sources.” It then retracted stories in which apparently non-existent people played critical roles. Newspaper reporters still risk their careers by making things up.
Failing to verify information is a different matter. The online demand for news now – right now – has altered the dynamic.
What were once rumors that needed to be checked, now sometimes make it quickly into the news online as an Anchorage fiasco with a moose calf reportedly being born in the parking lot of a Lowes hardware store made perfectly clear in 2016.
And forget about a journalist of today reading a press release from a government agency, observing “that can’t be right,” and holding the rewrite to confirm facts. That almost never happens anymore. If the information is in a handout from a government agency, it’s alright even if it’s wrong.
Then there’s social media.
Social media, by allowing anyone to become a reporter, is a great contribution to democracy.
Social media, by allowing anyone to become a propagandist (that’s the original name for what is now called “fake news”), is a threat to democracy.
Online nation
Twenty percent of the news Americans consume these days comes from social media, according to Pew. Another 33 percent come from various “news” websites, and there’s a great deal of quality variation among those.
If you read Google News, you know that you never know what you might get there. Letters to the editors of newspapers used to regularly pop up as “news” stories; the website seems to have gotten better (or worse) over the past year by increasingly linking to news reports from mainstream television and newspaper websites, which usually, at least, rewrite the government press releases correctly.
There is, however, no quality control.
Meanwhile, Americans overall still tend to get most of their news – 49 percent – from TV, which has historically been defined as superficial. On a national level, the cable versions of news have the time to go beyond sound-bite news, but largely spend their time arguing over politics.
Whether at Fox News right, MSNBC left, or CNN still trying to figure out where it is, there is a lot of time spent on the cable news shows arguing about who is right and who is wrong on issues that have no real right or wrong.
Bombastic President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has become a focal point for all of them. The news hounds seem able to argue over almost anything he Tweets.
How much of this is the fault of journalists and how much the fault of market demand is something that could surely inspire talking heads to spend hours yelling at each other.
Which came first? The news that created the demand (the chicken) or the demand that created the news (the egg)?
The age divide
Could this all be turning off the younger generation? Not only have younger Americans deserted newspapers, they’re turning away from TV news, too. Only 16 percent of those in the 18 to 29 age group report they now get news from television.
Social media is the news leader among the under-30 crowd at 36 percent. This says a lot about a significant change in news consumption on the verge of becoming a radical change as Americans age.
Thirty-six percent of the 30 to 49 age group report getting news from TV, but that’s topped by the 42 percent who get their news from news websites. TV doesn’t start to power its way onto the scene until those over age 50 – the people who grew up watching TV – enter the picture.
How these demographic trends are going to move through time will be interesting, but it’s unlikely the 36 percent of people now 30 to 49 years old who watch TV news is going to jump to 65 percent as they age into the 50 to 64 age group.
Likewise for those 18 to 29 years old who appear to have turned to their “friends” in social media for much of their news. Why?
It could be they don’t trust “the man.” Or it could be they’re only reading the news suggested by their “friends” as the news, like so much else in this country, goes increasingly tribal and fragments into niches: arts news, entertainment news, business news, political news, sports news with a long list of specialized niches within the niche, environmental news, climate news, celebrity news, science news, and more – much, much more.
The list is almost endless and so convoluted it’s becoming hard to even define what constitutes “news.” It’s everything, and it’s nothing. And the picture is only likely to get more confused going forward, especially on the local level.
Local newspapers and TV stations used to sort and catalogue important community events. As markets have shifted and revenues have declined, they are doing less and less of that, and the trend lines clearly point toward ever less until those news organizations fade away.
What exactly will emerge to take their place remains to be seen, but something will emerge. The human thirst for information and entertainment is limitless. It pulled us out of the cave and pushed us into space.
We want to know things. And, sadly, we don’t want to know things.
We have a bad tendency to confirmation bias. Many of us tend to collect friends who confirm those biases. As a species, we have a frightening history of whole tribes of people coalescing around shared biases.
Such biases are at the heart of our many wars. How the changing media landscape will affect those biases nobody knows, but we’re about to find out. We’re already finding out.
Categories: Commentary
Chris: you nailed it.
Yep. Kids are already asking: “What’s a newspaper Dad?”
NOTE TO MEDRED: If the comments here reflect your readership, you are totally screwed. white on white, all male and all with an ax in hand. I must be in Alaska?
Here’s an intro to another Alaskan writer that will interest absolutely no one here but I cant help myself:
https://onehotmessalaska.blogspot.com/
You are the one with axe grinding away. And a racist bigot to boot!
Monkeyfelon trying to pimp his blog that literally has no readers. Laughable. Me thinks he is jealous of Medred actually having readers.
How do you know Libby, monk?
monk: sadly presumptuous, don’t you think?
i read Ms. Bakalar’s blog with some regularity. sometimes i even find myself agreeing with her.
she also sometimes has ax in hand.
i’m not sure that was a good look for a state attorney. and – despite my youthful, Vietnam War era experiences – i don’t think swinging an ax is all that effective in changing opinions in a democracy, or creating a democracy. it’s better for cutting down trees.
on the other hand, i generally like the idea of an aggressive American woman to counter a bunch of aggressive American men, although i would refer to most of those who post her and Ms. Bakalar (most of the time) as “spirited,” not angry.
most of the best people i’ve known over the years are spirited.
“ax in hand” suggests a state of anger in which emotion trumps reason. i have generally found Ms. Bakalar’s arguments, even those with which i disagreed, as reasoned, as i have most of the arguments here, even those with which i disagree.
have there been exceptions on both fronts? yes.
but i forgive people sometimes losing their temper. it happens to all of us. it’s why you see people posting “f-you” comments, which as a strategy for changing anyone’s mind are simply a waste of seven keystrokes.
ADN is officially a Soros funded Globalist Commie Propaganda operation.
Good, I trust Pravda before the local rag.
Craig,
Good story.
I feel the larger picture today should include “Saving Journalists” as they seem to be dying at an alarming rate.
“Last year was the most dangerous year ever for journalists. Eighteen journalists were killed around the world in 2017, a record number were imprisoned and threats against the press seemingly have become common, even in the West.”
The Saudi incident at the embassy in Turkey really showed how sketchy it is to go against a “national narrative” these days.
Russian journalists are dropping like trees in a logging operation, yet no major news sources in U.S. (either print or online) seem willing to investigate these events?
Like who actually Killed U.S. journalist James Foley in Syria back in 2012?
Are the Russians now operating like a quasi “ISIS” force in the shadows?
“The three Russian journalists who were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) this week had arrived in the war-torn country to investigate the reported presence there of a shadowy Russian paramilitary force whose units are said to have fought in Ukraine and Syria.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rferl.org/amp/29405290.html
I can remember when plastic Times or Daily News boxes where at the end of everyone’s driveways in Anchorage. Now, it’s super rare to see them. That says a a lot about the demise of hard copy circulation. I stopped my subscription to ADN when their best, and only, real journalist left, a guy named Craig Medred. Wonder what happened to him? Will NEVER pay for a digital subscription to the current ADN. They do more harm to Alaska than good. The new Binkley crew had a golden opportunity to press the reset button and make a balanced and respectable media operation. But for whatever reason, that certainly did not happen.
James,
I agree and now that ADN has announced a switch to Propublica as their “news” source, you can bet that the Propaganda in all forms of “press releases” will be spoon fed to Alaskas by hungary corporations like The Ford Foundation & Carnegie Corporation and the rest of Propublica’s “Blue Chip” backers.
https://www.propublica.org/supporters/
Enjoy your posts, Craig, but I take exception to one of your statements here: “We want to know things,” you wrote. I think most people don’t care about knowing much of anything that doesn’t directly affect them. For example, what their city is or isn’t doing doesn’t bother them until for some reason the garbage isn’t picked up. An exception: People want to know about people. Check the pages in an issue of “People” magazine. They indicate the number of readers. I am one of those who DOES want to “know things,” though, so keep writing!
Best news I have heard yet. I am not even sure the 18-29 group even read the news. Well, other than what is posted on Snapchat, FB or what they are told is “real” news. We have the Master “news” manipulators and fabricators FB, CNN, MSDNC, and Google, etc.. to persuade group think of the ignorant masses. It is good thst at least half the elitist bums are going out of business.
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/12/13/rep-lamar-smith-google-will-have-dramatic-impact-on-elections/
Hi Bryan,
Funny that you used an online news ‘sources’ online article as your sourcing ‘document’ for your comment… Also it is one that is as dubious to some as the ‘Master’ news list that you cited is to you. I think that most people are smart enough to realize that all news is biased – you just look at the ones that you happen to agree with. Maybe try a little left, right and center sourcing for your info – I promise that it won’t hurt you to look at AP or Reuters once in a while. Your comment was good enough for a small laugh this morning for which I thank you!
Cheers!
Jack, point taken. But, I admit, I cannot take much of the leftist news. It is all nonstop Trump bashing (which is way old) 24/7. There is no news, just leftist commentary. Don Lemon, Mika the airhead, the Quomo Crime Syndicate, etc.. Just pathetic.
I do disagree with your assumption though – “I think that most people are smart enough to realize that all news is biased”. I think most people are as dumb as a bag of rocks. I mean, somebody voted in this Socialist idiot right – “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”? The list goes on. Cheers!
> I mean, somebody voted in this Socialist idiot right – “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”?
Idiot? She has more integrity, intelligence, and is more qualified to hold office than the current Dunderhead-in-Chief. I hope she runs someday…not soon, but someday.
Bryan,
How is “State Capitalism” any different from “Socialist State”?
We already live in a highly taxed and highly subsidized corporate culture.
From Wall Street to “Da Gehtto” government handouts are ramant throughout this country…especially to industries like oil & gas, transportation, medical, education, etc.
I think your left, right and center paradigm blocks the real understanding of the “divide and conquer” mentality at work today.
I just read a report that says their are more undocumented Asians (mostly Chinese) living in America than Mexican or Latinos, yet this gets no media coverage and no attention of ICE or POTUS?
What should we do, stand back and allow Trump to fire everyone in the government while he replaces them with family and friends?
Nepotism will not heal the divide, neither will the old paradigm of “Red and Blue”.
We need a true understanding of our fellow countrymen, not just what CNN or FOX construed for the nightly headlines.
Think for yourself…
What you are speaking of is just “payback,” Bryan. Remember, here that Trump won by less than a majority and yet he has governed as if he had some sort of “mandate,” that wasn’t there. He is now finding himself in much hot water over his “business” dealings and I believe the term “schadenfreude” is what’s occurring.
So……………………….don’t expect things to get any better on the Trump bashing. Just my opinion.
Come on Steve, should be pretty obvious the difference between Capitalism and State sponsored Socialism which the Democrats advocate.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/venezuela-verge-massive-humanitarian-economic-collapse-culprit-socialism-ncna899461
Bill, I don’t think our presidents are elected on popular vote are they? So, not sure what that has to do with anything. Also, the media amd DNC generate a bogus Russian story and run with it..The old addage is true, “tell a moron the same story long enough he’ll believe it”. Also, when will the Clinton Foundation corruption bashing start? Also, when will the prosecution in the deletion of Hillary’s 33,000 emails begin? How about the weekend cellphone smashing parties? Fast and Furious? $3 billion for Cash for Clunker? How about hundreds of billions in corrupt solar panel companies and contracts? Trump? Paaaaa’lease…… Once again GRIDLOCK is coming in January compliments of the anti-American Democrat Party.
Bryan, what the popular vote has to do with this situation is that Trump (while clearly elected) had no “mandate” from the election yet has governed as if he did.
He has been somewhat successful because GOP controlled both houses of Congress but that is coming to an end.
Again, get used to more Trump “bashing” and probably worse, should Mueller’s report show impeachable crimes.
Steve, you bring up points that I agree with, just on differing levels. Sou d familiar: “CUCUTA, Venezuela/Colombia border – As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of warning – and resentment – against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons.
“Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight,” Javier Vanegas, 28, a Venezuelan teacher of English now exiled in Ecuador, told Fox News. “The government security forces, at the beginning of this debacle, knew they had no real opposition to their force. Once things were this bad, it was a clear declaration of war against an unarmed population.”
Under the direction of then-President Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan National Assembly in 2012 enacted the “Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law,” with the explicit aim to “disarm all citizens.” The law took effect in 2013, with only minimal pushback from some pro-democracy opposition figures, banned the legal commercial sale of guns and munitions to all – except government entities.”
Bill, Trump’s Mandate:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/trumps-list-289-accomplishments-in-just-20-months-relentless-promise-keeping
> Trump’s Mandate
There’s too much there to refute, but I’ll just take this one:
“OK’d up to $12 billion in aid for farmers affected by unfair trade retaliation.”
Which just exemplifies Trump’s strategy for dealing with issues (e.g. trade). Create crisis. Then take credit for fixing crisis without dealing with the original issue. WIthout really even fixing the crisis. And I thought you were against socialism?
Wow Doug!!! Hope you are not of voting age. “Integrity and Intellgence” to describe Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Good Lord! You do know her whole campaign was built on lies right? You do know she says a lot of dumb stuff right? I mean rock stupid stuff. And you hope she runs some day? Just move to Sweden.
https://youtu.be/S3IQYNYD4zk
> says a lot of dumb stuff right? I mean rock stupid stuff.
Covfefe.
> “Integrity and Intellgence” to describe Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Both she and Trump studied economics. She graduated “cum laude” while Trump’s instructors have nothing complimentary to say about him. Granted, she has a lot to learn. Maybe by the time she’s 35 and old enough to run for the top job she’ll be ready. I’m not sure what in that video you consider stupid or without integrity.
Douglas Wilson – “Never let a good crisis go to waste” sound familiar? And it was Trump. Look it up.
> it was Trump. Look it up.
I’ll take your word for it. It sounds like the sort of rock stupid thing he’d say to take credit for fixing something that he caused in the first place while not really fixing it or dealing with the original issue.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217297782574725&set=a.1114553742191&type=3&theater
Sorry about that post. It showed a coffee cup with saying “Warning: Smocking Hot Covfefe”
Bryan: i know you love those reactionary rants, but six historic words of warning came to mind immediately when i read this one.
Six words? “Be careful what you wish for? I give up…what is it?