Journalists' departure leaves cities without eyes
A new wave of layoffs is hitting the U.S. domestic press, but the loss goes beyond jobs to the decline of the eyes that watch governments and communities from within.
Afrasianet - U.S. local journalism is entering a tougher phase as new rounds of layoffs have become a sign of a crisis that goes beyond job losses to the ability of cities themselves to know what's going on inside their local councils, schools and government institutions.
In the latest wave, more than 90 journalists and media workers lost their jobs at 17 McClatchy chain news organizations, in one of the biggest cuts the group has seen in recent years.
The scene does not appear to be just a temporary cut in expenses, as the cuts came in newsrooms that were already suffering from a reduction in staff.
At the Miami Herald, the cuts included 32 jobs, while the newsroom of the Spanish-language sister newspaper came close to disappearing, while other institutions lost journalists covering government, education, investigations and sports.
Most significantly, the loss is not measured by the number of offices that have closed or the journalists who have left, but by the spaces that will remain uncovered.
In some areas, there was no longer a journalist who specialized in following the city council, the county government or schools, while in others entire investigative teams that followed up on files that would not normally receive national media attention disappeared.
This is where the fundamental paradox of the local press crisis emerges: an institution that loses one journalist not only loses an employee, but also someone who knows the details of the city, the names of officials, the trajectories of decisions, and files that need to be followed up on a long time. As these losses accumulate, the shortage of cadres turns into a vacuum of local knowledge.
In Charlotte, for example, the cuts included eight journalists, including investigative journalists, in a city with a rapidly growing population that needs to keep track of transportation, education and public safety.
"Local journalism seems to be facing an existential test: either it will find a new model that will make journalism viable, or it will expand the map of the regions where the population lives amid an enormous abundance of public information"
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The downsizing of the newsroom has raised fears that oversight of local institutions will wane at a time when the needs of the population are expanding.
In Sacramento, the crisis took on a more pronounced form when the entire sports team disappeared from the paper, meaning that coverage of the city's teams, college and school sports went from having a specialized team to a full-fledged vacuum. Among the names who lost their jobs were journalists who had spent decades covering local sports.
In some smaller areas, the impact is even more acute, as media alternatives are already limited. Details of the cuts showed that some newsrooms are now operating with very limited journalists, putting coverage of local government, education, the environment, development, and social files in direct competition for time and resources.
Corporate owners place some responsibility on the economics of the press itself, on declining readership and advertising revenues and changing news consumption habits. In McClatchy's case, management said consumer revenue fell 41 percent during a period when the company maintained its level of investment in local news, reflecting the growing gap between the cost of producing journalism and the return that organizations can make from it.
But the crisis doesn't stop at the subscription and advertising model. Journalism organizations face competition from digital platforms, search engines, and artificial intelligence tools that are changing the way audiences access news, while a portion of the audience is declining to pay for local content.
The result is that the newspaper is required to produce more content in an environment where it is harder than ever to fund journalism.
Recent developments also reveal an important shift in the nature of work within newsrooms. As the number of journalists shrinks, the priority is given to news that can be produced quickly and reach the largest number of readers, while local investigations and stories that require weeks of follow-up require time and resources that may not be available.
Therefore, the most serious thing in the crisis may not appear on the day of the dismissal itself, but months later, when files that have not been followed up accumulate. A case in a local council, or violations in a school, a construction project, or public funds may pass without the scrutiny provided by a local newsroom that knows the area and constantly monitors its details.
The phenomenon is not unique to McClatchy. Other U.S. media organizations have seen cutbacks and restructurings this year, while older local newspapers are at risk of shutting down.
A recent example is the Blade newspaper in Toledo, whose owners have announced that they may stop publishing both paper and digital versions by the end of the year if they do not find a buyer.
A recent national study of local journalism suggests that more than 209 million Americans live in communities that are severely underrepresented or nearly disappearing, making the crisis more like an information infrastructure problem than a media sector crisis.
On the other hand, attempts to look for a different model are emerging, from nonprofits to local initiatives and public support for the press.
In California, lawmakers are debating mechanisms to support the employment of journalists in local institutions, in an effort to stem the bleeding and maintain coverage in areas with severe shortages of journalists.
The dilemma facing the American press today is no longer just this: how many newspapers will remain, but how many cities will still be able to monitor themselves?
Between a rapidly changing economy, technology reshaping the news industry and declining traditional revenues, local journalism is facing an existential test: either it finds a new model that makes journalism viable, or it expands the map of areas where residents live amid an enormous abundance of public information, but lack someone to tell them what is happening on the other street.
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