One man's opinion on how to save the world's newspapers

Newspapers are dying out in some cities.  Each day, it seems we learn of the demise of a paper edition of a well-known media source.  One fellow has ideas on why this is and how to stop the bleeding.

Bruce Price tells us there's too much rhetoric about the weak economy and the Internet that gets in the way of what the real reasons are for the death of many newspapers. 

Price believes newspapers shoot themselves and die because they have forgotten their core mission which is to tell the news truthfully and factually and to serve their communities, which is the essential reason why they exist.
Pushing a personal political view or agenda isn't the mission of newspapers, Price explains.  He points out the New York Times as one of these, but there are others as well.

"The haughty schools of journalism" are another reason Price maintains newspapers are now in trouble.  He thinks what he refers to as "J-schools" are telling young journalists "their job is to save the world and transform the country--who cares if they lie a little. Great. So they show up in your town, and preach and spin. It’s almost as if journalists think the public exists to read their paper, rather than that journalists exist to create a paper worth reading!"


There's another culprit also, according to Price, which are the public schools that have diminished literacy in the country.  He goes on to say educators are too cozy with liberals, his particular issue; but he does point to the level of functional illiteracy which means people don't read, newspapers or much of anything.

"The plight of newspapers is a fascinating mess," Price continues. "Business, psychology, marketing, carelessness, reckless ideology -- all intersect in this tragedy. I say it’s a tragedy because I believe the country absolutely needs newspapers. They encourage literacy, spread information, and bind a community together."

Price has a program, some ideas for a cure which he lists as follows:

"First, newspapers must reject propaganda, politics, and preaching. They must get back in the truth business. All the facts, and nothing but the facts. Finding people who can tell the truth unadorned will be a tremendous step forward. With luck we might get back to the good old days when the New York Times tried to live by its then-motto: “to give the news impartially, without fear or favor.”

Second, newspapers must think of their communities as friends and family. You don’t lecture friends and family. You try to help them. You try to be a good neighbor and a loyal partner. What I’ve seen the past year is that newspapers almost seem to enjoy reporting grim news. This is exactly the wrong attitude. Newspapers should be trying to comfort readers, to explain things in a professional but friendly manner, to raise morale, and restore the country to prosperity.

Third, newspapers have to get into the work that public schools have abandoned--education. Every component of the paper should be examined for its educational possibilities. The goal is to teach what the schools used to teach: the basic knowledge that people must have to read a paper intelligently. Plus, literacy must be promoted in every way possible. Basically, newspapers have to get busy creating a customer base for newspapers!"

Price has his ideas on the nature of newspapers and the cause of their demise and a website that discusses his issues.

Certainly the mission of news is important to many , and some ideas here might provoke some to change as in some ways they correspond with what Thomas Jefferson said was the mission of newspapers:  to educate, inform and hold power to account.