By Paul Iiams
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday Feb. 28, 2002
By Leonard Downie, Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser
The idea of making personnel cuts just to see an immediate profit boost may work in some industries, but not in journalism.
"The News about the News: American Journalism in Peril" should be on the desk of every newspaper editor not affiliated with a syndication. It will hopefully open, and keep open, their eyes as to what has happened to newspapers prioritizing profit over news.
This new book should also be required reading for students interested in a career in journalism. The idealism involved in becoming a journalist may end up squashed or damaged, but a new, realistic view of their chosen profession may give them a head start when entering the field.
The authors say the days of hard-hitting, original journalism might be a thing of the past.
Taking its place is a color-by-number, soft version of the news that gives the public neither substance nor originality, they write.
Authors Downie and Kaiser, who have written and edited the Washington Post since the 1960s, have thoroughly investigated the ongoing battle of journalism vs. business - a battle most journalists believe business is winning.
The authors interviewed many newspaper editors and former editors and attempted to interview publishers to show the reader a balanced, accurate portrait of the newspaper business.
Working for The Washington Post, the authors could have portrayed themselves as what is right with newspapers. The fact they admonished the Post when it sat on a particular story lent a tremendous air of credibility to the rest of their research.
As the authors examined the changing face of journalism, they uncovered what can be considered a major reason why newspapers across the nation are declining in readership: homogenization.
For example, one major news organization instructs its individual newspapers to focus on local interest topics. With the focus no longer on the entire purchasing area, the people who are no longer covered simply stop reading.
Editors are continually evaluated by the corporation and paid according to the papers' revenue. They end up doubling as business managers in order to maximize profits.
These practices have led to a large number of newspapers downsizing their staffs in order to make profit quotas. Many long-time reporters and editors have either quit or have been fired for standing up for their journalistic integrity, the authors contend.
The more sensational aspect of news - the stuff that grabs the viewers' attention and allows the station to sell more advertising time - is the focus of televised news, especially the localized versions.
The authors show national broadcast news to be not much better off. Gone are the in-depth stories covering the world's affairs. The national news has stepped away from those stories, and focused on what it believes the viewer wants to see - health-related issues and personality profiles. The economics of television dictate the content of its news programs.
One medium the authors see a glimmer of hope in is the Internet. They view it as a way to not only attract new readers or viewers, but as an efficient way to report stories that otherwise could not have been reported.
This book depicts the harsh realities of the world of journalism. The authors show the reader the "slash and burn" style of business they say is slowly killing the industry.
"If you build it, they will come," the famous line from the movie "Field of Dreams," can be applied to journalism. If someone builds a quality product, one in which advertising space does not determine the amount of actual news put out, then eventually the market will balance itself out and they will make the greatly desired profit.
