Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
in ,

Richmond Times-Dispatch building

A story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch sums up the state of media coverage in the state’s capital city.  The city of Richmond is considering entering into an agreement to move the city’s Department of Social Services into the Richmond Times-Dispatch building. The agency will occupy three floors of the four-story building. The newspaper staff will occupy the other floor. A newspaper operation that needed four floors at one time to house its staff now needs only one floor. The newspaper does not even own the building that has its name on the front. It was sold to a private investor four years ago.

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24 responses to “The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper”

  1. Chip Gibson Avatar
    Chip Gibson

    That is a shame, Sir. Sign of the times.

  2. Chip Gibson Avatar
    Chip Gibson

    Douglas S. Freeman would have been heartbroken had he lived to witness the sunset and merger of the News Leader and the present fading of the Times-Dispatch.

  3. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    The last time I bought a copy of the RTD in print was in the late twentieth century.

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    “ A newspaper operation that needed four floors at one time to house its staff now needs only one floor. ”

    To be fair, at its peak, that top floor would have been executive offices. Maybe even the top two.

    1. John Harvie Avatar
      John Harvie

      More like to be snide???

      You obviously never had a facility tour back in the day.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        No, but I did tour the “rum factory” on Grenada back in the day. It was nearly self-sufficient using pellets made from the cane scraps to run the steam engine.

  5. Teddy007 Avatar
    Teddy007

    There is no funding stream to keep a local newspaper profitable and functioning. Get over it.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Actually, in Virginia, Lee Enterprises, that owns RTD and maybe 10-15 other papers , each trying to charge $15 a month or so , COULD offer a bundle price for all the papers it owns in Va – for those who like to keep up with Virginia across the state. Lee actually shares individual articles between the papers sometimes.

      Really annoying to get VPAP “news” and then hit a pay-wall.

      The really perverse thing is that people don’t want to pay for local news but they are more than willing to suck up whatever misinformation and fake stuff that dribbles out of social media and certain other places for “free”.

      I personally pay several hundred dollars a year just for “local” news these days.

      1. Teddy007 Avatar
        Teddy007

        Once the price level for news was zero, the survival of reporting was over. Even local news sites that have a good reputation such as ARLnow do little to cover government and mix in blatant advertising disguised as news articles and mainly focus on real estate since they advertising is still local.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          How do local people do local elections these days? Word of mouth?

          1. Teddy007 Avatar
            Teddy007

            If I had to depend upon the media to report on my state delegate or county supervisor elections, I would see nothing on it. Local news abandon local elections long ago.

          2. Marty Chapman Avatar
            Marty Chapman

            Sad but true.

          3. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            so how do you find out about the candidates?

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      When the populace does not know the difference between the NYT coverage of Trump’s trial and the NE Batboy series then it doesn’t matter anymore.

    3. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      When the populace does not know the difference between the NYT coverage of Trump’s trial and the NE Batboy series then it doesn’t matter anymore.

      1. Teddy007 Avatar
        Teddy007

        Insults does not explain how any news providing organization funds itself. At least local TV news can response to a local emergency and report local weather. The only funding stream that seems to work is finding a rich patron to absorb the loses but then the news outlet has to cater to the patron’s desires.

      2. Lefty665 Avatar
        Lefty665

        I miss Bat Boy. He was a reason to buy the Weekly World News at the grocery store check out counter. Tragically his creator was a victim of the Anthrax mailings following 911. Dunno why Cheney didn’t like him.

        OTOH, I cheerfully helped a guy load a News Loser vending machine on a truck when it ceased publishing. When I moved to Richmond in the late ’60s it was still editorially mourning the loss of massive resistance.

  6. Rafaelo Avatar
    Rafaelo

    Screens killed print.

    Craigslist killed classified ads, newspapers’ bread-and -butter.
    TV and worse, social media displaced their news function.

    So without any way to make money, especially since there are news alternative that are free — I wonder what Ben Franklin would say about this?

    He might well point out that the newspapers did not cause the American Revolution. He made a lot of money printing one-sided polemics. The seminal pamphlet C0mmon Sense was more like today’s ideological blog, than an objective newspaper article.

    Can our form of democracy survive the loss of newspapers?

    Sadly — in my view, since TV does not offer in-depth reporting, and social media lacks professional standards, so those who only look at screens are getting dumbed down — still, the answer might well be: yes, it can.

    It already has.

  7. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    This seems like the future (yes, you can watch without signing up for tik-tok):
    https://www.tiktok.com/@lisaremillard/video/7358641693111012654

    Lisa Remillard has a journalism degree from USC along with a masters degree from the same school.

    She is a former TV news reporter and anchorperson.

    Here is her LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-remillard/

    TikTok creators can earn between 2–4 cents per 1,000 views, which translates to $20–$40 for every million views. However, some top creators say that TikTok pays contributors between $0.50–$1 per 1,000 views, which would mean creators could earn $500–$1,000 per million views. A viral video with 10 million views could get $200–$400 from the creator fund.

    Beyond Tik-Tok, Lisa operates a streaming, internet-based TV channel – https://www.beond.tv/

    While I have no idea how much money Ms. Remillard makes with her media ventures, she doesn’t seem very interested in going back to broadcast TV.

    In summary, when it comes to news, brand is dead.

    The good news is that the cost of getting “on air” is negligible.

    If Jim Bacon wanted to create Bacon.TV, it would cost very little to get started.

    The world has changed and I don’t see a return to old-school, smoke filled news rooms with crotchety reporters being harangued by crusty editors.

  8. Marty Chapman Avatar
    Marty Chapman

    I subscribed to the TD for over 24 years daily and Sunday. I finally had enough of AP stories, 2nd hand WP stories, and MPW opinion pieces, along with misspelling, bad grammar, and obvious factual errors. It is sad. One of my great pleasures was spending Sunday morning with a pot of coffee, a cigar, and the newspaper.

  9. Paul Sweet Avatar
    Paul Sweet

    I subscribed to the Times Distress until they decided that the public had a right to know my annual salary because I was a state employee. Now that I have retired and moved to Bedford I get the local paper every week to help keep it going. I get most of my news from Newsmax, Vanews, Virginia Mercury, & Cardinal News. I get the Roanoke or Lynchburg paper on Sunday, but I’m not sure it’s worth $4 per week for a crossword and Jumbles, since I’ve already seen most of the other news on-line.

    I like Larry’s idea about a bundle price for Lee’s papers to keep up with what’s going on in other communities, since their websites seem to have mostly the same articles, few of them local, highlighted.

    1. Marty Chapman Avatar
      Marty Chapman

      Actually the salaries of most public employees is a public record by law. I worked for the state for 27 years BTW.

  10. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    interesting article:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3db017b30e61f692226030a4a5538cc8b7d1149e05ffcf3fe12fd4fcb77e16b8.png

    https://fredericksburg.com/dont-let-google-censor-news-damage-democracy/article_f2fdf80e-b0ce-5f90-80c0-901a9189a62c.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

    1. Ronnie Chappell Avatar
      Ronnie Chappell

      The problem is that publishers want it both ways. On the one hand, they want and need the clicks and revenue that comes from readers referred to a news site by Google. On the other hand, they want Google to pay for referring readers to their sites. Then they accuse Google of strong arm tactics when they stop doing the first. Their problem isn’t Google. It’s that people won’t pay for something that’s free from several other sources. For example, a local television station.

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