Future-of-newspapers

The Future of Newspapers

Notes on a presentation Feb. 23, 2009 at the Fred Smith Forum of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, Mo. organized by the Missouri Press Association. Presenters are Doug Crews and Vicki Russell.

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Doug Crews, Missouri Press Association director, opens by reading an op-ed piece from a small Missouri newspaper about the financial challenge faced by U.S. newspapers -- written in June of 1980. "We didn't have the Internet in June of 1980 . . . but we've sort of been going through highs and lows in the newspaper industry."

Now Vicki Russell, associate publisher of the Columbia Daily Tribune, leads the discussion. She says "if we keep reporting that newspapers are dying, then that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But there is no reason for that to happen."

She says many newspapers are doing just fine. So what are the distinctions betwen those doing well and those not doing well. They include, she says:

• Market size
• Corporate debt
• Economy
• Internet
• Readership