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

"I will expect more newspapers to be filing for bankruptcy before we work our way through this economic crisis," she says. But one positive outcome may be the potential for more and more local ownership [Russell's paper is family owned]. "I will make a prediction that there will be newspapers started up to replace some of the ones that are going out of business."