Voice For Liberty

Newspaper journalism in Wichita: we need it

Bob Weeks

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Printing presses at the Wichita Eagle

It’s almost impossible to overstate the dire economic condition in which newspapers find themselves. Falling circulation, reduced advertising, and a generational shift add up to bad news for this unique and important industry.

In his book Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk, former Wichita Eagle editor Davis Merritt describes the difference between newspaper journalism and everything else we call news:

  • Its content is not shaped by a limiting technology, such as broadcast with its time strictures and, in television and online, bias toward the visual and against permanence.
  • Its usefulness is based far more on completeness and clarity than immediacy.
  • Its claim on credibility is based on its length and depth, which allow readers to judge the facts behind a story’s headline and opening summary paragraph and then look for internal contradictions.
  • It has intrinsic value and relevance to people rather than merely amusing or entertaining them.
  • Opinions and analysis are labeled as such and are presented separately.

In Wichita we have recent examples of how newspaper journalism has influenced events. Recently the Wichita Eagle uncovered problems in the past of a person the City of Wichita was about to partner with on a real estate development. (See Wichita’s Faulty Due Diligence and Sharon Fearey Doesn’t Appreciate the Wichita Eagle for coverage.) Without the work of Wichita Eagle reporters, the deal would have happened. No other news outlet in Wichita had the resources or wherewithal to do the investigation necessary to report the story.

It appears that we don’t quite know how to support newspaper journalism in the age of the Internet. Let’s hope soon that someone develops a business model that lets journalism thrive in the future.

Additional resources:

News You Can Lose (The New Yorker)
Do Newspapers Have a Future? (Michael Kinsley, Time Magazine)
Who killed the newspaper? (Economist.com)
The Newspaper of the Future (The New York Times, from 2005 featuring the Lawrence Journal-World)
The Elite Newspaper of the Future (American Journalism Review. “A smaller, less frequently published version packed with analysis and investigative reporting and aimed at well-educated news junkies that may well be a smart survival strategy for the beleaguered old print product.)

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4 responses to “Newspaper journalism in Wichita: we need it”

  1. John DeCesaro

    This is a tough situation. As someone who now splits time reading Kansas.com and the print edition of the Eagle, I wonder if I have a role to play in keeping newspaper journalism alive. Should I continue to plunk down coin for the print edition until a viable digital revenue model is devised?

    My heart goes out to the journalists, who are now tasked with creating content for different mediums. With staffing cuts, there are fewer reporters to accomplish an ever increasing amount of work.

  2. Bob Weeks

    You’re right. Some reporters I’ve talked to are stretched pretty thin.

    I think if you pay for a print subscription and also read kansas.com, you’re doing about all you can to support the newspaper. Except for the e-eagle. Have you seen it? It’s available here:

    http://e-eagle.kansas.com/

  3. Cybex

    The Wichita Eagle has just increased their subscription prices almost 6% without letting their customers know. They should be paying us to read the print since there is so little news and much agenda setting from their editorial board members. The erosion of journalism is not placing democracy at risk, but rather liberalism and agenda setting.

  4. Bob Weeks

    I received a letter from the Eagle announcing the increase in subscription price. But you’re right — it’s a good thing the newspaper isn’t sold by the pound, as some days there just isn’t much content. If you don’t retrieve your copy from your driveway quickly, it might blow away.

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