News outlets need to work together to be meaningful in people’s lives again

Newspapers have more problems than declining subscriber numbers, diminishing ad revenue and deteriorating finances.

Papers are losing the public, or rather the public is cutting newspapers out of their lives, and that is looking like a fatal disease for the news business — and equally unhealthy for communities.

The cure, if there is one, is in clinical research trials at every news operation in the state — though thankfully not under the purview of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy.

Newspapers are serving a shrinking slice of the public, and the readers tend to be older and remember when you would wrap fish with the newspaper after you were done reading it. Most people don’t pick up or click on a newspaper, don’t think about newspapers and are happy in life with whatever news flows from their smartphone.

They have their own priorities, and interests and stresses in life, and it’s not the news, or at least not the news as it was. It’s up to editors and publishers to figure out what people want to know and how to best deliver it to readers. We’re trying, and we don’t have much time.

We need to address readers who have more important concerns in their world than remembering what day of the week the newspaper publishes. We need to report on people’s lives and explain why it matters.

And we particularly need to understand that many people don’t see any distinction between news, editorials or opinion columns — it’s all the same on their phone.

That’s part of the problem: Much of the public sees news as one big conglomeration, without any distinction between opinion and facts, more entertainment than information. The lines are not blurred, they have been obliterated, particularly in blogs and websites that masquerade as news.

Facebook and X are more powerful than any printing press ever was. Their reach is wider and they are free. Just as free shipping for online orders has destroyed much of local retail shopping, free “news” delivered to millions of phones has helped speed up the end of many community newspapers.

People have cut the cords on newspapers and plugged into cordless social media.

The answer at many newspapers has been to reduce staff, cut the number of pages, work harder — and hope the tooth fairy leaves money under their pillow. Putting out a diminished product is no way to win the hearts and minds — and wallets — of readers and advertisers.

And without enough paid subscribers, without advertisers, without public support, newsrooms across the country — particularly in Alaska where the operating costs are higher and the potential readership smaller — are going the way of seaworthy state ferries, which is to say they are rusting away.

I admit to believing in my own tooth fairy business plan. I purchased the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper in January 2021 and figured if I hired more staff, worked harder, increased the number of pages for news, the business would stabilize. It has not worked out that way. I am subsidizing the newspaper and looking for answers. My clinical trial of producing a better product has not reversed the disease.

Collectively, newspapers and news websites are looking for a cure. The medicines under review include online only, offering readers more diverse topics, making the news easier to read on a phone or tablet, and providing free email alerts.

We need to work together to find a way to make news part of people’s lives again. Yes, it would help owners pay the bills, but more importantly it would help bring communities back together with shared interests and public policies based on facts, not divisive clicks.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work. He lives in Anchorage; comes to Juneau for legislative sessions; and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.