7/10/13 Chatterbox
Betty Kaiser
Last month, “The Oregonian,” our state’s longest
continuously published newspaper, announced it would change its focus from conventional
print to Internet news. Citing revenue losses of nearly 50%, financial advisors
decided that cutting the payroll (journalists, support personnel and printing
costs) and going online will somehow revive the business’ bottom line.
Since the disastrous downturn in the economy, this country has
lost many prominent community voices in my favorite print publications. According
to “Newspaper Death Watch,” 12 major metro dailies have closed their doors and
another 12 are W.I.P. (works in progress) i.e. reducing their frequency of
publication or adopting hybrid online/print or online only models—all since
2007.
The Oregonian’s new delivery configuration (announced by
Advance Publications, Inc. the paper’s parent company) is difficult to
understand. It seems that they will continue to print seven days a week.
However, home delivery to 170,000 subscribers will only be on Wednesday, Friday
and Sunday along with a so-called bonus delivery on Saturday. City newsstands (selling about 15,000
per day) will receive deliveries on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
I know this is going to make me sound like a Luddite (one
opposed to technological progress) but I hope this doesn’t work. I have seen
this happen in other media and publications. Those in power fire most of the
veteran journalists and replace them with inexperienced, lower wage employees. Quality,
all-around news coverage gives way to quick low-news briefs along with lots of
AP–type syndicated news.
I love a daily newspaper with extensive reporting and a
balance of local, national and global news: the obituaries, the comics, a
variety of columnists, sports and the classified ads. And yes, I do read
on-line news but mostly for the global perspective that I get from such
websites as www.reuters.com. It’s a great resource.
So I don’t understand this generation’s lack of reading
loyalty. Growing up in Los Angeles, I cut my news teeth on the L.A. Times. I
was so addicted to reading their great variety of news that when we moved to
Ventura in 1964, I subscribed to the Sunday Times by mail. (That quickly ended because
it took 10 days to arrive at our house!)
Whether local or syndicated, I like my news fresh,
interesting and trustworthy. A good newspaper can do that. In California
recently I read The Tribune, San Luis Obispo. It was exciting to see the Oregon
Women’s Track and Field team in color on the front page of the Sports section
and read about the NCAA finals in Eugene. A real treat for a visiting
Oregonian.
Another day, I read about vandalism in America’s National
Parks. “Trashing Treasures” described how in Saguaro National Park, Arizona,
park rangers were finding subway-style graffiti in the spiny forest. Recently,
45 of the park’s towering cactuses had been sprayed with black paint. That
could be a death knell to the 150-year-old plants if the paint covers the green
skin where they store chlorophyll to draw nourishment from the sun. I didn’t
know that.
There was also some military news harking back to the days
when I lived near Camarillo, Calif. and fighter pilots from Saudi Arabia were
being trained at a nearby airport. If it was strange then, imagine how we would
feel now. This news brief came from San Diego:
“Japanese
troops to train on California beaches…they will converge on California’s
southern coast…as part of a military exercise with U.S. troops aimed at
improving that country’s amphibious attack abilities.” The training was in
response to China’s growing military might. China protested the event.
Nevertheless, the drill with three Japanese warships: 1,000 service members and
four combat helicopters was going to proceed. Forces from New Zealand and
Canada were also taking part.”
Now, it’s true I might have been able to read the above on
the Internet but it wouldn’t have had the same impact on a screen as holding it in my hand does.
My favorite on-the-road column was in the “Paso Robles
Press” titled “It’s The Pitts” by Lee Pitts. It was a “can’t we all get along?”
piece. Pitts, the editor of “Livestock Market Digest,” has written books such
as “People who live at the end of Dirt Roads,” “Back Door People” and “These
Things I Wish.” Here’s a few excerpts addressed to bridge the gap between urban
and country folks:
“I’ll take the time to learn more about you if you’ll take a
minute to learn about me.”
“I’ll try and keep my cows off the highway if you won’t dump
your kittens off at the end of my road. We already have a cat.”
“I won’t ruin your neighborhood by moving a feedlot next
door to your condominium if you won’t move next door to my feedlot and ask me
to get out of town because I stink.”
“I will grant the power companies and telephone companies
easements so you can have electricity and make phone calls…but please close the
gates.”
“I will feed and water the wildlife for us all to enjoy but
please don’t cut down my fences. And hunters, don’t shoot my cows. (They are
the ones that look hungry.)”
I won’t throw my Lone Star bottles on your front lawn if you
won’t throw your Bud Light cans in my front pasture.”
“I will buy your Chevrolet if you will buy my beef. Let’s
all buy products “Made in America.”
I love his perspective. Columnists like Pitts make me laugh and think. So keep
buying newspapers, folks. We don’t want to wake up some morning and say, “Where
did my newspaper go?”
Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox is about people,
places, family, and other matters of the heart.
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