Newspapers Are Struggling

An award-winning syndicated columnist told a group of journalists Saturday night that times are bleak even at his large newspaper.

“I don’t know what things are like in your newsroom,” said Leonard Pitts Jr. “Things seem rather bleak in Miami Herald land.”

He talked about the effects of downsizing and cost-cutting on the morale of those who work in newsrooms.

“Now, some of us wonder why we’re here and how much longer we will be,” he said.

Pitts, whose opinion column appears in The Spokesman-Review, was the featured speaker at the awards banquet for the Inland Northwest Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Newspaper editors are tinkering with ways to remain appealing to a public that has more immediate and flashier options, such as television news and tabloid shows, he said.

Pitts questioned some of the options editors are exploring, such as going on line, starting teen sections and adopting public journalism, in which coverage is more aggressively tailored to satisfy the desires of readers.

“At some level, it all seems like heresy to me,” he said.

Pitts said some of his frustration stems from the fact that he’s always considered reading a newspaper as necessary and useful.

But he added that things have changed for today’s public.

“Every night when we go to press we’re making the case for our continued existence,” Pitts said.

To continue appealing to the public, print journalists should remember to tell stories through people.

, DataTimes