COMM 150: Economics of newspapering - a hard lesson in today's news

At the end of class today (Monday), I asked you to think about this question: How can a newspaper, or other news organization, balance its role as a "fourth branch of government" with its need to make a profit and stay in business? It's a difficult question, and there aren't any clear-cut answers. Especially when newspapers are losing circulation, as they are today.

Here's something in today's news that shows how difficult the question can be. And how timely it is. Lee Enterprises, the chain that owns The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Southern Illinoisan and the Bloomington Pantagraph (along with dailies in Decatur, Charleston, Mattoon and Davenport, Iowa), laid off one of its Illinois Statehouse reporters. By the way, Lee is the chain that John Vivian discusses at the beginning of the chapter on newspapers in our textbook (pages 77-78 in the ninth edition).

"Mike [Riopell] was a hard-working Statehouse reporter who really knew his stuff," said Rich Miller, who publishes Capitol Fax, a state government news blog. "His ejection will create yet another gaping hole in the press room."

Miller's post isn't happy reading, but we'd better read it. The comments, too. The blog's readers are mostly political insiders, and they're opinionated. But they generally know what they're talking about. [For example: They know Steve Brown is State House Speaker Michael Madigan's press secretary, so they don't bother to spell it out. I just skim over references I don't understand, or don't agree with. But I always read the comments.] Reading something like this tells you what's happening now in a way than no textbook can ever do.

As newspapers cut back on editorial staff, it has implications for how well they can report on government. Niche publications like the Capitol Fax blog take up some of the slack. (Check out the guy from Southern Illinois University who says, "Without this blog, I would be totally in the dark about what is going on in the Illinois capitol. Coverage in Carbondale is absent. The [Southern Illinoisan] may go weeks without a state issue article.") But it's troubling.