Unless some benefactor pops out of the woodwork, Pittsburgh will wake up on May 4 without its 240-year-old newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
This is not an odd or strange development a quarter way into this century. Many cities have no major newspaper at all.
The “free” content of the internet and its algorithmic tailoring to folks’ biases have put newspapers on the same course horse-drawn carriages found themselves on in the early years of the previous century.
A craftsman making carriage wheels either changed or went under. Most went under. Because even during sea changes movements, the tendency is for those in the outgoing economy to see it too late, to try to adapt after the need’s been met by others.
Anyone in the newspaper industry will tell you today they all should have rejected providing free content, but by the time they tried teasing a few sentences and then putting a paywall between the reader and the rest of the story, the readers were indignant at the intrusion in the free content they’d become used to.
This caused revenues to drop precipitously, making for an ever-shrinking financial pie. As downsizing brought layoffs, the Post-Gazette owners imposed changes in the health care plan that the Newspaper Guild found onerous, and a number of guild members responded by going on strike.
Ultimately it might be a judge’s autumn ruling that the paper bring back and pay their workers that proved the straw that broke the camel’s back and led to the decision to end the paper’s run.
In truth, it was coming either way. Lifelong subscribers reported papers showing up less often than not arriving, even as the paper went to fewer and fewer publishing days.
Another issue, one directly tied to the psychological effect of internet algorithms, is that nearly all papers cut their potential readership in half, either with their own biases or the biases of news agencies they use like Reuters, Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.
Sometimes the bias is overt, more often subtle… but it aggravates folks who had the experience of enjoying less ham-handed coverage during the late 20th century. (Newspapers were caustically biased in the first century of America’s existence as a nation.)
It aggravates me that I see national news service articles under banner headlines that my paper’s great top players — Sonja Reis and Frank Garland — would never let go to print.
If you’ve not noticed, here’s one easy and ample example, often in both the Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: a public figure or politician makes a statement, and if the news service prefers that person or their usual stance the headline reads “Smith Lays Out Plan To Address Homeless Issue.”
If the news service doesn’t care for the person, the headline reads “Smith Claims He Can Fix Homeless Issue.”
Both say the same thing, but one sounds viable — terms like “lays out plan” and “address” sound like sure-handed leadership — while the other sows doubt, questioning without questioning the veracity of what was said, suggesting this “claim” be viewed with skepticism.
Over time, readers offended by such leave, and being that we’re a nation so divided today, that means a significant percentage can, and do, walk away.
I’m blessed to work for the West Hills Gazette, where Reis — a former Post-Gazette writer herself – and Garland both love journalism and have newspapering in their blood.
If this weren’t a passion for them, a true labor of love, this paper wouldn’t exist.
With the perfect storm of paper-killing headwinds, if you enjoy the West Hills Gazette, you ought to consider subscribing and advertising. Revenue is the main thing that can keep a paper from going the way of the pay telephone booth.
The Rev. James Hogan is a native of Stowe Township and serves as pastor of Faithbridge Community Church. His views do not necessarily represent those of the West Hills Gazette.
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