What Will You Miss When Newspapers Disappear?

A couple of weeks ago we talked about Americans’ rising reliance on the web rather than print or TV for their news – which has led many to ponder the logical, if prematurely sentimental question: “What will you miss about newspapers when they disappear?” But while some have already begun eulogizing over the loss of an institution, Seth Godin poses a considered response – what are we really losing and what are we really going to miss?

Godin argues that some sections he doesn’t see disappearing at all – like sports, weather, op-eds, comics, and restaurant and movie reviews – pieces that are all readily available on the web now. And page-long advertisements as well as “woodpulp, printing presses, typesetting machines, delivery trucks, those stands on the street and the newsstand” – Godin contends we’ll probably be fine without. So what’s left? What will we be missing? Godin says:

What’s left is local news, investigative journalism and intelligent coverage of national news. Perhaps 2% of the cost of a typical paper. I worry about the quality of a democracy when the the state government or the local government can do what it wants without intelligent coverage. I worry about the abuse of power when the only thing a corrupt official needs to worry about is the TV news. I worry about the quality of legislation when there isn’t a passionate, unbiased reporter there to explain it to us.

But then I see the in depth stories about the gowns to be worn to the inauguration or the selection of the White House dog and I wonder if newspapers are the most efficient way to do this anyway.

…If we really care about the investigation and the analysis, we’ll pay for it one way or another. Maybe it’s a public good, a non profit function. Maybe a philanthropist puts up money for prizes. Maybe the Woodward and Bernstein of 2017 make so much money from breaking a story that it leads to a whole new generation of journalists.

The reality is that this sort of journalism is relatively cheap (compared to everything else the newspaper had to do in order to bring it to us.) Newspapers took two cents of journalism and wrapped in ninety-eight cents of overhead and distraction. The magic of the web, the reason you should care about this even if you don’t care about the news, is that when the marginal cost of something is free and when the time to deliver it is zero, the economics become magical. It’s like 6 divided by zero. Infinity.

Faulty math metaphors aside, Godin’s argument is thought-provoking. We probably won’t miss most of the bits and bobs we used to turn to newspapers for; now we’ve got wikis, Yelp, Weather widgets, Yahoo! Sports, Adult Swim. But Godin glosses over a crucial point: if newspapers disappear, will long-form, investigative journalism really be able to sustain itself on the public ‘paying for it one way or another’? Will the general public, or the government, be interested in financing tomorrow’s Woodwards and Bernsteins? Can we depend on ourselves to seek out and support quality over quantity and immediacy?

Seth’s Blog: When newspapers are gone, what will you miss?

[image via blackcustard]