Romancing the days when morning newspapers thumped doors nationwide
On my way in to work this morning, I caught a snippet from ESPN radio in which personality Adam Schefter spoke of newspapers.
He spoke of the anticipation and excitement of hearing the newspaper thump upon his door each morning. He spoke of how he’d dash to the door and tear through the morning news.
And as an old softie, it stirred up the romance of newspapers in me as well. I too would rush to the door each morning as a kid getting ready for high school. I remember making breakfast, sitting down and checking out all the news (especially sports) before heading to class. I grew up in Fairmont and read the Fairmont Times-West Virginian. The sports columnist was Dave Hickman, whom I loved reading. (Tidbit: Years later, I called Dave to join the Charleston Gazette team and we worked together before the paper merged with the Daily Mail.)
Anyway, the newspaper was a wonderland to me. The front page. The comics. Dear Abby. The editorial cartoons. (Although I never, ever understood why newspapers choose to side with a political party.) And, of course, the sports pages.
Aside from Hickman’s words, there were stories about my friends at (Fairmont Senior) high school. I followed my New York Mets – and, oh, those glorious boxscores. Each Sunday, I couldn’t wait for the complete rundown of baseball league leaders to see where my favorite players stood.
The character (Oscar Madison) that Jack Klugman played on TV’s “The Odd Couple” by Neil Simon further romanced newspapers and sports writing and, well, I ended up working at the craft for 38 years before joining Wheelhouse Creative.
Back in the day I never thought I’d see a decline of newspapers. They’ve been a critical part of the American news landscape. The Fourth Estate it’s been called.
Yet, like many romances, there is disappointment. There are heartaches.
Anyone reading this knows of what I write. More and more consumers began consuming news digitally. As an editor, columnist and reporter I felt it creeping up on me. Shortly after the Jan. 29, 2018, headline “Gazette-Mail declaring bankruptcy,” I pivoted.
Thankfully, the Gazette-Mail and other stops of mine like the Dominion Post in Morgantown, the Register-Herald in Beckley, the Martinsburg Journal and, yes, the Fairmont Times (where I worked in the summer) have survived in one form or another. The Intelligencer of Wheeling sits on my desk as I type.
Yet I tripped across a Forbes story that quoted a report from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. It projects that by the end of 2024, one-third of U.S. newspapers will have disappeared since 2005. “Presently,” it says, “of the 3,143 counties in the U.S., there are 204 counties (a.k.a. ‘news deserts’) without any local newspaper. Moreover, there are now 1,562 counties (over one-half of all counties) with just one newspaper. Often times that newspaper is published weekly.”
That’s not good, folks. Medill found “news deserts” are more likely to be in lower income areas in which broadband access is less prevalent — an invitation for corruption.
One last stat: “Medill noted that nowadays there are 43,000 fewer journalists. This is a drop of about two-thirds of the total number of journalists from 2005.”
Again, not good. The more trained watchdogs the better. (Note I used the word “trained.”) We’re seeing the effects of such losses more and more by the day.
I pray for our country in that regard. I’m hoping for a rally. We need more well-trained journalists. I once sat beside a news editor who had been arrested for DUI. The newspaper I worked at then printed such offenders’ names. And he sat beside me at the pagination desk, where the paper was laid out, and typed in his own name. It printed alongside everyone else.
I guess I’m just romancing. Digital is king now and that’s not going to change. Newspapers have learned to largely embrace the tool.
But, hey, like Schefty, yeah, once in a while I can’t help but think back to the good ol’ days of Oscar Madison and all those newspapers from sea to shining sea,
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.