You'll have no other option than to love it
Like most journalists, I was horrified to find out earlier this week that the Pulitzer Prize-winning Albuquerque Tribune had closed it’s doors last Sunday after 86 years in production.
The owner, E.W. Scripps, announced the closure after struggling for the last seven months to sell the paper, which had declined in circulation from 42,000 in 1988 to about 10,000 in 2008.
This, sadly, is just the latest such publication to shut it’s doors for good as the newspaper industry is scrambling to catch up with a technology it slept on initially--the internets (as George W. Bush might say).
This is a blow for me personally as I represent the fourth generation of my family to work in the industry and I love writing more than almost anything else.
On a scarier, macro level, it signifies the slow, agonizing death of the hard, standards-based journalism that has served as watchdog and bastion of free speech for the republic since its inception.
I, for one, am angry about all this and you should be too. I’m tired of watching my bright, talented, underpaid, overworked brethren fear for their jobs in what should be a flourishing sector of our economy.
But before you get too down, take heart: There is hope. I think I may have found a solution.
After a long, hard deliberation on what to do, I think I may have figured out a plan of attack:
I propose mandatory newspaper subscriptions for everyone in the country with a net, after-tax income of $30,000 a year.
The idea came from an article that was published by satirical newspaper The Onion in 2001 entitled “Coca-Cola Introduces Coke Mandatory”.
“At a press conference Monday, the Coca-Cola company unveiled Coke Mandatory, a new version of its signature soft drink ‘as refreshing as it is obligatory,’” stated the article. “‘Yes, Coke has done it again,’ said Gerald Hasworth, Coca-Cola vice-president of product development. ‘We've taken the classic taste the whole world knows and loves and made it so irresistible, you won't be allowed to go a day without it.’”
The program I’m proposing won’t stipulate what newspaper you subscribe to, unlike the scheme outlined in the Coke Mandatory piece, just so long as it’s real publication. Once the program is initiated and people get used to the idea of paying for high-quality journalism again, we can look at scaling it back and letting market forces reassert control.
Conservatives always say government should be smaller and stay out of people’s lives, but sometimes we need government to issue social controls. If this makes for a more educated populace and saves the profession I love, I say why not?
When the English government wanted to switch from paper pound notes to pound coins did they give people a choice? No, they took away the notes and started making only coins. “Use the coins,” they said. “Like you have a choice.”
This isn’t just a selfish ploy asking for a government handout, even though it sort of is. Newspapers are a public service and anything to wake people up and heighten their awareness of unbiased news would go a long way towards improving our broken society.
Besides, anything is better than leaving the future to the likes of the Fox News Channel and an unrestricted blogosphere who relies heavily on stories for content from the very publications they are prematurely euthanizing.
So, I say to those in power: now is not the time for budget cuts and staff reductions, now is the time for violent, creative, spirited action.
I’m really only half-kidding. And if you don’t like my idea I challenge you to think of a better one.