by Scott Hall
Hardly a week goes by that we don’t read or hear about another newspaper laying off staff, declaring bankruptcy, or going out of the newsprint business entirely. This week it’s the Houston Chronicle, last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Minnesota’s largest newspaper, the Mpls Star-Tribune, is publishing while going through bankruptcy.
This has been going on for a long time - well before our economy crashed. More people get their information from the internet now. That’s a factor. Now the economy is lousy so money from advertising is way down.
But it’s not that newspapers weren’t making money. It’s just they weren’t making it in big enough amounts for Wall Street investors. Of course, now a lot of investors would love to find investments that have the profit margins that newspapers once had. That's another story.
Good journalism is expensive. It’s labor-intensive. And, compared to other businesses, it’s not a good investment. The editor of the on-line Slate Group, Jacob Weisberg, has a good essay on different ways to pay for the news in a recent edition of
Newsweek. Those who tried to figure out how to make the news more profitable, have, for the most part, given us news sexed up with scandal, personality, and opinion. This approach to news drowned out serious journalists doing good work.
We can find lots of good reporting if we care to look. Here in northern Minnesota, I like to read the work of Marshall Helmberger and his crew at the
Timberjay, and Brad Swenson at the
Bemidji Pioneer. They consistently turn out good stuff.
Tell us about the northland journalists you like to read.
I don't like to get my news from the internet. But I'm glad it's there. If I miss a story from
National Public Radio, a story in one of our local papers, or an interview on
KAXE, I can go on line and listen to it or read it.
Here at KAXE we are building a place for reporting on issues important to us here in northern MN. It's called
Northern Community Internet. We’ve found talented writers, photographers, and people creative in new forms of journalism. We need a reliable source of money to pay them.
When
KAXE went on the air 33 years ago, there was no guarantee that the first public radio station in rural Amerca would survive. It was a risky venture. KAXE is still around because thousands of listeners voluntarily support it every year, along with dozens of northern MN businesses.
So we’re asking you to take a chance and invest in Northern Community Internet. You might think of it as something like a newspaper subscription. Or maybe you just like the idea of being part of a good new idea, and sharing the dream of creating a new kind of community-owned media. You can get more information at the
web site, or call
KAXE, 218-326-1234. It's a work in progress.
Make a donation or tell us how you can help.
Also, new to the show tonight will be Take Cover, a pop-rock band out of the Twin Cities. Their bass player is Chad Snell, he graduated from Deer River High School in '00, and before moving down to the Cities was very active playing music in Duluth, Grand Rapids and various places around northern MN. In the spirit of full disclosure, Chad has been my best friend since kindergarten and I am pumped to be playing music from his band tonight. BUT, that's not why I am playing Take Cover - their music stands on its own. Oh, and here is a little sneak peak for you: I am planning to have Take Cover perform a live acoustic set in-studio coming up in June (when they'll be having a CD release party at the Ground Floor in GR, muahahahha).
ic atmospherics and deep character development (especially Stride, whose understated intensity, dignity and resilience are emblematic of the Twin Ports area itself), this harrowing and heartrending novel will leave readers guessing until the very last pages." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
