Texas newspapers share content: Capital Press Future Uncertain

by: Glenn Smith

Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 09:33 AM CDT

We may have seen the first evidence of new sharing arrangements this weekend. Emily Ramshaw of the Dallas Morning news ran a story Saturday morning about the notorious private prison company, GEO Group,taking over a private psychiatric hospital in Montgomery County. The company's prisons have a history of sexual abuse, riots and suicides.

Take a look at the Houston Chronicle piece, posted at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Texas officials wary of prison company contract
Copyright 2009 Houston Chonicle
July 11, 2009, 8:00PM

Did you catch that? "Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle."

No credit to the Associated Press, the normal avenue for stories taken from other papers. Maybe this was a copydesk error. However, word is that some editors have begun briefing their staffs on the new sharing arrangements.

Sources say publishers and editors have ratcheted up their efforts to come up with news while cutting staff. Additionally, word that Austin investment guru and innovative thinker and businessman John Thornton will soon begin publishing a Texas online newspaper has these same editors and publishers worried.

By sharing content, they hope to head-off competition from a well-funded, hard-hitting, aggressive, online news source that could do in Texas what Politico or Huffington Post have done nationally.

The distance between Austin and voters is already enormous. Layoffs and shrinking space for news in the troubled newspaper industry have meant a dramatic decline in coverage of state politics and government. Chasing distracted audiences, local television affiliates for the most part gave up on state political news long ago. Fires, wrecks, murders and sex are much more salable.

How many Texans even knew there was a regular session of the Legislature this year? How many know what happened? Damn few.

The fate of the dwindling capitol press is very much in doubt. Keep in mind that these are plum jobs, or were plum jobs. Typically, only the best and most responsible journalists were given a chance at the capitol beat. Lose them -- and we've already lost many great ones -- and Texas suffers.

If newspapers are already agreeing to share content, how long before they further reduce their Austin offices?

It's impossible to overestimate the importance of a large and diverse press corps. Not too many years ago, a major event in Austin would attract eight or more cameras and a dozen or more print reporters. Those multiple perspectives were key to accurate, broad reporting. Competition among journalists kept things lively.

We are in a Dark Age of state political and government news. Maybe it's just a transition period. But state blogs -- and there are many good ones like BOR -- have nowhere near the resources, the reporting experience or the reach of newspapers and local TV affiliates. There are high hopes that Thornton and maybe others will succeed in new era publishing. But it hasn't happened yet.

I don't have much sympathy for the corporatized ownership of newspapers. Their commitment to the public's right and need to know has long played second fiddle to their bottom lines. They've rationalized, downsized, and minimized their coverage of state news for years. Texans are paying the price, and that price could get much steeper in coming months and years.

Three TX Newspapers Among Top 15 Audience Gainers in Country

by: Phillip Martin

Mon Apr 27, 2009 at 09:55 AM CDT

From Editor & Publisher, we get the news that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman are among the top 15 newspapers to have gained in audience from this time last year. They actually list the top 25, but all the TX papers are in the top 15. From E&P:

Here are the top 25 dailies that had the biggest gain in audience when taking print and online readership into account. The papers are ranked by net combined audience (past seven days in print and 30 days online), according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six months ending March 2009 compared to the same period in March 2008.

1. GREENWICH (CONN.) TIME -- 111,824 -- 30.74%
2. THE BIRMINGHAM (ALA.) NEWS -- 781,047 -- 11.85%
3. THE TIMES-PICAYUNE, NEW ORLEANS -- 820,374 -- 11.72%
4. WILKES-BARRE (PA.) TIMES LEADER -- 196,229 -- 10.45%
5. STATEN ISLAND (N.Y.) ADVANCE -- 397,412 -- 9.93%
   
   
6. ALLENTOWN (PA.) MORNING CALL -- 511,463 -- 9.17%
7. TIMES UNION, ALBANY, N.Y. -- 506,929 -- 8.68%
8. CHARLOTTE (N.C.) OBSERVER -- 1,074,856 -- 8.36%
9. TRIBUNE-REVIEW, GREENSBURG, PA. -- 741,953 -- 7.34%
10. FORT WORTH (TEXAS) STAR-TELEGRAM -- 1,236,205 -- 7.09%
    
    
11. THE PATRIOT-NEWS, HARRISBURG, PA. -- 496,700 -- 6.45%
12. HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 2,507,835 -- 6.13%
13. ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 1,297,866 -- 6.09%
14. AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN -- 861,105 -- 5.97%
15. NAPLES (FLA.) DAILY NEWS -- 265,181 -- 5.97% 

The key, of course, is that these figures combine print and online readership. Not sure if you're counted twice if you read the print version and the online version (I imagine you are -- I don't know how they'd control that unless it was a survey, and these are raw figures). In any case, it gets to the quirk of the newspaper industry's problem:

They have plenty of readers. In fact, they have more readers. And as much as some want to wail and moan about the internet and the economic crisis, those aren't the real reasons why the newspaper industry is flailing. Newspaper industry leaders were aware of the coming rise of the internet over a decade ago, and basically sat on their hands. The recent economic crisis merely exacerbated problems that had existed for years -- (1) too many editors on staff, (2) companies demanding too large of a profit, and (3) companies refusing to plan for higher gas prices and increased cost of shipping/cutting their product -- paper.

Most political forces aren't helping matters...though I'd argue there are different levels of blame. Democrats get mad at things like this:

1) Reporters refusing to stand up to government (Part 1): Judith Miller
2) The Washington Post whining that they didn't get to ask an A-Rod question at a press conference
3) Political reporting that reinforces lies
4) Reporters refusing to stand up to government (Part 2): Spies
5) Ridiculous support for unqualified candidates

I'll stop there out of mercy for the newspaper industry. But that's how Democrats criticize the newspaper industry. Republicans, on the other hand...

The evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s by conservative Republicans allowed the rise of Rush Limbaugh, who then promoted more conservative Republican policies such as further media consolidation to spread Rush to more channels across the board, along with increased capital to fund more right-wing talk radio. 

And...

In any case -- despite their faults and their attackers (those both fair and not so fair), the people are still going to traditional sources of news. They may also be getting their news from the internet -- which the latest Pew Report clearly stated -- but there is still a demand for information from traditional sources of news.

Tomorrow, I'll look at the absolute wrong approach, and hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday talk about the better approach. In the mean time, feel free to discuss your thoughts about all of this in the comments.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Endorses Obama!

by: alaprst1

Sat Oct 25, 2008 at 01:53 PM CDT

This endorsement represents a healthy contrast to the helter-skelter reasoning the Dallas Morning News presented the week before in its ill-thought-out endorsement of John McCain (which was disgraceful at its base for its failure to address the huge issues presented by McCain's sad choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate).

More below.