For the love of newspapers

I love newspapers, but I never actually get one to read. Perhaps that’s part of the problem in this world where news is instantaneous. Local newspapers have to find ways to stay around and keep doing the important work of informing the communities they report on. I saw one story of a little town paper that is still running because it works with a restaurant. The money from the restaurant goes to the paper, the offices are upstairs and the reporters regularly interact with the community by working and holding offices in the restaurant downstairs. And it’s not just newspapers, in Detroit, Local4/WDIV is opening a coffee shop. Both of those ideas seem like great ways to keep local journalism alive and also regain trust with the community. In Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal Constitution got rid of its print edition altogether to go completely digital.

But it’s not just staying informed that newspapers are good at. I read an article awhile back about all the other uses for newspapers, like wrapping gifts and animal shelters lining cages. In college we would drop off our old newspapers to the Indianapolis Zoo.
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Which brings me to another reason newspapers are nostalgic for me, I learned how to be a journalist with them. In college at The Butler Collegian and high school at The Tower, even middle and elementary schools. School papers are my journalism training. There’s also something different about seeing stories printed versus online or in a newscast, it’s a different feeling of satisfaction that is hard to explain. It’s also an easier and more tangible way to see your hard work without needing a television or computer.
I don’t think newspapers will necessarily make a comeback (although anything’s possible – look at vinyl). Instead they’ll have to adjust and find ways to work in this new age, like the restaurant newsrooms. I don’t know how it will play out but I’m excited to be a part of the future of local news.

That slow fade, it turns out, means more than changing news habits. It speaks directly to the newspaper’s presence in our lives — not just in terms of the information printed upon it, but in its identity as a physical object with many other uses. - MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is now all-digital. This is a frame from a story Joshua Skinner did for Atlanta News First on the last print edition.