As if you needed more evidence of the disintegration of local news, I have the numbers to prove there is less local content distributed through the newspaper.
A quick check of what was published the last four months of February in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (a 10k circ Gannett paper in central Wisconsin where I was city editor until last month) shows a dramatic drop in content.
Bylines (stories locally written) for the month dropped from a high of 245 in 2007 to 186 this year. Pages and average number of sections are down from 2006's high of 434 and 2.88 (there was a great deal of three and four section newspapers in 2006 and all but a couple of days had more than two sections.) to 326 and 1.54 this year, which is an incredible decrease. For 24 days (the study did not include Sunday's newspaper or leap day), there were 108 fewer pages this year from 2006.
Feb.
Year / Bylines / Pages / Sections (daily average)
2009 / 186 / 326 / 1.54
2008 / 235 / 408 / 2.29
2007 / 245 / 414 / 2.29
2006 / 194 / 434 / 2.88
These numbers show how a large media company without any local ties can rip information from the hands of those in the area who need it the most. As Gannett loses money and its stock price plummets, the company cuts from the newspapers it owns.
So who's impacted by less information from the newspaper? Everyone. A democracy relies on a free press to engage citizens. People who live in the area now have less information about the local government; less information about the community.
And people are leading less informed lives.
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The newspaper where I work for created eight neighbourhood's suppplements to fill this kind of gap three years ago. And now we have two blogs for two of these supplements. Do you thinks this can be enough or at least the begginig to change this set?
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