How We Will (or Won’t) Survive Without Newspapers

Trendwatchers have been noticing the decline of the newspaper for years. Some want to stop it; some want to speed it up. In this issue, we’re going to ask what comes next.

The decline of traditional newspapers is all around us. Readership is broadly in decline; ad revenues have been down; and online services like Craigslist and eBay do much of the work that classified ads formerly did. Newspapers across the country have been folding, and the younger a person is these days, the more likely he is not to read a newspaper at all — never a good trend for a business.

Internet readership isn’t anything like a perfect equivalent. Online, readers may pre-select whatever news items they like, and they need not even be tempted to read stories that don’t appeal to them. It may prove that serious journalism — that is, stories about current events with original research and in-depth analysis — has less appeal than previous eras understood. Yet serious journalism is crucial for informed democracy.

How will we solve this enormous public goods problem, which the pre-Internet age seems to have solved with a clever bundling of news and advertising? Or is it less of a problem than we imagine? This month, we’ve invited a distinguished panel of journalism and social networking experts to discuss one of the most important issues in our democracy today. The lead essayist is the noted author and social theorist Clay Shirky; responses will be by journalism professor Philip Meyer, sociologist Paul Starr, and print-to-online crossover journalist Steve Yelvington.

As always, Cato Unbound readers are encouraged to take up our themes, and enter into the conversation on their own websites, blogs, and even in good old-fashioned bound publications. Trackbacks are enabled. Cato Unbound will scour the web for the best commentary on our monthly topic, and, with permission, publish it alongside our invited contributors. We also welcome your letters. (Send them to jkuznicki at cato.org.)