Let The Newspaper Die

We need to recreate local journalism

I began this chronicle of life in Cleveland during the year 2019 by discussing the paucity of local journalism: one hundred years ago, there were six daily English language newspapers here (plus a bevy of foreign language daily and weeklies). Today, there is one. Earlier in the year, the guild for the Plain Dealer, the oldest newspaper union in the country, was told more layoffs were coming, and actions ensued to fight those off.

And then on March 15th, with a Friday night news dump, the publisher of the Plain Dealer announced there would be twelve additional layoffs by the end of the month. The Guild, as it always does, fought back again (you can help them out here). So this is what it looks like now:

In 2009, there were 340 employees at the Plain Dealer. By April 1, there will be 30.

(This does not count employees of Cleveland.com, even though those employees have the same boss and ownership—Advance—but is run separately, and non-union. Yup, confusing; some explanation here.)

So now I am going to editorialize a bit: the time for ‘saving’ the Plain Dealer is over. It’s time to create something new. And not something to ‘replace’ it, either. What this city most needs is locally-written, quality investigative reporting. And given what we have learned about newspapers and journalism over the past century and change, the ownership of whatever entity oversees this reporting is crucial. A billionaire is probably not the answer. A new owner of the current local newspaper isn’t either. It may be that non-profits, those benevolent scourges, may be an answer, at least to launch. But, of course, that is a dicey proposition (rumor has it the Knight and Cleveland Foundations might be up to something re: local news.)

Over where I do my best thinking (twitter), I chatted with some folks about this on Friday night. Chris Horne is the founder of Akron’s Devil Strip, currently a Knight Fellow in Stanford, and, I am thrilled to say, writing a book for Belt Publishing, The End of Local News As We Know It (coming in 2020), so he’s who I looked to first:

Sorry about all those screenshots, but I love how they preserve the provisional, conversational, thinking-in-time nature of the discussion.

Any discussion to have now should be all those things above—provisional, conversational—as well as, as this one was, public. And I do think discussions should be had. Over the weekend I was chatting more with some current (but maybe not by the end of the month) Plain Dealer folks. I would raise my hand to figure out a time and a place to brainstorm, or show up at one you or others might organize (as long as it’s not called a listening session or a summit, because if we do I will probably end up staying home and watching Netflix).

There are not enough journalists in Cleveland. But there are some very talented, experienced ones. What might happen if those folks were given a salary and the freedom to write about the issues they know about? The topics and stories and public records that those closest to the issues deem most important for the community? A flood of invested, well-written, careful stories; that’s what I imagine. Imagine that! A service that might put enough pressure on the mayoral administration for hiring a murderer (I believe more robust local journalism would have led to the downfall of Jackson after Aisha Fraser Mason was murdered; maybe I am naive, but if so it is a naivete to which I will hold fast).

Encouraging examples of other models out there include City Bureau, particularly its Documenters program, and The Correspondent. INN is a great organization (to which Belt Magazine belongs).

As we hit the end of the first quarter of this chronicle, the absences that inspired it are only growing larger. Here’s hoping for a better Q2, and seeds of something new, something community created and, crucially, owned. And here’s to all of the current Plain Dealer staff having a decent salary and benefits, even if being paid by someone else, by then as well.

Cleveland Chronicles is a record of life in Cleveland throughout 2019 as filtered through the lens of the chronicler. Sign up to receive new posts via email. Subscribe to support the project or read previous posts. I take posts down from the web after a bit.