Gabor Steingart

Cover story, Centerpoint , November 2009

Newspapers are facing uncertain times. Some have shut down; others are cutting staff,
eliminating sections, and closing bureaus. Circulation and ad revenue continue to
decline largely due to competition with websites.
To explore the state of newspapers and the future of journalism, the Woodrow Wilson
Center recently held two meetings, both co-sponsored by the Division of U.S. Studies,
including one on Capitol Hill in conjunction with Wilson Center on the Hill.
“Journalists are contemplating the grim state of their profession,” one panelist said.
But another said, “I find journalism exciting right now.”
Hard Financial Times
Five years ago, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. predicted that in five
years, newspapers would no longer exist in print form. While his prediction proved
wrong, newspapers are facing dire economic times.
On Capitol Hill, Wilson Center Senior Scholar Martin Tolchin said the newspaper
industry lost 16,000 jobs last year, while some newspapers, such as the Boston Globe,
were forced to close their foreign bureaus. Subscription prices and the growing
popularity of blogs, he said, are accelerating the loss of print newspaper readership.
Traditionally, newspapers played several critical roles, said Paul Starr, professor at
Princeton University and co-editor of The American Prospect, at the Wilson Center
event. A beacon of original reporting in cities around the globe, newspapers have
enjoyed broad public readership and their investigational reporting has held
governments and businesses accountable.
Newspapers accomplished these goals by cornering various segments of the advertising
market, said Starr. Now, he said, newspapers are losing that near-monopoly position.
The recession undoubtedly played a role in this decline, but two long-term trends have
also fed the crisis. Newspaper circulation is declining rapidly, Starr said, most
notably among young adults. In addition, most advertising revenue now goes to paid
searches on the Internet, such as Google, while other sites, such as Craigslist,
compete with newspaper classified ads. “The reality is resources for journalism in the
United States, especially at the metropolitan and regional levels, are disappearing
faster than the new media can create.”
Gabor Steingart, Washington bureau chief for the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel,
who spoke at both the Wilson Center and On the Hill events, lamented that newspapers
are destroying their own business model by giving away content for free online but failing to find alternative sources of income. Meanwhile, he said, publishers are
feeding others’ businesses. Google and iPhone, for example, provide their customers
with free content yet the journalists go unpaid, he said. With data transfer and
roaming fees, “often, the companies charge me while I read my own stuff!”
(…)

What’s Next?
The panelists agreed newspapers likely will survive, though many are already shadows of
their former selves. “It does mean diminished coverage; it does mean setting
priorities,” said Downie. But he noted the opportunity also exists to invent new jobs
in journalism.
Panelists underscored the importance of a new business model for modern journalism. “We
have to be serious about the money side of this,” urged Steingart. “Internet journalism
has to be paid for.”
Several expressed hope that more organizations and universities will help underwrite
the costs of journalism. Some discussed public support such as tax relief. Steingart
suggested negotiating revenue-sharing between content producers and distributors,
including manufacturers of cell phones and data devices.
The bottom line is “journalism produces a public good,” said Starr. “We just may be
forced to pay for it in new ways.”