Davis MerrittRessenyes

Since I’m the periphery of the print advertising industry, the future of the newspaper industry is asked a lot. Every corporate decision above me has this in mind. Can the newspaper industry be saved? Or will it go become something more like letter writing – a lost art that is rarely used anymore.

This is the story of Knight-Ridder from the editor of a Wichita editor from inside the beast. Davis “Buzz” Merritt believes that the newspaper industry has survived radio, television, and Internet and survived. All these things are supposed to be the death knell of newspapers but they continue to trudge forward. Merritt laments that it’s the short-term thinking of profit for shareholders and “suits” that have ruined the quality of journalism.

In the “golden age” of newspapers, there was a wall between advertisers and journalists. Communication was minimized to discourage any tainting of the journalistic endeavors. The jobs of journalists were to find the truth, report it and not worry about how much it cost. Journalists were NOT supposed to write what people wanted … or newspaper would be all fluff. There was honor in journalism to ask the hard questions.

This book was written by a (somewhat) disgruntled editor that thinks that restoring the wall and giving journalists and editors to research and write (not balance budgets) at the expense of profits will eventually save the industry in the long-term. Though radio, television, 24 hour news channels, direct mail, and Internet did not kill newspapers, they slowly have eroded the readership base. The mini-monopoly of newspapers is losing ground every year.

There is a strong resentment toward Wall Street’s insistence that profits and revenues grow every quarter. It makes me wonder what the rest of the story is when profit margins are increased and applauded by Wall Street.

Improving the quality of the newspaper will not save the industry and the author didn’t think this would happen any way. The newspaper industry will not disappear overnight but there are more than a few grey hairs on its head.

I recommend that you read this book if you read or at one point regularly read a lot of any newspaper.

Davis Merritt is a retired reporter and upfront mentions his background and association with the organization he is writing about. In this book he examines the trend of media outlets to dismiss public service obligations in favor of entertaining the public in favor of entertaining the public and profit. He analyzes the 1974 merger of Knight Newspapers and Ridder Publications, Inc., as an example of journalistic decline and discusses consequent broader societal implications. This book is worth reading and should be required reading for all journalism students.