March 2009
By: Danielle Johnson
The newspaper industry has been facing crisis and these issues trouble corporations as well as individual journalists. According to the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP), across the country reports have been made of “slumping advertising” and impending layoffs.
There is talk in the mainstream about this “dying industry,” but according to Chris Dickey, small town newspaper editor of the Gunnison Country Times in Colorado, “There will always be a market and a need for information on a localized scale.”
Dickey began working as the editor for the Gunnison Country Times in January of 2002. He and Stephen Pierotti, current publisher for the Gunnison Country Times, bought out the business in 2006.
As co-owners of a weekly local paper, both Dickey and Pierotti feel confident and comfortable in their industry. “The technology and media shift has been something that we have jumped into,” said Pierotti. “We jumped on that band-wagon and introduced new media, such as web presence, because there is a demand for alternate way of receiving information in this community.”
Newspapers have served and always will serve a particular purpose and according to Dickey and Pierotti, there will always be a fondness of something tangible. “As long as people are dying, being born, getting married or anything of the nature that involves the personal community, there will always be a need for print media,” said Pierotti.
As editor and co-owner, Dickey has had to face direct impacts from the economy. “Our company is advertisement based,” said Dickey. “When our supporting businesses suffer, so do we.” Within the last year, Gunnison Country times have lost five regular real estate ads, according to Pierotti.
“Frankly, the monetary model for newspaper companies is stuck in the 1800’s,” said Dickey. “As the technology is moving forward, the market seems to be moving in the opposite direction.”
According to Pierotti, “The newspaper industry is its own worst enemy. The ego and arrogance from larger newspapers is what is causing these radical changes for the ‘big dogs’ and their industry,” he said.
The idea of the newspaper industry dying is not a new one. A 2005 MSNBC news report stated, “The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself.”
As journalists and large corporations watched the Rocky Mountain News– one of the oldest newspapers in Colorado–die , it seemed to shake the entire industry. Although many large corporations are struggling to keep alive in today’s economy, perhaps this is a turning point in the system.
According to csmonitor.com, an online news source, non-profit journalism is on the rise and “several nonprofit newspapers – though rare and often tiny – have sprung up in recent years both online and in print, funded largely by foundations and individual donors.”
Both Dickey and Pierotti expressed that becoming a non-profit newspaper is an option. According to the co-owners of the Gunnison Times, it would take a lot of work and help from the community but it is definitely something they have looked into.
“Although things are changing in the newspaper industry and new technology is available,” said Dickey. “I firmly believe that there will always be a need for writing, reporting and photography.”
Western State Writers Spring 2009 