Parker: Struggling newspaper industry could still be good-news story

By Kathleen Parker

Each time another report surfaces about the decline of newspapers, I feel like a death-row inmate counting the warden's footsteps.

The latest echo of doom arrived a few days ago: U.S. newspaper circulation dropped 10 percent from April through September, compared with the same period last year. The largest decrease recorded thus far, the decline was attributed to the usual - advertising and readership lost to the Web. Industrywide, ad revenue, which constitutes newspapers' main source of income, is on track to drop $20 billion by 2010. Even so, most newspapers remain profitable, and circulation is astoundingly good, all things considered.

That's the delightful view of Alex Jones - fourth-generation member of a newspaper-owning family, Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic and now author of “Losing the News.” In his book, Jones, who also heads Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, manages to combine a dispassionate look at the news business with a page-turning story of traditional journalism's highs and lows.

For Americans concerned about the fate of news, he breathes oxygen into the collapsing organ of the Fourth Estate. For inmates awaiting the guillotine, he is the governor's midnight call of reprieve.

There is hope amid so much change.

Despite all we know about the damaging convergence of a devastating recession, 24-7 news technology and shifting demographics, Jones's coffee cup is half full. The story isn't that newspapers are dying, he says. The story is that, even though people can get the same content online for free, they're ponying up to buy newspapers that are more expensive than ever.

“People in astonishing numbers are saying, ‘OK, I'll do it,'” he said in a telephone interview.

The answer to why could be inertia, habit or the sports section, in some cases. In others, Jones suggests a citizenship decision. Americans are becoming increasingly aware that newspapers do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to reporting and bearing witness. When the newsroom goes dark, who or what will light the way?

Jones insists that “the media” are not monolithic. Reporters and editors are human and make mistakes, but they also are bound by standards. Accountability matters.

He predicts that newspapers will develop new business models and survive.

And though every news organization will have alternate methods of delivery, including the Web, each entity should remain true to its “authentic self.”

Web culture - fast, irreverent, crude and subjective - is one kind of creature. Traditional media are different and should stick to what they historically have done best. Crucial to survival will be a renewed commitment to community, to corporate citizenship and social responsibility, and above all, to quality.

As Jones tells it, Arthur Gelb, former managing editor of the New York Times, used to shout “Good stories!” when he read about some new experiment to boost newspaper circulation. “It is all about good stories!”

The story of newspapers is a good one, compellingly told by one of its leading characters. Reading it, you will want to buy a paper.

n Contact the writer:

kathleenparker@washpost.com