Hi guys -- Will Bunch from the Philadelphia Daily News here (full disclosure, for geeks...and working journalists). I'm writing a book on how to revive American media called "The News Fix" for Vaster Books -- the company founded by Markos Moulitsas and Jane Hamsher -- that's coming out next year, and as the release date gets closer I plan to cross-post more of my media posts from over at my blog, Attytood.
Like this one:
I've been meaning to write something longer on this topic, and still will -- in fact, it's going to be dealt with in my early 2008 book on media reform. It's how both the ever-shrinking middle class, and newspaper decisions that are hostile to that diminished yet still critical segment of America, are hastening our own death spiral. Instead of connecting with the rank-and-file, many big newspapers are already focusing on what they call "niche" publications, but what they really mean is something that, to paraphrase Barbara Bush, almost rhymes with "niche," and that's "rich."
And so when a huge pool of middle-class workers in your large community walk off the job and throws up a picket line, do you:
a) Seek to connect with that large community of thousands of -- in many cases -- loyal lifelong newspaper readers, or...
b) Quickly take the side of a small band of Grosse Point millionaires.
I don't need to tell you what side the Detroit newspapers are taking in the UAW strike annouced yesterday.
Shorter Detroit News: Shut up and do what you benevolent masters seek of you:
"What's good for GM is good for the UAW," the headline over the News' editorial proclaimed. The opinion piece went on to state: "Despite having access to GM's financial statements and projections and having made some preliminary concessions in the last two years, the UAW still believes the work force is entitled to perks that no longer are sustainable in today's global economy."
It later adds, "Union members on the picket line Monday railed against the big salaries and bonuses of a few top executives. They seemed not to be aware that they are the best paid factory workers in the world."
Is the Detroit News aware that people who've worked for GM for most of their lives -- and shelled out a quarter or two for a newspaper every day during that time -- are worried about losing their health coverage:
"We heard at the end of our careers that we were not going to get what was promised all the years we were coming into work every day," said Larry Solomon, former president of UAW Local 751 in Decatur, Ill. "We felt betrayed."
In fact, a lot of people who read -- or used to read -- daily newspapers are very worried about health care, not just autoworkers.
The rival Detroit Free Press muffs its own chance to be the voice of the people:
The Free Press, essentially saying 'a pox on both houses,' declares: "Well, this is just what Michigan needed. And the U.S. auto industry. And the ever-shrinking United Auto Workers union." It later states, "The strike may have caught many unprepared, given the widespread belief that because the industry is in such rough shape, this was not going to be the year for a walkout."
It's pretty simple -- newspapers thrived when they were a mass medium. But you can't be a mass medium when there are no more masses. When the only American jobs left at GM are inside the boardroom, that guarantees you a circulation of 12.
UPDATE: Mark Fitzgerald has more in Editor and Publisher:
This Labor Day, of all times, the News argued that Michigan should adopt so-called "right-to-work" laws that are anathema to unions. "Too many workers are trapped against their will in unions they were forced to join by state and federal laws that support compulsory union membership and automatic dues deductions," the News wrote.
Like the Philadelphia Daily News' Bunch, Mleczko sees a direct local connection to dropping circulation and the editorial page hostility to labor.
"Talk about turning a tin ear to their constituency," Mleczko said. "They don't see the connection. They openly insult the intelligence of hundreds of thousands of union member in southeast Michigan with crap like that -- and then they're surprised (union members and supporters) don't want to read them."