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Newspaper editors across the country are struggling to maintain, or
restore, the suddenly fragile relationship of mutual need and trust we
have shared with our neighbors for more than two centuries.
As lifestyles evolve and media choices proliferate, we editors are finding
that our newspapers no longer are an essential daily ritual for many people
but rather, increasingly, an alternative information source, among many.
Circulation and readership have declined, slowly but certainly, for
a generation.
We still edit with joy and optimism and with high ideals and earnestness
of purpose, and our newspapers are better than ever. We continue to be
a powerful and positive force across American society, in our traditional
democratic roles and some new ones.
But if we are to remain effective and vital, we must do more, to change
ourselves and to become more relevant to those who shrug that they are
"too busy" to read journalism.
They have taken time to tell us, in survey after survey, nationally
and locally, that our greatest strength and greatest opportunity is local
news. They quickly add, however, that newspapers’ local news coverage,
while good, isn’t good enough to make that much difference in their lives.
What is local news? We all, readers and journalists alike, think we
know it when we see it. But our working definitions tend to be limited
to instinct, experience and tradition, as well as democratic responsibility
and reader feedback. Most of what we are doing is likely on target, but
this work asks whether we are doing all of it right and whether we can’t
do more.
We certainly can be more thoughtful and analytical about our news judgments
and standards. One editor involved in this project said it caused her to
take time to reevaluate her newspaper’s coverage: "A lot of the time,
you’re on autopilot. Who has time to think?"
This handbook assumes that, as a profession, we have matured enough
to seek, and accept, advice from some of our natural allies, other champions
of our communities. Here, they are the scholars who have studied citizenship
and community for most of this century (the oldest reference in this book
is from 1926, or if you count Tocqueville, 1835). While we have been reporting
what goes on in our towns, they have been researching and
thinking about why. Perhaps their angle of view will inform ours.
It may be our nature to focus on the circulation numbers that threaten
us, but please keep in mind that we are building on great strength. Our
national readership study last year found that 84 percent of American adults
still read a newspaper at least once a week, and most of them regularly.
It’s the essentiality, the dailiness that is fading.
In the pages that follow, you will find general concepts, hard research
and good ideas, some from other newspapers, many from other disciplines.
If at some point you find yourself in too familiar territory, skip on.
There is much here for us to learn.
Please listen as your neighbors talk, through scholars and researchers,
about what is essential to them — their lives and their communities. It
is there that we can build our journalism.
Frank Denton
Chair
ASNE Readership Committee
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