A new Pew Center Research report on the end of local newspapers is very telling.
“Fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community “a lot.” Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.”
And:
“About half of Democrats (49%) and 47% of independents say civic life would be hurt “a lot” if the newspaper shut down, compared with 33% of Republicans.”
This happy headline from a recent Yahoo News story, “ The 10 Major Newspapers that will Either Fold or Go Digital Next.” Here is the list:
1. The Philadelphia Daily News.
2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune
6. The San Francisco Chronicle.
9. The Fort Worth Star Telegram
10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer
[Hat tip to Ross Runkel]
The New Republic (3/4/09) has two new articles focusing on the decline of newspapers and the impact on democracy/politics:
Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption) by Paul Starr
Why American politics and society are about to be changed for the worse.
and
CORRESPONDENCE: A New Era of Corruption? by Yochai Benkler
The newspaper’s decline does not portend anything resembling the end of democracy. Here’s why.
For a limited time, the Times of London will provide free access to its archive online. Currently scanned pages from 1785 through 1985 are available. This includes the law reports, with full-text or excerpts of cases, articles, advertisements and announcements. Now is the time to search for those 18th and 19th Century English cases. Registration is required.
The Times Archive http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/
