Gannett and the decline of news

Today’s Post Crescent, as is often the case, got another story wrong.

The PC lists the public offices in the area that will be contested in the February 21 Spring primary. One contest that the PC failed to mention arguably is the most interesting. Disgraced Winnebago County District Attorney Bill Lennon will make a run for Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge against two others. God spares us.

But today’s omission is only another example of indifferent news gathering by the Gannett news organization in northeast Wisconsin.

For decades the locally owned Post Crescent was a good, albeit not great newspaper. Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s a battle erupted between the PC and Oshkosh Northwestern for readers in Neenah-Menasha. Both papers expanded their news gathering operations and expanded the column inches devoted to news. The local communities were the winners in the news war.

For a short period in the 1990’s the Post Crescent and Northwestern were bought owned by Thomson Newspapers. Overnight, the two papers went from “good” to “outstanding.

But then tragedy struck. Gannett bought out the two papers as well as the Green Bay Press Gazette and Fond du lac Reporter. The decline in the quantity and quality of new reporting was almost instant. Gannett brought in outside “hired guns” to run the local operations. The news staff was decimated. Long-time reporters with ties to the community were terminated. What news they carry comes mostly from wire copy, press releases and an occasional tip from an outraged reader. Selling ad space became far more important than gathering news. Sensationalism increased and hard news became hard-to-find. Readership declined but ad rates increased. Soon the two papers began to look more like the Bargain Bulletin than a newspaper.

These once proud newspapers have almost become irrelevant in their communities. At onetime both could influence the outcome of local elections and bring pressure on local governments to move in one direction or another. But no more. It has been a long time since I have heard anyone comment on one of their editorials.

In our community –and perhaps in other Gannett communities – the Internet is becoming a growing source for the exchange for local news. The exchange of news is one of my goals with this blog.

Yours faithfully,

Silence