Maybe it's time for the Salem Statesman Journal to die

I never thought I'd write a blog post with this title.

I've been a subscriber to Salem, Oregon's daily newspaper since 1977. That's 38 years. During most of that time it would have pained me to think that the Statesman Journal should die a journalistic death.

Heck, I even remember the days when Salem had two newspapers, the Statesman and the Capital Journal. In 1980 they merged into a single Gannett paper, the Statesman Journal. 

But I'm a traditionalist when it comes to what I pull out of our rural south Salem paper box every morning. I believe that the Statesman Journal should actually be filled with news. If it isn't, what's the point of calling it a newspaper?

Sadly, year by year the Statesman Journal has gotten frothier, less substantial, and shallower.

I realize that it's tough to run a newspaper these days, when people are used to getting free news, free information, free entertainment, and generally free everything on the Internet.

Yet is the journalistic answer dumbing down newspapers so they're almost indistinguishable from all of the junk I can read gratis in cyberspace? I say, no.

Let me count some of the ways the Statesman Journal is leaving this long-time subscriber highly dissatisfied. Understand, I'm not saying that all of the content criticized below is useless. In small doses, it would be fine.

However, I don't want the "news" sections of my local daily newspaper to be filled almost completely with stuff such as...

(1) What happened on this day in history, in Salem a long time ago, or recaps of stories already published in the paper.

(2) The Daily Download and Rapid Response features, which are just Facebook postings and emailed musings of ordinary people's opinions about recent news events.

(3) A full page of SJ Kids writings about such important topics as "What Makes Popcorn Pop?"
Download SJ Kids: What makes popcorn pop?

(4) An editorial page frequently filled with opinion pieces from other newspapers and national columnists, rather than talk of local issues.

(5) Lengthy recountings of what causes, charities, volunteering, events, and other things Salem residents plug during the executive editor's weekly Holding Court lunch at a downtown restaurant.
Download Holding up good deeds this week at Holding Court

(6) Outdoor news. Hiking news. Hunting news. Fishing news. Climbing news. Um, this isn't really "news." 

(7) A Marion County "mug shots" feature whose purpose is unfathomable, other than being a low cost way to fill up space on a page. 

(8) Restaurant inspection reports. As above, another way to fill up the "news" section of the paper without having to do any actual reporting or writing a story.

Again, this sort of content isn't bad in itself.

Like sugar and white flour, though, a steady diet of it leaves me feeling seriously malnourished journalistically. Shallow human interest content has largely replaced substantial fare in the Statesman Journal. 

Investigative reporting is dead and gone. Also gone are most of the skilled (and not coincidentally, probably more highly paid) reporters and writers. Kelly Williams Brown. Peter Wong. Michael Rose. Anna Staver. Hannah Hoffman. 

What we're getting instead is -- ugh! -- SJ Insider.

This is the Statesman Journal's newest attempt to squeeze more money out of the steadily emptying journalistic toothpaste tube of our local daily newspaper. A front page jargon-filled description of SJ Insider almost made me barf.
Download SJ Insider offers subscribers something extra

This week, we are adding an advanced and exclusive level of service for our subscribers with the introduction of SJ Insider, a free program offering access to deals, events and content.

...We anticipate that Insider will provide value-added satisfaction to those on the receiving end of our efforts.

There was a time when local news organizations did not prioritize consumer input and response, but that day is long over. To thrive in today's environment, we need to prove to you every day that ours is a symbiotic relationship.

Well, I'm not feeling very symbiotic these days. It seems to me that the Statesman Journal is giving Salemians less and less, while wanting more and more revenue from them. 

For quite a while I had hopes that with a new executive editor (Michael Davis) and a new publisher (Terry Horne) some improvements were going to be made at the newspaper. But like I said in a couple of Truth Bombs, I've now concluded that the Statesman Journal is failing Salem and tricking Salem. 

So what to do? 

The future of the Statesman Journal obviously lies in the hands of its owner, the huge Gannett Corporation. We don't have a community newspaper. Salem has a cog in a gigantic corporate media machine. 

I can envision what future I'd prefer, though.

Up to now I've thought that Salem would be better off with a crappy daily newspaper than no newspaper at all. But maybe this isn't true. Perhaps the demise of the Statesman Journal would open up territory for some new way of delivering local news to people in this town.

I don't know what this might be.

I've always thought that replacing a daily print newspaper would be tough. However, I assumed that the newspaper was actually providing news. Given how insubstantial the Statesman Journal has become, currently there is a lot less to replace than there used to be.

Thus if the Statesman Journal dies, I won't dance on its grave, but I also won't be much of a mourner. 

Comments

[Harry Vanderpool]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Brian but the Statesmen Urinal died a few years ago when they idled their printing presses and then later fired the last reporters that they would ever have.
Let's write an equation:
Let "n" = newspaper
Let "r" equal reporter
Let "p" equal printing presses.
n = pr
Now lets take the brilliant management path of the urinal and move the reporters and the presses over to the pencil department:
pr +n = pr
To solve, why don't we add -pr to both sides and see what remains:
n=0
Nothing left but a façade.
If we sold all of our hives and fired the beekeepers would we still be a beekeeping company?

[Geronimo Tagatac]

Any paper that feels it has to include a "mug shots" feature deserves to die.

[Brian Hines]

Oh, Geronimo, thanks -- I forgot the "mug shots" feature. I should add this to my blog post as another irritating non-news item.

[Salemander]

I agree that moving the printing to Portland really hurt the paper. I would guess that they have any west coast scores for baseball and basketball less than a third of the time, where before the move they would always include all the results.

Also it doesn't seem like they need a story every week about an guy putting 100$ into grocery store items. The first time or so it was a pleasant story, but it feels they have devoted more space to that than the Kitzhaber scandal that happened right under their noses.

[Mary Ann Baclawski]

Unfortunately I agree with this assessment of the SJ. My family stopped subscribing when the paper made USA Today a significant part of the paper, raising their prices for sinfificantly less local news at the same time. Thank God for the Salem Weekly. That's the source I now rely on the most for important local news.

[Sarah Chilcote]

Just the other day, the front page news was a kid whose bus hadn't shown up a couple of times. Really? Front page?? Nothing else newsworthy happening here or anywhere else in the world? But I do look forward to the SJ, no matter what. We found our house there (an article about it needing to be moved & saved). I have seen my kids in the paper several times - what a thrill. So I will continue to subscribe - it's like the funny old uncle who comes over - once in awhile he comes up with a good story.

[Harry Vanderpool]

Sorry to disagree with you Brian on this subject, but the Statesman Urinal's on-line comment rules suck!!
In order to comment on the Urinal's website, one must be a FacePage or MyBook pawn.
How has this worked out for them and for us?
Well, HEY!!! How about we all apply some simple math to the subject?
The Urinal has a grand total of a couple of dozen comments each day since the inception of the strict comment rules.
Now look at the amount of comments posted to the Daily Dead Fish Wrapper (Oregonian)
that amounts to hundreds and sometimes into the thousands of comments by not demanding such draconian rules.
Which newspaper is placing their online ads in front of the most viewers?
Answer: ask a 3rd grade math student.

[Ken Adams]

Check out today's Sunday Quiz on page 2 question 10. According to the quiz Steny Hoyer has joined the Republican Party.

[GLORIA BLEDSOE GOODMAN]

I WROTE FOR THE CAPITAL JOURNAL UNTIL GANNETT BEAN COUNTERS RUINED THE PARTY. THEN WROTE FOR SJ FOR MOE YEARS. WROTE A COLUMN WHERE I HAD AUTONOMY (ALMOST!) LORD I MISS THE CJ. WE WERE SOO MUCH FUN. JIM WELCH, BILL BEBOUT, AL JONES, LARRY ROBY. WE KNEW WHAT WE WERE DOING AND HAD FUN DOING IT. THE STATESMAN NEVER QUITE MEASURED UP TO US. RMEMBR THE TOPLESS BAIT GIRL HEADLINE WITH A DOTTED I AND A COMMA AS NIPPLE COVERUPS. THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
GLORIA BLEDSOE GOODMAN

[Brian Hines]

Gloria, nice to hear from you. I remember you from those good old Capital Journal and early Statesman Journal days. I moved to Salem in 1977 when, if I recall correctly, this town still had the two newspapers.

Journalism really was of much higher quality back then. And like you say, more fun.

I don't think reporters are enjoying themselves very much nowadays. I've heard that they are paid more on a "piece work" basis now rather than a decent salary. And it shows...