PressEthic

As William Powers explained in this National Journal article, the media has an insatiable appetite for breaking the news. Every news outlet fights to be the first source of information, but what’s the point? Powers writes:

News is no longer the relatively scarce commodity it was a few decades ago, when most people checked in once or twice a day. It's all around us, all the time.

News is cheap, and the big Washington stories that transfix the media pack are in many ways the cheapest of all because all of the major outlets are on them together. Keeping track of who got which story first would be a full-time job, and an absurd one.

Though Powers is addressing the entire media, I think his notion is particularly pertinent for newspapers. If people want to get the latest news, they don’t wait for their newspapers. They go to the internet. And, why not? Though I prefer the newspaper, I can understand why fewer individuals are reading them. Newspapers report news that is at least eight hours old. By today’s standards, that’s not just old news, that’s ancient news. I’m sure most of us have read the news on the internet around 10 p.m. and then, to our delight, have read the same thing in the next day’s paper – the exact same thing.

However, I still think newspapers have the opportunity to succeed in today’s market. And, since I prefer to stay optimistic on the future of newspapers, I will continue to search for what newspapers can do to stay important.

Here is the last graf of William Powers’ article from last Friday:

The true exclusive isn't the story that beats the clock, or the pack. It's the one that the pack never cared about. The one that reported the news so well, you remembered it days later, wanted to read it again, marveled at how it changed your understanding of the world. It's the one that never had to call itself an exclusive, because that was obvious.

Once again, though Powers isn’t writing specifically about newspapers, it is especially relevant for the print medium. Instead of filling a paper with the same “breaking news” that’s found on the web hours before, newspapers need to focus on Powers' concept of the “true exclusive.” If print is to remain an essential medium and continue to attract readers, its owners and editors need to find a way to give their readers more in the print versions of their papers while they still have the resources: unique angles with more background, more context, more in depth coverage on the important stories that require more attention than a headline.

Of course, one could argue that all of these things – background, context, etc. – are found on the internet with just a few clicks. However, I am suggesting that newspapers not only put all of this information in one well-organized place, but that they use their resources, and take the time, to do it better than anyone else. Don’t forget about breaking stories, but find the unique angles and focus on providing the most complete story possible.