Journalism is under siege from all sides. Sixty-five journalists and media workers were killed across the globe in 2017, according to figures published by Reporters Without Borders.
Media’s men and women are also being imprisoned – just last month in Myanmar two Reuters journalists were put in jail for seven years after investigating the slaughter of Muslim Rohingya.
American President Donald Trump has declared the press “the enemy of the people,” prompting some journalists to hire bodyguards and carry concealed weapons.
This is frightening, and ridiculous.
This week, Oct. 1-7, is National Newspaper Week. The theme – “Now More Than Ever” – rings truer than ever before. Now more than ever the balanced, in-depth and objective reporting of newspapers is desperately needed. National Newspaper Week, we have to admit, is pure propaganda on our part. We want our voices heard this and every week; we at the Gazette want readers to know we are determined to produce the best stories possible.
Internally, newspapers face many obstacles: shrinking ad revenue, audience fragmentation, job losses and the closing of small and large presses.
Out in the real world the printed word must battle against social media, fake news, and at times, even fake journalism. So where is the optimism? Is there really any to be had?
Large papers such as The Globe and Mail and The New York Times are competing because their audiences are national and international in scale, they have comparatively large staff and resources (but not unlimited). They have also evolved, and adapted to the speed-of-light changes that occur on a daily basis better than most. Their web products are quite good. Yet many other papers – large and small – have failed. Look at Postmedia, Canada’s largest newspaper chain, it’s bleeding debt.
On a smaller but equally important scale those voices that once represented communities across the nation have fallen silent.
Here in St. Albert, though, that spirit continues to rise and rumble – it keeps the Gazette staff on its toes. This 57-year-old, award-winning paper faces all the same problems that all other news outlets rail against.
Still, we have something special at this community paper: We possess a large, engaged readership that demands quality and that its voice be heard.
Constant phone calls to the office keep the editor busy. There is constant criticism – some praising, some disparaging – that challenges us to do better. That’s our job: Keeping our readers informed with balanced reporting on the issues that matter to them. We won’t always get it right, we won’t always satisfy everyone in the community, but we promise to do our best.
Readers make this paper but so do the hard-working and dedicated people charged with producing a paper twice weekly. We can’t do our jobs here unless there is a team dynamic in play. We need a hard-charging ad department, a skilled production team, a newsroom constantly challenging itself and all the other talented men and women who make this machine run efficiently. And we dare not forget the 325 carriers who deliver the paper. They are the true boots on the ground – well, in our case the running shoes.
The Gazette is your paper, St. Albert. Call us, let us know what’s going on and what you think.
Now more than ever it’s vital to keep this thing we call a newspaper going, and going strong.
