The Spokane Record

The Spokesman-Review published a piece this morning regarding the commercial rezoning in Spokane’s Southgate area.  Here.  The paper’s website allows for and encourages reader comment and comment participation.  The Seattle Times does the same thing.  Often an article in the Seattle Times will generate many comments — in the double digits.  The Spokesman-Review is lucky if its articles generate 5 or 8 comments.  Rarely do articles generate more than 5 comments.

Why?  I wonder.  I suspect there are many reasons.  But, I think two reasons would stand out if some research was undertaken:  (1) People in the Spokane area have very little interest in local affairs.  (2) If they have an interest in local affairs, they are afraid to express themselves.  In the final analysis this may be evidence of a high degree of conformity.

Apathy will be the death of the Spokesman-Review.  The problems of the Spokesman-Review have less to do with a downturn in advertising locally and nationally, the costs of operating a daily newspaper, the Internet, radio, cell phones, Craigslist or any thing else.  The Spokesman-Review is suffering because the people of Spokane are apathetic.  They do not care about what is happening in their community.  They do not care about what is happening in their courts.  They do not care about what is happening in the lives of their neighbors, they do not care what is happening in their county, in their region, in their state, in their country.  The people are interested in “bread and circuses.”  That’s about it over all. 

People may take pleasure in the problems of the Spokesman-Review and its owners but they are naive and coarse in their views.  A city, a county, a region will not do well or be healthy and vibrant without a daily newspaper. 

Not only are the mass of people in Spokane apathetic, a significant portion have become  resigned to self-destruction and nihilism.

What a waste of a beautiful idea, The Inland Empire.

One sees news every day about the demise of the daily newspaper.  I am going to miss picking up my newspaper at the door every morning and laying it out on the table to read.  I am going to miss reading a hard copy of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even USA today from time to time.  However, such things are luxuries in today’s world.  Putting a timely website on hard copy is simply a waste of precious resources.

The daily newspaper cannot survive with the Internet.  It is finished. 

But there are certain necessities.  One is that there be a local newspaper or newspapers to chronicle the events of the day or the week, or at least some of them, of each location of humanity.  In the end, the Internet is going to perform this function just fine.

In the meantime, . . . . . well, a bit of the history and thought of humankind is going to be lost.  Not to worry though, not much will be lost.

Its a matter of time before The Spokesman-Review ceases publication.  Over the past few years the management has cut costs — primarily news staff – in order to make ends meet.  The paper has to be losing money.  At least is not paying for its investment in capital and the maintenance of its a capital.  One can easily speculate that the owners — the Cowles Family — is losing money or at least not making money. 

So what will happen if the paper folds?  It is anybody’s guess.  Here are a couple of articles referred to me by a friend who works for Congressional Quarterly in Washington DC.

These two pieces are well worth reading.