Boys State is canceled, Night Ranger is postponed to October 1, Ducks Unlimited is putting off its April 27 dinner…
…but in a closure that appears to have nothing to do with coronavirus, Gannett, “the largest local newspaper company in the United States,” is eliminating 21 jobs in Aberdeen by moving the printing of the American News from the community it serves to Sioux Falls:
The American News is moving its production operation and printing of all associated products, including the American News and Farm Forum in Aberdeen, from its current location on South Second Street to a sister facility in Sioux Falls in May.
Twenty-one positions will be eliminated at the American News. As a result of this transition, Sioux Falls will be adding production staff in the pressroom and in packaging, including press operators and packaging staff. Affected employees will be invited to apply.
The consolidation of production operations has become more common within the newspaper industry. The associated cost savings allow papers to preserve vital journalism jobs.
The change is not expected to impact news coverage or delivery times for the American News and Farm Forum [staff, “American News, Farm Forum Moving Printing to Sioux Falls,” Aberdeen American News, 2020.04.09].
Aberdeen has thrived relative to other lonely prairie towns by preserving its role as a hub for surrounding communities. Flung far from the Interstate highways, Aberdeen has had to develop more of its own economic and cultural opportunities. When Aberdeen becomes just the far end of a spoke in the Sioux Falls hub, Aberdeen’s economy and culture lose a little vibrancy.
Aberdeen professor and journalist emeritus David Newquist worries that Aberdeen will soon lose the vibrancy of the last authentically local journalists:
News business in Aberdeen has diminished over recent years. The local press once consisted of news departments from a local television station, three radio stations, and the American News. Other media have given Aberdeen the kind of attention they thought Aberdeen deserved: nothing. The electronic media have eliminated their news departments. The trend is clear. If the newspaper is to be printed in Sioux Falls, why can’t the editorial and advertising management be centered there?
You can be sure the bottom-line managers have thought of that. And who but the newspaper they own is left to call them into account? [David Newquist, “Aberdeen Newspaper Boots Production Staff on the Path to End,” Northern Valley Beacon, 2020.04.09]
Night Ranger will come back to Aberdeen. Those 21 newspaper jobs won’t… and the owner of our newspaper doesn’t really mind.
Although I’ve never been enamored of the AAN, it’s demise would not be a good thing.
And the death throes of the print media continue…
https://www.keloland.com/news/capitol-news-bureau/covid-19-pressures-south-dakota-newspapers/
Cory, This is not Gannett. This is a result of a decline in news organizations income that now is further reduced revenue do to Coid-19.
I’ve just posted this on another topic on DFP but it is pertinent that John Oliver’s attempt at humor be aired here as well. Greatest time ever to be a crooked politician! No newspaper investigative reporting anymore. Democracy dies in the dark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq2_wSsDwkQ
Another nail in the coffin.
This is terrible. Yes, democracy dies in the dark. The AAN was once a stalwart. That was decades ago. Community newspapers are folding at an alarming rate over the past decade . . . largely due to artificial intelligence and the internet. When 30% of local businesses go out of business due to Amazon & Walmart (they are not advertising 30% more locally), and the classifieds divert to Craig’s List — the newspaper business model dies. Here, and in Kingsbury County, the virus-lack of advertising revenue was the needle breaking the camel’s back. Without a basic set of facts provided by local journalism, then folks turn tribal, clannish, rallying around slogans and not around values, facts, and virtue.
Andrew Yang addressed the loss of local newspapers in many interviews and in his policies. His ‘local journalism fund’ is far better than not having local papers. https://www.yang2020.com/policies/local-journalism-fund/ and https://www.yang2020.com/policies/american-journalism-fellows/. Yang’s interview with the Des Moines Register, note his local newspaper discussion begins at 36:50 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72fXyHzaNZ4&feature=share
Aberdeen should consider whether to start an non-profit newspaper to fill the void. Perhaps its on line. Perhaps with limited copies printed. Non-profit newspapers are breaking out in the US from the Cascades to Minneapolis. https://www.minnpost.com/
Scott, Gannett is making a choice. They could look for other ways to save money. They could look to increase sales and add value for advertisers. They could invest in the communities they serve, recognizing that every person they hire and pay a good wage to in Aberdeen is a shopper who can spend money at Aberdeen businesses who can them afford to spend more on advertising.
Jon Hunter still prints his own paper in Madison, doesn’t he? If Hunter’s Leader Publishing can make it in Madison, how come Gannett can’t make it in Aberdeen?
They could also stop being a hack-job rag, but that’s not likely. The hack-job rags are dying faster than the others.
Here is a long form discussion of the national problem and its short and long term remedies. Over 1,400 local newspapers died in the past decade. Over 57% of the 2,500 counties with a COVID-19 case lack a daily newspaper. Gannet’s decision essentially stripping our 3d largest city of a local newspaper is a state tragedy.
The News Media Alliance, a trade group, and the NewsGuild, newspaper union, both ask congress for an emergency recovery assistance. Since most of the newspapers are small businesses there is no reason why they should not qualify under the concepts used for recovery assistance. Subsidies for news are as American as apple pie. The postal service was created in part to disseminate news – and still does so through reduced and bulk rates. Public broadcasters use the airwaves for free.
Conglomerates, like Gannet, merged, consolidated, and swallowed local papers with no eye to providing the local newspaper service. Recovery assistance should NOT go to the conglomerates for they and their business models contribute to the problem.
Some in congress propose a “journalism fund” for short and long term assistance. (Much as has Andrew Yang.)
Cory’s asked the right questions. Gannet will likely not surrender. Aberdeen will have to decide whether it wants local journalism, and if so, find it’s Jon Hunter, support that effort, and stop sending money (ads & subscriptions) to Gannet. And perhaps to get such a project off the ground a local newspaper may revert to pioneer days publishing a couple translated pages in the language of new immigrants.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/journalism-coronavirus-bailout-stimulus_n_5e8de43ac5b6e59ccbfb9381
News for our new residents? Excellent idea, John.
I wonder if the model committed journalists must follow is the PBS/DFP model: produce good material, ask people to donate to support that material.
The problem for journalism right now is that the business model has evolved to generate revenue from an ancillary, unnecessary function: advertising. The big money comes from spreading messages from sellers to consumers. That money subsidizes the vital community function of informing citizens about public affairs. We don’t pay full freight for the real value newspapers contribute to the community. Reporting on Noem’s hypocrisy and corruption is worth its weight in gold and can only come from good journalism; a note that orange juice is on sale at Ken’s or that Aberdeen Chrysler has trucks on sale is useful but not nearly as valuable and can get out by other means. Yet the free market has decided to assign opposite values to those services.
To really solve the problem, we need to reëducate the public on the value of journalism. We need SDPB, South Dakota News Watch, Dakota Free Press, and other journalism outlets to convince South Dakotans that good reporting is worth paying for.
The virus induced advertising crash induced the LA Times to warn of impending layoffs.
https://twitter.com/marcatracy/status/1250131079341760512?s=21