Edited by Anthony Clericuzio (’20)
The Internet world has become much stronger, more and more people prefer to look things up online rather than use books or paper. It also means there are a lot of news writers losing their jobs, and not enough money to support the expense of families. They have to leave their beloved job because of burdened financial pressure from companies.
Jordyn Gizelewski posted her feelings after getting laid off by the Plain Dealer and said “My heart hurts for my fellow @PDNewsGuild members, who have given so much of their lives and hearts to their work here.” It’s been a very tough and unfair time for these dedicated journalists, especially while Coronavirus’s is attacking most of the world.
With newsprint writing continuing to die day by day, it is only a matter of time before it is too late to save. What seems to be one of the only ways to save journalism and print news in general is to start reading newspapers again. As a community, if we want these hard working journalists to keep their jobs, reading the news they write is one of the easiest ways to help.
If more communities start supporting their local newspapers once again, fewer journalists will lose their jobs. With the Internet taking over today’s information-saturated world, regular support of local businesses can help as a positive solution. Another resolution can be including local news in events like local sports and high school events. If local news is the heart of a community, everyone in the community will want to read and find out more details about local events which pertain to them. Local news often tries to compete with big time news outlets. Instead, they should cover local stories for people living in the featured areas.
The Internet is continuing to transform the world with online media. In so many workplaces, technological advances have improved the speed and quality of work. That is surprisingly true with news writing too. Yes, it is very convenient and costs much less to put newspapers online. However, this practice can negatively impact the livelihoods of many journalists. During the extremely uncertain time of this coronavirus, many journalists at The Plain Dealer have recently been laid off. While they can potentially have more freedom in their writing and do not have to be limited to only one area they can report on, the newsprint industry appears to be unstable and underfunded. The coronavirus and the growing preference of the Internet have immediately impacted news writing in the Cleveland area.
When it comes to helping all of those local newspapers, we need to all join forces and work together to ensure we can save and help all of these writers and newspapers before it’s too late. Everyone needs these papers to get more information about what is happening in their area and town so it is up to us to make sure that can stay. It will take time but if we persevere I know we will be able to achieve this goal before you know it.
Regional support for newsprint once again may not happen overnight, but we need to at least think about working together to save and support local newspapers. Think about how things would be if we did not have these insights on major news topics without local reporters finding information out for us. We need to first be aware of what is happening, and then have the courage to act to help save these jobs and keep the local newspaper industries running.
Act now. Support local news.
