“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
So Mark Twain was said to have remarked when informed that the New York Journal had printed his obituary, but it’s a quote that could be applied to newspapers, too.
Certainly, the headlines about the news business over the last decade and a half have not been encouraging. Between the disruptive influence of digital communication technology and the long-term effects of the Great Recession, print publications have been taking body blow after body blow, losing revenue and then staff.
But all is not lost. People want community. The success of Facebook is proof of that. And in an analog way, newspapers – especially locally focused newspapers – have been creating and sustaining communities for centuries. Now many are riding the digital way as well.
Rhode Island is proof positive that this is true. The state’s community newspapers, whether daily or weekly, whether paid or free (including Providence Business News, whose community is geographically diverse but focused on all things business), are doing just fine. One group of local papers in the northern part of the state set a revenue record in 2016. And locally focused, digital-only news outlets are filling in more of the gaps as regional newspapers, such as The Providence Journal, pull back to conserve resources.
Newspapers were there at the founding of the republic and are enshrined in the Constitution. From where PBN sits, there is no reason to believe that they are going away anytime soon.
