Newspapers--we need them to survive as a free society

The Palm Beach Post has been downsizing its newspaper. Recently it went to a larger font (something I like a lot) and cut the width. It has laid off a bunch of people including news room staffers. They even were heartless by doing this in a bulletin board announcement last year. We all have seen the repercussions of the decisions made at the Post. They have few syndicated columnists now. I have defended newspapers…still do, but today’s newspaper really took the cake for me. Here’s why.

Page 1. Front page. Months ago, they started allowing one ad on the front page. I thought then that this was pathetic…still do.

Page 2. 3 ads

Page 3. 1 half page ad

Page 4. 1, 4/5^th’s page ad

Page 5. 3 ads, 1 half page

Page 6. 4 ads, 1 half page

Page 7. Full page ad

Page 8. Full page ad

Page 9. 4/5^th’s page ad

Page 10. 2 ads, 1, ½ page

Page 11. Full page ad

Page 12. 3 ads taking up 4/5^th’s of the page

Page 13. 3 ads taking up 4/5^th’s of the page

Page 14. 4 ads

Page 15. Full page ad

Page 16. 8 ads—I said eight (8)!!

Page 17. Full page ad

Page 18. Full page ad

Page 19. 3 ads

Page 20. Finally, the Editorial section and something to read!

Page 21. ½ page ad on the rest of the Opinion section

This is the entire front section of our Palm Beach Post, a newspaper that used to be the greatest. It is no wonder it is losing readership. Who wants to spend $214 a year to read advertisements of things you can’t afford to buy or don't want? We buy the newspaper to keep us up on all the latest news worthy issues here in Palm Beach County as well as State and National and World events. The Post launched its on-line coverage in 1995 and they have done a superb job here. It is the physical newspaper that they have allowed to go down the tubes.

Every business seems to do the same thing. If you are losing market share or losing customers, you raise the price of the product and/or you pay more for less. I have never figured this one out but it happens all of the time with every product imaginable. The City of Lake Worth did it to our golf course. It raised the price of fees because it was losing memberships and players. Instead of tackling the problem for these losses, which was golf course maintenance, their solution was to raise the rates, still cutting back on fertilizer. Brilliant!

I wrote about the rapid death of print newspapers in March and that it would be a terrible thing for us all if they died out. The Palm Beach Post is one of the reasons why we can keep a free society. Just look at what they did to expose corruption in Palm Beach County? If it were not for their superb investigative reporting, we would still have crooks running our County.

Thomas Jefferson said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter."

A solution must be found now. I don’t want to read the major section of the newspaper consisting mainly of ads. I don’t buy this paper to read ads. Unless the news media act fast and come up with something sensible here, we will have a government unchecked because there will be no one to monitor them. So, Mr. Burke, let’s find that solution. I don’t want to see this paper die. The number one benefit to society as a whole are all the newspapers and all the reporters who cover our news and report on the facts and expose the truth. So, please, come up with a model that will work.

And that is why we speak out in public forums, something our local Lake Worth news editor just does not get.