Maybe there’s a reason we’re losing newspapers

That newspapers are having trouble is about as much of a secret as Kanye West’s opinion of Beyonce’s video. Everyone understands that it’s happening, and some in Washington are concerned. Their belief is that newspapers are vital in maintaining a free society, and Obama is quoted as saying that the print media is “critical to the health of our democracy.”

And now the President is considering backing a plan that would offer tax incentives for newspapers that restructure as non-profits. Of course, what do you expect from a government that acts as though profits are evil, and ignores the problem many have with print news.

The instability of print media stems from a lot of places, but one of the primary ones is the perceived lack of objectivity. Newspapers claim to be objective, yet many perceive a liberal bias in newspapers all over this country, from the New York Times and Boston Globe, to the Albany Herald and even smaller papers. Right or wrong, it’s the way many people see it. One friend had labeled the Herald a “left wing rag” years ago and said he wouldn’t even line a bird cage with it in fear of infecting a pet with liberalism. Yeah, that’s taking it a bit far, but you get the point.

In addition to this, newspapers are facing competition that didn’t even seem fathomable a matter of years ago. The internet, and blogs in particular, have pushed the decline of the newspaper industry as well. Now, news is at the tip of your fingers in a matter of moments. As has been noted before by me, blogs aren’t restricted to column inches. We have the ability to print news magazine like articles on a daily basis, without as much concern for length. The only reason Jeff and I do restrict length is that people get tired of reading after a while. I do too, so I understand..

Now, how does the rise of blogs (which are biased as hell) hurt newspapers when I’ve already said that the perceived lack of bias has hurt newspapers? Simple. Blogs are noted by their bias. As a libertarian blog, SWGAPolitics.com doesn’t attract a lot of liberal readers. Redstate.com doesn’t either, but they don’t get a lot of libertarians either. BlogforDemocracy, one of the big blogs in the state and a liberal leaning one, doesn’t get a lot of conservatives. People know what they’re getting when they go to these blogs. The lack of objectivity is a feature, not a bug.

Newspapers are in trouble. The market is squeezing them out as more and more people get news from television and the internet. And now the government is going to bail them out, though not quite to the extent that Wall Street and the auto industry got bailed out. Still, it’s enough that it’ll make the buggy whip business to wish it was going belly up right about now, instead of the ages past.