Gannett has left behind a trail of wrecked newspapers all across the United States

Stefanik continues to brag about missile system military does not want to build

By Ken Tingley

When Gannett began publishing USA Today in 1982, it changed the landscape of the newspaper world.

It splashed a big blue masthead and vibrant color photos when most papers were still black and white.

Its stories were lean and consise to a fault.

Only one story was allowed to continue on an inside page.

Each section front had the same layout.

Each newspaper looked almost the same as the day before.

The sports section provided a sea of statistical information unrivaled and quickly copied by other newspapers. Many of those innovations are still used today.

Some derisively called it a “McPaper.”

Others said it was the dumbing down of America.

It was a national newspaper sold on newsstands and it was bankrolled in those early days by Gannett’s large stable of community newspapers. After five years, USA Today turned a profit and became one of the most read newspapers in the country.

As much as Gannett may have changed the face of newspapers 40 years ago, it never embraced the multitude of community newspapers that did not have competition.

With time, things have only gotten worse. Gannett’s strategies have left a wake of wreckage across the country including upstate New York.

Joshua Benton, who founded the Nieman journalism lab at Harvard in 2008 and is now its senior writer, wrote a story for Nieman in March that says it all: “The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing.”

He wrote this: “Gannett’s most recent annual report drives home the fact that no company has done more to shrink local journalism than it has in recent years.”

It’s important to know this because Gannett owns newspapers all across upstate New York including:

Binghamton Sun-Bulletin.

Canandaigua Daily Messenger

Corning Leader

Elmira Star-Gazette

Ithaca Journal

Journal-News, Westchester County

Middletown Times Herald-Record

Poughkeepsie Journal

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Utica Observer and Dispatch

All are shadows of their former selves.

Consider that in 2018, Gannett and Gatehouse - the two largest newspaper companies in the country - merged. Together, the two companies had 24,338 employees. By the end of 2022, it had just 11,200.

Benton put it this way: “It’s as if instead of merging America’s two largest newspaper chains, one of them was simply wiped off the face of the earth.”

Gannett owned 261 daily newspapers and 302 weekly newspapers after the merger. By the end of 2022, those totals were 217 and 175. Communities all across the country had lost their local news source.

Gannett’s circulations numbers haven’t just declined, they have plummeted. Benton reports that every Gannett paper saw a circulation decline of at least 52 percent and the average drop is 67 percent. Benton found newspapers owned by other companies have fared far better. While The Seattle Times lost 62,000 print subscribers, it gained 52,00 digital subscribers.

“There are plenty of explanations for the gap,” Benton wrote. “But it’s hard not to believe that Gannett’s gutting of their editorial products hasn’t been a driving factor.”

Consider that in 2018, USA Today had a daily print circulation of 589,692, but just 134,629 in 2022.

But the real damage was done at those small community dailies around the country. Benton pointed to The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana. In 2015, its paid circulation was 26,885. By 2022, it was around 4,000.

“Yikes. All that decline has come amid round after round of Gannett budget cuts,” Benton wrote. “You can debate the direction of causation: how much the cuts were driven by declining revenues, versus how much the declining revenues were driven by the cuts. But the end result is the same either way - a newspaper that is, today, an embarrassing product.”

That’s tough for an old newspaper guy like me to read.

As I’ve traveled around the region over the past two years speaking about newspapers and their value to the community, I heard from readers - mostly older - disappointed by the product they see, but desperately wanting to support local journalism.

Gannett may not even be the worst example. That may belong to hedge fund titan Alden Global Capital while the folks at the Buffalo News were also beefing about Lee Enterprises - The Post-Star’s owner - in recent weeks.

But the affect on communities is what we all should worry about.

“When the local paper stops reporting, there’s often no one else to take its place,” Benton concludes. “Everyone gets a little less informed about the world around them. And Gannett has increased local ignorance at a scale no other company can match.”

That is a sad legacy.

Girard’s second visit

Joe Girard III, the Glens Falls native who is considering transferring from Syracuse for his fifth year of basketball eligibility, recently made a second visit to another college. This time it was to Clemson in the ACC.

Girard has made a visit to LSU the week before.

Girard wrote this on Twitter: “Appreciate Coach Brownell And Clemson For Having Me On An Amazing Visit! Death Valley? 👀💜🧡 #NotCommitted”

Facebook post

Had a really nice post on Facebook about my two books - “The Last American Newspaper” and “The Last American” Editor - from Michael Dumais in Quebec. He wrote:

“Two fascinating and remarkably well-written books about local journalism, that of small towns and villages, close to people and their community: The Last American Newspaper et The Last American Editor.”

Both books still available locally at Ace Hardware, Warren County Historical Society, Queensbury; Chapman Museum, Glens Falls; McKernon Gallery, Hudson Falls, Battenkill Books, Cambridge; and now in Plattsburgh at the Corner Stone Bookshop.

Carlson out

Those of us who spent careers laboring to get the story right are not upset by the firing of Tucker Carlson by Fox News.

Tom Jones of the Poynter Institute spoke with NPR TV critic Eric Deggans, who said this:

“What makes Tucker Carlson dangerous is that he spouts a ton of misinformation and disinformation that has the imprimatur of a major cable TV news channel so people believe that what he is saying is true.”

Lying is bad no matter what you believe politically

But we don’t need it

Rep. Elise Stefanik continues to brag on Twitter that she has secured commitments from military officials to build a new missile defense system at Fort Drum.

The hitch is that the military has repeatedly said it doesn’t need the new system and there are no plans to build it.