Spring Break
Newspapers can't be kept alive forever
Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: Forum
We all have heard about how newspapers are a dying breed.
With that thought in mind, the Washington State Senate voted 46-2 on Sunday to give tax breaks to the state's newspapers, and the bill is now moving to Gov. Chris Gregoire's office to be made official.
This proposal would cut the business and occupation tax on Washington newspapers by 40 percent until 2015, putting less of a financial strain on them.
This bill applies to a state that recently lost a large newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is now online. Circulation is down across the nation and the world.
It's sad to hear that newspapers are going out of business - this equals job loss and the death of the individuality of each newspaper.
But just because newspapers are going out of business doesn't mean journalism is dead. Sure, it would be awesome for newspapers to be around forever, giving you a reason to smear ink everywhere.
It would also be awesome for the news to be presented through the budding technology available to us today and in the future. There are a lot of amazing new technologies that are helping bring the news to people using the Internet and new media.
Keeping newspapers alive by force - essentially what this tax cut is doing - is not helping anyone and is going against the "invisible hand" of the economy.
The money being used by the state of Washington to "help" newspapers could be better invested in new media technologies - or better yet, spent on other state necessities, thus allowing the market to do what it will do on its own.
Newspapers aren't exactly environmentally healthy. According to the Newspaper Association of America, only 30 percent of newspapers are made of recycled material, and 73 percent of newspapers are recycled or recovered. There have been advancements and they have become more environmentally conscious, but the end of newspapers would eliminate excessive energy used to recycle these papers.
This sounds odd coming from a print newspaper, but it is important for anyone in this industry, including readers of the news, to look to the future, and that future just may not include newspapers.
We have had the Internet for years, but only recently have news agencies truly adopted newer technologies, and there are bound to be more in the future.
Basically, there will always be news, and there will always be people to report and package the news. There may not always be newspapers, but that's okay. We just can't delay the inevitable.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
With that thought in mind, the Washington State Senate voted 46-2 on Sunday to give tax breaks to the state's newspapers, and the bill is now moving to Gov. Chris Gregoire's office to be made official.
This proposal would cut the business and occupation tax on Washington newspapers by 40 percent until 2015, putting less of a financial strain on them.
This bill applies to a state that recently lost a large newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is now online. Circulation is down across the nation and the world.
It's sad to hear that newspapers are going out of business - this equals job loss and the death of the individuality of each newspaper.
But just because newspapers are going out of business doesn't mean journalism is dead. Sure, it would be awesome for newspapers to be around forever, giving you a reason to smear ink everywhere.
It would also be awesome for the news to be presented through the budding technology available to us today and in the future. There are a lot of amazing new technologies that are helping bring the news to people using the Internet and new media.
Keeping newspapers alive by force - essentially what this tax cut is doing - is not helping anyone and is going against the "invisible hand" of the economy.
The money being used by the state of Washington to "help" newspapers could be better invested in new media technologies - or better yet, spent on other state necessities, thus allowing the market to do what it will do on its own.
Newspapers aren't exactly environmentally healthy. According to the Newspaper Association of America, only 30 percent of newspapers are made of recycled material, and 73 percent of newspapers are recycled or recovered. There have been advancements and they have become more environmentally conscious, but the end of newspapers would eliminate excessive energy used to recycle these papers.
This sounds odd coming from a print newspaper, but it is important for anyone in this industry, including readers of the news, to look to the future, and that future just may not include newspapers.
We have had the Internet for years, but only recently have news agencies truly adopted newer technologies, and there are bound to be more in the future.
Basically, there will always be news, and there will always be people to report and package the news. There may not always be newspapers, but that's okay. We just can't delay the inevitable.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
Note: writers will not reply to comments.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
John
posted 4/27/09 @ 10:53 PM PST
President Obama should just appoint a minister of the press nationalize newspapers like he's doing with other industries. They already work for him for free. (Continued…)
Robert Anthony
posted 4/28/09 @ 7:53 PM PST
I wonder how much fair and unbiased reporting will result with the Government pulling the strings. Not that there is much fair reporting now.
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