Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
See also COVID-19 and the Shadowy “Trusted News Initiative”
https://www.salemnews.com/opinion/co...61b4412bb.html
The slow death of journalism
But the crisis in journalism is producing unwelcome effects now – and will continue to generate negative consequences – in the health, stability, and viability of democracy itself. Today, democracy is being threatened by many factors, but a weakening press is one of the bigger ones.
Since the mid-1990s, when the internet really started to come into its own as the media-communications-retail-entertainment juggernaut that we know today, it has managed to cause the complete closure of approximately 2,000 mainstream newspapers (dailies and weeklies).
...
I have some sympathy for newspapers and the people still attempting to publish them. Most papers in America are now owned by a handful of large corporations, hedge funds, and investment speculators – companies that the readers are not even aware of. Gannett, for example, is owned by New Media Investment Group, which in turn is managed and controlled by Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm. In a last layer, Fortress is owned by Softbank, a huge Japanese multinational conglomerate with assets totaling roughly $350 billion. Its focus is on wealth and investment management, far removed from what goes on in the Billerica or Brookline Town Hall.
With Gannett’s continuing evolution – as with journalism across the country – what will degrade is democracy. We are losing the people – both reporters and serious readers – by which private and public power is held accountable.
Brian T. Watson of Swampscott is author of “Headed Into the Abyss: The Story of Our Time, and the Future We’ll Face.”
https://www.salemnews.com/opinion/co...61b4412bb.html
The slow death of journalism
- By Brian T. Watson
- Apr 28, 2022
But the crisis in journalism is producing unwelcome effects now – and will continue to generate negative consequences – in the health, stability, and viability of democracy itself. Today, democracy is being threatened by many factors, but a weakening press is one of the bigger ones.
Since the mid-1990s, when the internet really started to come into its own as the media-communications-retail-entertainment juggernaut that we know today, it has managed to cause the complete closure of approximately 2,000 mainstream newspapers (dailies and weeklies).
...
I have some sympathy for newspapers and the people still attempting to publish them. Most papers in America are now owned by a handful of large corporations, hedge funds, and investment speculators – companies that the readers are not even aware of. Gannett, for example, is owned by New Media Investment Group, which in turn is managed and controlled by Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm. In a last layer, Fortress is owned by Softbank, a huge Japanese multinational conglomerate with assets totaling roughly $350 billion. Its focus is on wealth and investment management, far removed from what goes on in the Billerica or Brookline Town Hall.
With Gannett’s continuing evolution – as with journalism across the country – what will degrade is democracy. We are losing the people – both reporters and serious readers – by which private and public power is held accountable.
Brian T. Watson of Swampscott is author of “Headed Into the Abyss: The Story of Our Time, and the Future We’ll Face.”