This is my last column for
the Journal-Courier. A few weeks ago, the editor, David Bauer, informed me that
my column was being terminated as of today. He said the decision was “a budget
decision”. Jay Jamison’s column was also ended. I don’t know what other changes
have been made.
These are hard times for
newspapers. Newspapers large and small have suffered in the recent past.
Circulation for daily newspapers across America has fallen by about half
since 2000. Advertising revenue for newspapers has fallen over 75%.
This has hit newsrooms
particularly hard: the number of news journalists has dropped by half. While
national newspapers are weathering this storm, local newspapers are closing.
Since 2004, about 1,800
local papers have closed or merged. The smaller the paper, the more likely
it would close.
The new tariffs imposed by
the Trump administration raised costs suddenly. The tariff
on paper from Canada greatly increased costs for all papers. In September,
the US International Trade Commission found that American paper mills were not
hurt by Canadian imports and canceled
the tariffs. But David Bauer told me that the tariffs on imported aluminum,
used to create plates for printing presses, mean that printing costs have
jumped.
I was very lucky to be given
the opportunity to write opinion pieces for the Journal-Courier during
remarkable times. For me, “freedom of the press” captures the sense of
intellectual and political freedom I was given at the end of my working life.
An example of that freedom is the word limit within which most op-ed writers
must operate. David let me gradually push the length of my articles from the
standard 650 to 850.
Probably more important, for
me and my readers, was the freedom of subject I was given. Although I was a
local columnist, I could write about any place or any subject. Over 9 years, I
never heard one negative word from my editor about my subjects or my opinions
about them. I could go wherever I wanted in my Tuesday columns.
I will continue to write. I
feel a need to comment on life and current events. Writing columns means going
beyond my immediate reactions and opinions to read what other people have
written, to put together relevant facts, to think again and to put my thoughts
into a coherent argument. I learn something every week about the world and
about myself.
But I think that something is
lost in this shift away of local columnists commenting on national issues,
especially political issues, occurring here and elsewhere. There are many
writers across the country who write from perspectives similar to mine or to
Jay’s. The internet allows anyone with a computer to access countless opinion
columns on any issue every day.
The difference is that they
are not here in Jacksonville. They are not neighbors. They don’t share the life
of this community. You will never see them in the grocery store or at a concert
or eating at a restaurant. There is no chance of developing a relationship with
them. My writing will no longer seep into a single community, not just as
single pieces, but as a regular injection by a person who is familiar, who sees
the world from the same place as my neighbors, although not with the same eyes.
A newspaper is an experience
shared across a physical community, trying, these days desperately, to appeal
as broadly as possible. So we all read the same obituaries and advertisements,
the same sports reporting, the same advice columns, and the same opinion
pieces. Some local people, who would never go to any website that featured my
writing, who would never seek out the well-known liberal media voices on the
internet or on TV, did more than glance away from my Tuesday op-eds. I know
that, because some of them repeatedly wrote nasty messages to me, ostensibly
provoked by what I had just written, but often simply outraged by my existence.
I have talked with enough
people in Jacksonville to know that some who hated my politics learned to
respect me and my opinions, perhaps shifting their political perspective ever
so slightly.
The demise of newspapers in
America may put an end to the kind of interactions between writers and
audiences which bridge partisan gulfs, which challenge partisan certainties.
When people search on the internet for reading material, they usually look in
familiar places where their views are shared. Internet opinion tends to
reinforce what we already believe.
I will miss the sense that I
am writing mainly for people I see every day. After eating breakfast at Norma’s
the other day, when I went to pay, I was told that someone had picked up my
tab. The internet cannot provide such personal connections.
Perhaps this change will lead
to new thoughts about how to distribute my essays more widely, most likely
through social media. In the meantime, my articles will be posted each Tuesday
on my website stevehochstadt.blogspot.com. I will be happy to send them by
email to anyone who wishes to get them – just let me know by writing to me at
shochsta@ic.edu.
Thank you for allowing me
into your homes and into your minds.
Steve Hochstadt
Bloomington, IN
Published in the Jacksonville
Journal-Courier, October 16, 2018
This was written for my newspaper readers. I will continue to write columns and place them here.
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