With no fat left to trim, news orgs should carve off ‘Surfaced News’
In this age of ultra-lean journalism, supported mostly by unstable or unsustainable business models, publishers and newsrooms have had to make tough calls about where to concentrate their meager resources.
The majority have decided to maintain essentially the same variety of coverage but reduce its depth. So, in the print edition, each section of the paper is still there, but a section that used to be eight pages is now four, or a section that used to be four pages is now two pages on Sunday and one page every other day.
Where more radical cuts have been required, they’ve mostly hit the “soft news” sections. Soft news, which includes coverage of topics such as the arts, local events, human interest stories, and, arguably, sports, typically gets the ax because it’s judged to be of less consequence than hard news, which includes coverage of topics such as crime, politics, natural disasters and public policy.
But in terms of where to allocate reporting resources in an age when newsroom budgets are tighter than they’ve ever been, there is an even more critical distinction than hard news vs. soft news, and by recognizing this distinction, news organizations can put their limited resources to the best possible use.
Surfaced vs. Buried News
Think about the most recent news story you read. Now ask yourself: Who wanted me to find out about this news?
If you can think of at least one party involved in the news who had an incentive for the news to be published, that’s Surfaced News.
For instance, if you read a story about an NFL game, the teams and the league had a vested interest in that story being surfaced. Indeed, they had an interest in that story being as widely read as possible. The teams and the league benefit when many people follow the game, and if you weren’t getting the information from a newspaper, you could get it from their press releases.
If you read a story about the local police department arresting a crime suspect, the person who was arrested does not have an interest in your reading the story — but the police do. They want you to know the bad guy’s been locked up, not only as a matter of public safety but because it makes them look good. And again, if you weren’t getting the information from a newspaper, you could get it from their press release.
If you read a story about an upcoming concert, or a business making a sizable donation to charity, or a politician giving an election speech, or a professor at a local university discovering a new insect species … that’s all Surfaced News. The people involved want you to find out about it.
Now, consider a story about a well-paid public employee who lied about his credentials when applying for his present position. Or a story about a business that has just fired several of its top executives without explanation. Or a story about school district officials who have been quietly conducting closed-door meetings. Or a story about disaster relief efforts being delayed because of a lack of effective coordination between multiple private and public organizations. Or a story about a state auditor making critical accounting mistakes.
These are all examples of Buried News. None of the parties involved is going to issue a press release about any of those stories, because they don’t want the public to find out about them. If they do make a public statement, it’s likely an attempt to bury the real news deeper underground.
Buried News is the type of news that has little chance of becoming public — unless someone goes digging for it.
A Vibrant Press
The press has historically filled the role of disinterested digger, beholden (ideally) only to readers, digging up stories that others would rather not be unearthed. Government corruption, corporate malfeasance, the misdoings of the rich and powerful … all of those get easily buried without a healthy press to keep them honest.
We are now living in a time where the business model that historically sustained a healthy press — print advertising revenue — has experienced a great collapse. News publishers have had to make painful reductions of reporters, editors, photographers, and other newsroom personnel. Many of the best, most experienced reporters have fled for greener pastures, so newsrooms are now populated mainly by younger, less experienced (though no less tenacious) staffers.
And unfortunately, it doesn’t look as if there will be a significant turnaround any time soon.
Novel strategies to keep news organizations afloat — being adopted by a wealthy benefactor, reorganizing as a nonprofit, implementing a patronage system — may help, but none yet looks poised to save the industry.
Given all that, a news organization that needs to make significant cuts to its coverage should consider reducing variety, rather than breadth. Cut the sections that mainly consist of Surfaced News. Readers can get that news from the people and groups who want them to find out about it. Sure, there’ll be some spin, and some lack of refinement, but the information is essentially there. The unique value of a team of dedicated reporters is in finding out things that readers aren’t going to be told about elsewhere.
Until a new, more dependable business model comes along to save the press, these sorts of decisions are going to have to be made, and unless news organizations prioritize unearthing Buried News, they’re going to end up buried themselves.
Shaun Gallagher is a former news editor and the author of “Experimenting With Babies: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform on Your Kid” and “Correlated: Surprising Connections Between Seemingly Related Things.”
