Newspaper self-flagellation

By: Callie McBroom

Romensko is reporting a new response to "judging a newspaper by the number of copies in the market." That response is that it "makes no more sense than counting the number of television sets to evaluate a TV station," which obviously doesn't happen.

Matt Baldwin, vice president of research for MediaNews Group recently made a very good point. He said, "I'm continually baffled by the newspaper industry's insistence on self-flagellation when it comes to reporting circulation declines and the maddening failure to properly position the reality of media transformation."

He also points out that broadcast television and radio companies never seem to bring attention to the numbers of audience members that are turning away from their services everyday. And he's right. Pointing out the declines only makes things worse.

Additionally, just because circulation is down doesn't mean that other avenues to access newspapers aren't available. In fact, visitors to websites may even be increasing more than readership is decreasing.

Baldwin believes that "telling the whole story is our ultimate responsibility - to readers, consumers and advertisers alike." Because reporting the whole story is the purpose of journalism, it should be a priority for newspapers.