Our current era of news is unique in so many ways.
Unfortunately, much of this uniqueness is pretty awful—plunging revenues, threadbare newsrooms, failing newspapers.
Among all the bad news, I would cite one silver lining. More and more, newspapers see each other as allies, not enemies.
This is a new development indeed.
Fans of classic cinema know that the “newspaper war” was long a standard Hollywood plot device. If “Citizen Kane” were made today, the main character would be an unprincipled social media magnate, not an unprincipled newspaper magnate.
Newspapers no longer can afford the luxury of cutthroat competition. So, they often freely share copy, even resources. Over the past year, I’ve had several meetings with my fellow PA publishers to share ideas and support each other.
What’s the takeaway for our readers? I would say that it’s twofold.
First, you should expect less news overlap. At TheBurg, we’ve always tried to pick our spots, since our reporting staff is so small. So, we shy away from breaking news, including crime news, that we know others will cover. Instead, we devote our limited resources to under-covered community stories or try to find unique angles to more popular subjects.
Secondly, readers should be proactive, conscientious news consumers. My best advice is to go old school and bookmark TheBurg, PennLive, WITF, the PA Capital-Star, Spotlight PA and other trustworthy news outfits—and check back with us several times a day. We all have different focuses and abilities, but, together, offer a steady output of quality local and state news.
In addition, if you have the ability, please support our important work by subscribing to PennLive, becoming a Friend of TheBurg and donating to the news nonprofits.
It’s a different era of news out there. No one can do it all anymore. But, together, we just might make it through the newspaper crisis, through the pandemic and through the distortions, rumors and calculated outrage of social media.
Lawrance Binda
Co-Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
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