By: Bella Varghese
Video once killed the radio star. Today, video is gradually killing off another art: print news.
Since the early 2000s, newspapers have been steadily disappearing. Recently, there has been a surge in the newspaper shutdowns. Among the recently shut-down print newspapers is The Jersey Journal.
Since its founding in 1867, The Jersey Journal has kept New Jersey’s Hudson County informed. As of February of this year, The Jersey Journal discontinued all publication. The decision ensued following The Star-Ledger’s closure of its production facility. The production facility served to print The Jersey Journal as well as several other newspapers.
For some long-term employees, the shut-down was expected but still jarring.
“I did see a lot of minimizing happening throughout my tenure there,” said former Jersey Journal reporter Josh Rosario. Rosario, who worked for The Jersey Journal for over half a decade, covered New Jersey politics and aimed to give the voiceless a voice.
“It shouldn’t have been a shock, but it very much was a shock to my system when they announced that we were closing,” he said.
Rosario, like the rest of The Jersey Journal’s reporters and staff, was laid off. Given how competitive the journalism industry has become, Rosario and his now former coworkers quickly began searching for new jobs or made the choice to retire upon the initial announcement. “We all started hitting the job trail and for a lot of us it took a while,” he said.
As of September of this year, Rosario finally secured a new job. In the period from February to September, he took up some freelance jobs, including those for The New York Times, but none proved stable enough. “With freelance, the cause only happens if there’s stuff for you to do and with the state of the economy, a lot of places were punching down and not really interested in freelancers,” Rosario said.
The industry as a whole is becoming increasingly competitive as more newspapers close and the need for writers drops. Even for talented journalists like Rosario, who began working for The Jersey Journal straight out of college, a future in journalism is not guaranteed. “I was coming to terms with [the fact that] I might not be working in journalism anymore,” he said.
The slow death of print journalism is largely due to the industry’s rapid digitization. “Digital media is just so much more accessible than print. To get a newspaper, you’ve got to have to have it delivered to your house, or you have to go to the corner store,” Rosario said. Digital news’s availability on the now common smart-phone has given news companies the chance to globally expand their audiences.
“Younger people and even older people are looking to TikTok and Instagram for their news,” he said. As a result, major news companies such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and Fox News maintain multi-platform social media presences, cashing in on this more lucrative method of news dissemination.
Social media reporting has grown in popularity, but not solely amongst industry professionals. Poor research and sensationalized stories from those with limited experience can lead to “misinformation getting out,” Rosario said. “Sometimes I’m sitting there correcting [people] because a lot of the information they get is from TikTok.”
The major shift towards a technologically advanced and digital world left newspapers in shambles, unable to afford printing services and the ability to maintain their audiences. While writers are losing their jobs, the frequency at which social media influencers spread misinformation–regardless of intentionality–increases.
“I think there will always be a place for print news, but not as the go-to in journalism,” he said.