Is Local Journalism the Next Blockbuster?

It was a bad week for journalism in Canada as Global announced the layoffs of dozens of local journalists and cuts to weekend news programming.

We're seeing the gradual destruction of local journalism in Canada and if we start comparing what's happening to the downfall of Blockbuster, we get a better idea about its future.

Disappearing Giants

I remember getting film developed in the 1980’s and 90’s. A company called Colourfast was my go to, although I usually had to drive at least 10-minutes to get there. In those days though, you had to get your shots of summer vacations and Christmas holidays turned into glossy 4 X 6 prints somewhere (unless you ordered the matte finish).

What had been a booming and expanding business for Colourfast slowed with the introduction of digital cameras. Not long after we could take photos on our cell phones, Colourfast silently went out of business.

It was the same story with Blockbuster. It was the king of videotape rentals across North America at one time. Streaming services like Netflix started cutting into their business, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Blockbuster was gone.

Today we’re seeing the effect short-term rental sites like Airbnb are having on the hotel industry and what ride-sharing services like Uber are having on the taxi business.

In all cases, emerging technology is replacing something we used to have, or still have, with something better in some ways.

Are we seeing the same disruption with local journalism and what it means to traditional media? Is it in the process of becoming the next Blockbuster?

It's All About Advertising

It’s a question we have to stop ignoring. We have to stop thinking about journalism as something important to our lives and democracy and start thinking about it as a product or an industry to understand what’s happening to it. Doing that allows us to think what life will be like when there’s no local journalism, because that’s where we’re headed.

As I’ve written about in the past, the downfall in traditional media isn’t because people have stopped reading or buying newspapers, or watching or listening to the news on TV and on radio. Those are all symptoms. It’s because of where advertising dollars are now going.  Years ago, those dollars went to daily and weekly newspapers, TV and radio stations and magazines. Now more money is being pumped into internet advertising, much of it going to Meta or Google. The gap between money spent on internet advertising and traditional media gets bigger every year.

Newspapers that used to be filled with news are now paper thin. We used to be able to listen to newscasts on a dozen local radio stations on our way to work in the morning and rely on local TV stations to tell us about everything happening in our communities. But when advertising dollars go out the door, fewer reporters get hired, which means less local news coverage. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. That’s where we are today.

My point is, we need to start comparing local journalism to Blockbuster and Colourfast to understand what’s happening. Local journalism on traditional media outlets is on a slow but clear path to extinction. When we think about our local TV news like we do about Blockbuster, we get a much better idea of what’s happening before our eyes.

Less is Less

Here’s the difference though. Blockbuster was replaced by something better. Although there’s nostalgia about those old videotape rentals, there’s no question streaming services offer us a lot more than Blockbuster ever could. Digital photography quickly taught us that it was so much better than driving to Colourfast to drop off film and pick up prints, only to find you had paid handsomely for photos that never really turned out.

Local journalism is different. It’s being disrupted as much as Blockbuster and Colourfast, but we aren’t getting a better replacement. What we’re getting is an inferior product. That’s the difference.

Compare local journalism today to 40-years ago. CTV cancelled local weekend news coverage on almost all its stations across Canada earlier this year and now Global seems to be on the same sorry road. Many Sunday newspapers no longer exist. Mondays too.

Local news has almost disappeared on weekends. Is Monday to Friday next?

Think about some big news stories in Alberta in the last generation or two. The Black Friday Tornado happened in Edmonton on a Friday afternoon, the Hinton Train Disaster on a Saturday morning, the Mindbender accident at West Edmonton Mall was on a Saturday night and former NDP Leader Grant Notley was declared dead on a Saturday afternoon, after his plane went down the night before.

How would these stories be covered by local media in a few years from now? How do events like this, that can have a major impact on communities, receive coverage when reporters have been laid off and newscasts have been cancelled? The simple answer is they won’t.

Ever since cuts started to local journalism in the 1990’s, media outlets did this dance trying to leave the impression they still cared about the communities they made their money in. How many times have we heard slogans like “We’re a part of the community?” It’s no longer true.

In order to understand what is happening to local journalism, think Blockbuster. Think Colourfast. We then get a better understanding of where we’re headed.