Who will pay for newspaper journalism in Western society?

I’ll stress Western Society, because as many of you know, newspaper journalism is flourishing in other parts of the world, namely China, India and South-East Asia.

Unfortunately, this is not a simple question to answer. A number of factors have contributed to the decline of newspapers and subsequently their journalists.

According to journalist Nick Davies, the business model that has sustained newspapers for all these years is now broken.

Amidst the instability of the economic downturn – It came to the attention of many that newspapers are a dying breed. People became frugal with their spending, especially when the internet conveniently hosts a number of news websites for free. Aware of the declining readership, advertisers moved a large portion of their advertising online because it’s cheaper and appeals to more people...this means there’s a lot less money available to pay newspaper journalists for their work.

ABC Journalist Thea Dikeos explains that last year in America, a number of newspapers filed for bankruptcy with the New York Times reporting record losses this promoted a US Senate committee inquiry into the future of journalism.

The concern for me is not that newspapers lack funding, but rather, people are abstaining from buying newspapers containing quality journalism for a quick fix of gossip and infotainment online for free.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development: UK newspaper circulation has fallen by 25% between 2007-09, second only to the US, where the decline was 30%.

In Australia, the decline is not nearly as severe, according to Gavin Atkins it’s about 3%

However, the media and telecommunications industries in Australia are apparently 18-24 months behind the US… suggesting that many Australian newspapers may need to source funding from elsewhere.

Broadsheet newspapers for years were and arguably still are the epitome of quality journalism around the world. The New York Times fellowship is one of the most demanding and competitive journalism traineeships available – all this in a bid to ensure the high standard of their newspaper is not compromised.

And Brendan Hopkins, Chairman of The Newspaper Works believes this is what will keep newspaper journalists in a job – he says: “I think we will see newspapers with us for many years, providing, as ever, we as publishers can keep the quality of our titles.”

 In Australia, the industry body says predictions of the death of newspapers and as such the sacking of quality journalists is premature, citing significant differences between the newspaper market here and overseas.

former Fairfax editor Eric Beecher believes the nation's oldest broadsheets, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, are now vulnerable. 

Mike Van Niekerk – the Editor in-chief online for Fairfax believes that diversifying their media will help to sustain them: Fairfax now had radio, video as well as owning classified and dating websites which are bringing in adequate revenue to sustain their newspapers, even if that requires cutting back staff to meet profit margins.

Eric Beecher proposes that the government should subsidise quality journalism for the good of democracy
He says:  “It's much more like the other pillars of our democracy, like the Parliament, or the courts or indeed like the arts and culture, which is actually heavily funded by government. And maybe it has to move in that direction.”

According to David Simon – “We can’t seriously consider publicly funding newspapers. He says High end journalism can and should bite any hand that tries to feed it and it should bite a governing hand most viciously.”

Roy Greenslade who is an online columnist for The Guardian, with 44 years experience as a newspaper journalist, points out something which gives quality newspapers and their journalists hope in the future.

“It will be the big newspapers that report of serious stuff that will survive as it’s a niche market.”  He says this narrow path will be supported by particular advertisements and readers which will help sustain them.

But what about tabloid or even regional newspapers?

Greenslade proposes that Philanthropy may replace the current, deteriorating business model for newspapers.

To give you an example: last year, The Huffington Post  announced the formation of a $1.75 million fund to finance investigative reporting that will be conducted by its staff and freelancers.

The popular web site is collaborating with The Atlantic Philanthropies and other donors to launch the Huffington Post Investigative Fund with an initial budget of $1.75 million. That should be enough for 10 staff journalists who will primarily coordinate stories with freelancers, said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Despite speculation about possible methods of funding which are to replace the traditional business model, one thing seems to be certain during this research, No new model will be able to sustain newspaper journalism on its current scale. The Sydney Morning Herald for example has hundreds of employees, and the philanthropy model supports media teams of 10 or 20. There will, in the future, be less and less jobs for journalists.

Unfortunately, I cannot definitely answer the question of who will pay for journalism. Until new models of funding are put into practice and no longer just speculated about – we will not know for sure who or what will pay for journalism.