Why Newspapers Are Failing -- The Closing of The Bristol Press, New Britain Herald, and the Steady Decline of The Hartford Courant

It was announced last week that unless a buyer can be found, two local central Connecticut newspapers, The Bristol Press and New Britain Herald, will close within the month. This comes on the tail of a 25% newsroom reduction at the largest paper in Connecticut, The Hartford Courant. The Hartford Courant revamped (read: cut content) from their paper following this staff reduction. The paper is noticeably thinner. Despite this most recent big cut, the down slide of content and quality at the Hartford Courant is not a new trend. For years the paper has been going downhill. As a long time subscriber, I've witnessed the decline first hand. I can remember when the Sunday Courant used to be so think and so full of interesting information that I could hardly finish it in one day. Now I finish the Sunday paper before my first cup of coffee is done. Papers across the country are having a difficult time adjusting to the "new media" of 24 hour cable news and the internet. They are floundering to find a strategy in today's reality. Perhaps the most troubling trend for the newspaper business is an apathetic younger generation that seems to have no interest in serious news in any format.

This story is certainly not unique to Connecticut. All around, the newspaper business is in a bad place.

I am a dedicated newspaper reader. It's part of my routine and part of my life. I start every day with the Hartford Courant. However, these days even I'm having second thoughts. The content of the paper has never been thinner. Of the remaining content, much of it has fallen into a heavy bias. Perhaps the Hartford Cournat is simply playing to their market with Connecticut being one of the bluest of the blue states, but if that's the case it's not good journalism. Good journalism is supposed to be non-biased. I am not naive enough to believe that anything can be truly unbiased, but I do believe that a paper can at least strive to be impartial. The Hartford Courant has lost it's way. Out of the 5 significant regular columnists (Stan Simpson, Jim Shea, Susan Campbell, Helen Ubinas, Colin McEnroe) to the Courant, all 5 are unapologetic liberals. The paper has absolutely no conservative counterpoint to balance out the opinions. I wonder if I'm the only reader who's noticed this. Does the editorial staff notice? Do they care? They've sold their journalistic soul and become a shell of themselves. Intelligent readers, regardless of their political leanings, can tell the difference.

The Hartford Courant and the newspaper business in general needs to do what any business needs to do when they are losing out to competition. They need to improve the quality of their product. They can start by getting back to doing some real reporting and dropping the political agenda.