It will not be news to our readers that these are hard times for newspapers.
The reasons are many and varied.
Since the early 2000s digital technology and the rising market power of tech giants has upended the traditional business model that sustained local journalism for centuries, a combination of advertising revenue and a reliable readerhip base.
The statistics are stark: between 2005 and 2018 newspaper advertising revenue in the U.S. fell from $50 billion to less than $15 billion.
Research by the University of North Carolina School of Media and Journalism found that between 2004 and 2018 the United States lost 2,100 local newspapers, including three weeklies in Alaska.
Closures are creating “news deserts” and papers that survive in name only. Newsrooms have been decimated and many papers have gone to online-only delivery of news.
On the good news side, the Sentinel continues to publish five days a week, with a full staff and local and national news equal or better in quality than at any other time since its founding in 1940, or its expansion into a daily in 1950.
Credit for that, and for the opportunity for it to happen, is an incredibly loyal base of subscribers and advertisers.
The Sentinel has laid the groundwork for another year of operation, with supplies of newsprint and other consumables already arriving. But this year will also be one in which the owners must make decisions regarding the longterm survivability of the newpaper. The decisions will be on ways to improve our digital outreach and business procedures, increase ad sales and subscriptions, and also on ways to get financial support from foundations and other philanthropies increasingly concerned about the role of local newspapers as a bulwark of democracy.
Add to these general goals, there are ones specific to the Sentinel. For example, the inevitable changing of the guard to a new generation of editors who undoubtedly will be as dedicated to print journalism as the geriatric couple they succeed, but will also be steeped in the digital accumen that is so lacking in their elders.
These things will be addressed in due time, but are important enough that we believe our readers, advertisers and business partners should be informed.
You all are the bedrock that over the past half century has allowed Sitka, despite its small population, to support a home-owned daily newspaper. Our goal is to continue that tradition, but we will need your support. For now, the best way is to buy an ad and renew your subscription.
Thad Poulson
