After The Daily News announced on Monday that it would lay off half its editorial staff, concerns have grown surrounding the relevance and efficiency of newspapers in New York. They had been an established organization that used to sell over two million papers a day, a baffling number for its time. However, the decrease in purchases has also been noticeable, as they now sell only a tenth of that number. The New York Times did a series of interviews to random New Yorkers, who gave their take on print media and how it may change with the recent developments from TDN.
Ironically, the audience that was still loyal to the paper is now displeased with the cuts in personnel and their relationship with the paper may be compromised by that. Others have stated their concerns with having fewer people involved in coverage, which could affect the amount of news that gets reported daily, especially when it comes to news regarding struggles from civilians. One of the interviewed men stated that the decision would affect the “awareness of what’s going to happen with the political figures in the city and what the police are doing”. He stated:
The issues of people who are fighting landlords and police corruption and all these kinds of things tend to be carried more by The Post and The Daily News.”
This comment is particularly interesting since it demonstrates that some people rely on print media for coverage of daily news related to New York’s citizens.
The New York Post has also found itself in financial struggles recently, as people in its owner company have done little to combat the imminent irrelevance that the paper will face in the future. As new people are starting to be involved in the news company, they are having to face years of conformity towards unprofitability.
Interviews done by the New York Times also show that there is a pressing belief in some consumers that finding news through the internet leads to unreliable articles. These people are, of course, in the minority. Many of the interviewed business owners stated that neither themselves or their customers are ever seen reading a newspaper. Some people also addressed that the Daily News have constantly diminished the quality of their articles, now often relying on sensational news that isn’t even local.
In conclusion, the latest personnel cut from the Daily News can be seen as a growing larger problem in paper-based journalism, and one that is not being ignored by the population. Hopefully, people who manage these institutions will soon find a way to either boost their newspapers’ sales or complete their transition to online news reporting.
