A shockwave of horror ran through journalists everywhere last month when a hedge fund known as a “destroyer of newspapers” bought Tribune Publishing, the third largest newspaper chain in America.
Worse yet, on the very same day, Gannett, the parent company of
USA Today and more than 100 other dailies, completed its merger with GateHouse Media, setting up another inevitable wave of layoffs.
That’s on top of 7,200 people losing their jobs in media between January and September and the 2,100 newspapers that have gone out of business since 2004.
Today is #GivingTuesday, and you’ll be getting fundraising appeals all day for good causes. But our democracy needs hard-hitting journalism that holds powerful people accountable.
The journalism industry is under attack by not just shrinking ad revenues, but pressure from corporate investors to turn a profit.
Newspapers that can’t turn a profit close down. Mergers and downsizing have gutted the newsrooms of the newspapers that remain. Meanwhile, TV news has been reduced to opinion entertainment with virtually no original reporting whatsoever.
Through all of that, Common Dreams has managed to keep going, and even thrive, because we are nonprofit and rely not on advertisers and corporate investors, but you, our donors.
No corporate raider will ever buy us out. And in this age of dying newspapers, we believe our approach could be the last best chance for journalism.
Thank you for all you do,
Kimberly Monaghan
Board Chair
for the whole Common Dreams news team
