The death spiral of newspapers. What next?

February 28, 3:12 PMSouth St. Paul ExaminerRob Shirk

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The South St. Paul Sun Current, serving our neighborhood of Mendota Hts., West St. Paul, Inver Grove Hts. and, of course, my hometown of South St. Paul delivered it's last newspaper to my door this week.

The organization will carry an on-line edition at www.MNSUN.com. It will not be the last newspaper to either fold or stop print editions. How strange not to have the paper.

The cost of printing and delivering a newspaper under the crushing economics we live is unprofitable and if you think the big boy papers have it any better, then think again. The Rocky Mountain News shut down this week, The San Fransisco Chronicle, the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as the The Minneapolis StarTrib are reorganizing under bankruptcy laws or Chapter 11. The St. Paul Pioneer Press was incorrectly reported as being in the same financial boat. They are not. Newspaper Guild members at the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently voted to take five unpaid days off between Feb. 9 and April 30 as part of furloughs proposed by the newspaper’s parent company, MediaNews Group Inc.

“Accepting this agreement was painful, but not surprising,” said Guild unit co-chair Gayle Grundtner in a news release. “We read the papers and watch the news. We know this economy stinks and workers locally and across the country are losing jobs, money and benefits.” Managers and other nonunion employees at the Pioneer Press also are required to take the time off, according to the Guild. The 307 union members’ acceptance of the furloughs came only weeks after Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. ordered employees at its California newspapers to take a one-week unpaid leave by March 31.

There are dozens and dozens more newspapers in the hopper. So what will it feel like in the morning without a paper? Nobody knows. We do know something is coming.

One experiment is from Joel Kramer, chief executive and editor of MinnPost.com. He was editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 1983 to 1991 and publisher and president from 1992 to 1998. MinnPost.com is featured at the end of every South St. Paul Examiner Post. We are aware of each other. MinnPost.com is featured as a regular on the South St. Paul Examiner, as I am as an affiliate with MinnPost.com every day. In the Feb 28 NewYork Times Opinion page, Joel Kramer had this on his mind:

Serious journalism is a community asset, not just a consumer good, and people (and foundations) should support it, as they support museums. We’ll see if that argument persuades enough people. Publish a newspaper worth $2 a day, the price of a cup of coffee, and $5 on Sunday — and raise the quality. Rely much more on revenue from readers.

Make it more in-depth, more analytical, to complement the immediacy of your free Web site, and do not make that deeper, more insightful coverage available for free on the web. Perhaps make the printed product a tailored mix of sections that appeal to different readers: For $2, you get to pick, say, four sections out of six. Nobody knows if it will work -- Joel Kramer

The closing of the print version of the Sun Current means a person may have to go elsewhere to find out community events, parades, where to go for restaurants, etc, and if our neighborly senate trial of the century up the road in St. Paul ever resolves itself we just might get back to those stories. The sooner the better.There are other models I'll explore in the coming days. The space that I have does not lend itself to in-depth stories all at once. At this point, MinnPost.com can be seen through their website, or by clicking below on mine.

KRNC TV in Denver just broadcast a piece on the eminent demise of The Rocky Mountain News about a month ago. It was prophetic. It may surprise you that the Examiner.com is partially where the media might be headed.

 ****CORRECTION***** The St. Paul Pioneer Press has not filed for bankruptcy or Chapter 11, as was reported in this space earlier. My apologies. Rob

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