Our blog is a mix of first person accounts and references to stories from major news sources around the world, mostly about communities (unique forms of heritage, unique approaches to getting important things done for community members, etc.), about conservation (especially examples of entrepreneurial approaches to the conservation of unique cultural and natural heritage), and about collaboration (especially in relation to communities and conservation). We scan far and wide for stories. We depend on newspapers to which we do not subscribe, in return feeding traffic back to their websites. We think this is a fair exchange, but what do we know? It is definitely worth further investigation.

Whatever news sources you regularly depend on, you should read this review by Nicholas Lemann in the Times Literary Supplement about this book that documents, in the context of the USA, the economic challenges facing the newspaper business:

People tend to have little sympathy with accounts of crisis in a trade or profession. It comes across as evidence of excessive self-preoccupation, or as a prelude to special pleading before government.Journalism’s difficulties seem to be drawing this kind of reaction from many people who aren’t journalists. Isn’t the press still a swaggering, even power-abusing actor in politics and society? Doesn’t it command vast attention and resources? Isn’t more news being read by more people than ever before?

Journalism’s difficulties seem to be drawing this kind of reaction from many people who aren’t journalists. Isn’t the press still a swaggering, even power-abusing actor in politics and society? Doesn’t it command vast attention and resources? Isn’t more news being read by more people than ever before?

Out of Print: Newspapers, journalism and the business of news in the digital age shows that something really has changed quite suddenly and dramatically in the press industry. George Brock is a veteran newspaperman, and his main concern in this clear-headed, synoptic and never whiny book is with the institutions where he has spent most of his career. In the United States, newspaper advertising revenue – the main source of economic support by far – was $63.5 billion in 2000. By 2012 it had fallen to $19 billion. (During the same period, advertising revenue at Google went from zero to $46.5 billion.) Employment in the American newspaper industry fell by 44 per cent between 2001 and 2011. In the European Union, newspaper revenue is falling by more than 10 per cent a year. In the UK, newspaper circulation has dropped by more than 25 per cent during the twenty-first century. It would be hard to think of another industry that is going through such a sudden collapse…

Read the full article at the source.