This Editorial article in the MDJ may be found online here.
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For those who care about such things, the news is sobering.
In 2023, an average 2.5 U.S. newspapers closed every week. In just the month of January this year, 5,000 journalists in America coming from print, digital-native news outlets, magazines, radio and television lost their jobs. Outlets impacted are household names in the media landscape: L.A. Times, NBC News, MSNBC, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed, Vice Media. America has learned new terms: “news deserts,” (communities no longer served by a local news outlet), “ghost newsrooms” (news outlets that masquerade as local news, but provide no original reporting about its community).
To say it plainly, the news business in the internet era is tough sledding … and journalism as we’ve come to know it is in jeopardy.
Amid this shifting media landscape, the Marietta Daily Journal continues to do what it has done for nearly 160 years: serve as the primary source of Cobb County news, covering its government, politics, schools, churches, festivals, people, places and things. That’s not changed. What has changed is how people access their news. Consumers are transitioning from print to digital. And the MDJ has followed. In fact, when you combine print and online readers, more people than ever are accessing their news from this newspaper. The difficulty is that the business model that served print publications so well for so long has been disrupted in the digital world.
Generating reliable news content comes with costs. Reporters, editors and photographers ply their profession and deserve a paycheck for doing so. On a given Friday night during high school football season, this newspaper hires up to 15 professional freelancers to cover games. All of which brings us here: The advertising-and-subscription revenue model traditionally used by print media is no longer enough to fund the content generation our readers deserve. A new, third stream of revenue is necessary.
To that end, the Marietta Daily Journal has launched the Cobb Journalism Fund. The CJF is a charitable fund dedicated to preserving local journalism in Cobb County. The CJF will accept contributions to fund additional, quality news staff who will produce more of the journalism that matters to our readers – journalism that betters our community. The funded journalists will focus on societal issues and trends brought on by Cobb’s growing population and changing demographics. Topics could include investigative, traffic, taxes, food scarcity, safety on our streets and in our schools.
A recently published series on the upcoming public transit tax referendum and another about sex trafficking in Cobb County were well received by our readership. Many thanked us for the objective, detailed reporting. This is the type of deep-dive journalism the Cobb Journalism Fund was created to produce. Working through the Cobb Community Foundation, contributions to the Cobb Journalism Fund are tax deductible.
Many recognize and value the role a free press plays in their lives. If you count yourself among them we ask that you explore the Cobb Journalism Fund and find what you can do to help sustain Cobb journalism today and for future generations. In describing the relationship between a community and a local news source, I’ve turned to the Frank Capra holiday film classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We all know what Bedford Falls looked like when George Bailey had never been born. Now, imagine your community without a hometown news outlet. It’s fitting that, in the end, Mr. Bailey was rewarded by those who recognized the role he’d played in their lives. Newspapers have long played a similar role, a vital link connecting people to the places and people they hold dear.
If you feel it’s important to know how your child’s school is being run, if you want to know that a Walmart is planned the next block over from your home, if you cheer for your local high school football team, if you want to know about the newest restaurants in town, if you believe that what goes on in council chambers should be shared with the citizenry, if you care about tax rates on your property and how public officials are spending your money, if you fear crime, if you care about the health and safety of your neighbors, in short, if you hold dear those who are born and live and die in your community, you’ll want your local newspaper to continue its work.
Find out more here about the Cobb Journalism Fund.
To give online visit the Cobb Journalism Fund here.
Please reach out to us at cobbjournalismfund@mdjonline.com with questions or feedback.
