Newspapers are doomed.
   I hate to be that blunt about it. I hate even more to say it...and mean it. I spent most of my adult life working for newspapers. I watch them do everything they can to squeeze a few more dollars out of their customers, everything that is except improve their products.
   Edgar Simpson's column in the Sunday Joplin Globe pointed out one of the biggest problems facing newspapers today. How can you get young people to read them? Simpson, the Globe's top editor, spoke to a class at an area university (he didn't specify which one). His task, he said, was to find out how to turn more of the students into regular readers of his newspaper. "The latest generation consumes information differently from any who have gone before," Simpson wrote. "As a class, they are skimmers, not ponderers. They want their information short, to the point and with a bottom line."
   That's a copout.
   Yes, young people have much more to do than they did in the past. Yes, they devote less time to newspapers. The day when newspapers were the only game in town has long since vanished. Newspapers need to adjust to the times and most of them haven't. That's why many of them are no longer in business. When USA Today first came out two decades ago it spawned a legion of imitators who believed they had to serve out newspaper stories in bite-sized chunks so they wouldn't risk boring the readers, all of whom if you believed their mantra, have short attention spans.
   It didn't work. What newspapers ended up doing is sacrificing the biggest advantage they have over television. They were no longer providing the depth to help readers understand the issues that confront them. Television offers 30 second to 90 second stories with not much time to explore issues or occurrences. Newspapers have to be able to answer the questions that TV cannot.
   The USA Today imitators failed to realize that making stories shorter wasn't why USA Today was successful. USA Today had short WELL-WRITTEN stories. And during the past few years USA Today has seen the light and features a lot more longer storiers than it used to.
   Young readers aren't going to waste their time reading long, boring stories. That part the newspaper eidtors got right. What they failed to realize is young readers are not going to read short, boring stories either. They will read interesting short articles and, contrary to popular opinion, they will read long, interesting articles.
   One of the major problems with today's newspapers, not just in this area but across the country is that they are poorly written and the articles are about things the publishers and editors want to have in the paper, not what the readers want.
   When I was editor at The Carthage Press (and how many times have the readers of this blog seen that phrase), we took several steps to get younger readers interested in reading the paper and developing that newspaper habit that is so vital to keeping the medium alive.
   -We emphasized strong, in-depth writing and photographic coverage of events. The first step to success with readers young and old is to make sure there is something interesting in the paper everyday.
   -School coverage is important. Reporters need to cover every aspect of education, not just what takes place in the board of education meetings. How do changes affect students, teachers, taxpayers, etc. Write features about education, ranging from people who make great accomplishments (win National History Day, a national essay contest or something of the like) to kindergarteners just getting an idea of what school is all about. Get reporters who actually don't think it is beneath them to interview kids.
   -Hire young reporters and give them a big say in what they write about. At The Press, we won the Missouri Press Association's Community Service Award in 1998 for Teen Tuesday, a two-page spread we had in each Tuesday's paper written, edited, and photographed by teens. That section, spearheaded by a talented high school senior named Stacy Rector (who now works as a reporter for a newspaper in the Dallas area) covered everything from school events to pop culture to features on subjects such as teen pregnancy. Stacy's long, extremely well-written feature on a teen mother not only read by young and old alike in Carthage and the surrounding area but it won Stacy first place honors in the feature category in the MPA's annual Better Newspaper Contest. Any newspaper could do this, but I doubt if any of the local ones could do it successfully. You have to be willing to work with these kids, train them, and steer them in the right direction those times they get off course. As far as I can tell, there aren't any editors around who have that teaching ability that can turn young reporters into successful reporters. Most newspapers that use young writers try to shove them in a corner where all they write are school and sports stories.
   -Young readers should be treated with respect. Editors are insulting them if they try to dumb down a page or fill it up with stories and photos about people like Britney Spears or whoever the hot new sensation is. They can get that stuff on the Internet. And the people on the Internet can do it better and cheaper than they can. The newspaper's job is to interest young readers in that newspaper.
   -Don't assume that young readers are only interested in pop culture or teen-oriented stories. They will read about Iraq. They will read about politics. They will read stories about Alzheimer's Disease. But they are not going to read them if they are poorly written and in this area, poor writing seems to be the norm.
   I could go on and on (and for the most part, I already have). Give young people something to read that is worth reading and they will read. Bore them to tears and the newspaper will go the way of the dinosaur.
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   Today's issue of The Carthage Press is another example of how to turn off readers. Page one has one local story "Renovations on track at Over 60 Center) It has two local photos, both linked with that story. When people can get all the national and international news they need on TV and the Internet, a local newspaper has to provide the one thing it can offer that the others cannot...local news. Monday is a tough day since for the most part news events don't take place over the weekend (at least not scheduled ones). That is one reason the Globe runs its police blotter material on that day.
   A small town newspaper, in order to survive and to serve its community, has to have a strong, local page one every day. It also needs to have a localized opinion page with strong, local columnists, local editorials, and letters to the editor. The newspapers that serve this area, The Press, The Neosho Daily News, the Lamar Democrat, and others do not make the investment in strong local reporting, and strong local opinions. Those are what make newspapers viable in the 21st Century.