TRUTH, the sentinal and liberator in all its forms by Mary Ann Sorrentino Reprinted 11-17-1019
The late former Providence mayor-- convicted felon, spaghetti sauce salesman, and radio talk host Vincent A.“Buddy” Cianci-- fathered the trend of referring to the daily Providence Journal (Rhode Island’s newspaper of record) as “the Providence Pamphlet”) as it shrank to what is, a 12-page summary of local news. (Full disclosure: Buddy and I knew each other from when we were both toddlers appearing on WJAR Providence radio’s “Kiddie’s Review”)
Above the fold on a recent August day in 2019 the front page is an article about and a 1954 wedding photograph of a Rhode Island couple originally married on what was then “Victory over Japan Day”
(now Victory Day, celebrated only in Rhode Island of all the 50 states.) That story and photo take up three times as much space as the Epstein suicide coverage, one of only a few references to a world presence beyond the Ocean State’s borders. A boating accident in Newport, a resurgence of Blackstone Valley braggadocio regarding its role in World War II, the assorted goings on in towns like Tiverton, the tragic deaths of 5 children in a Pennsylvania day care center, and homage to the 50th anniversary of Woodstock round out the paltry main section of the paper. Such “news” also includes a page of obituaries, publisher’s notes on “How to subscribe,” and the now-reduced-to-one-page Opinion section-- these days shrill with usually male, often out-of-state voices. Then there are, of course, the necessary advertisements.
(now Victory Day, celebrated only in Rhode Island of all the 50 states.) That story and photo take up three times as much space as the Epstein suicide coverage, one of only a few references to a world presence beyond the Ocean State’s borders. A boating accident in Newport, a resurgence of Blackstone Valley braggadocio regarding its role in World War II, the assorted goings on in towns like Tiverton, the tragic deaths of 5 children in a Pennsylvania day care center, and homage to the 50th anniversary of Woodstock round out the paltry main section of the paper. Such “news” also includes a page of obituaries, publisher’s notes on “How to subscribe,” and the now-reduced-to-one-page Opinion section-- these days shrill with usually male, often out-of-state voices. Then there are, of course, the necessary advertisements.
The second section, all eight pages of it, is ablaze with sports news, TV and movie listings, and-- for much-needed comic relief-- the funnies.
When you call the Providence Journal, the automated answering system first offers connection options for subscription and delivery issues, then the newsroom, advertising, and other departments. Pressing the “statewide news” extension number brings one to another set of connection choices, leading with “non-news” but income-generating options like sports, paid obituaries, and wedding announcements.
There’s a sad message in all this.
It is painful to watch so many newspapers around the world dying a slow death. In a close-knit society such as Rhode Islanders cherish, it can be especially sad. These are the changes the new technology has created, and, slowly, the majority of readers are finally moving to forego the smell of the ink on pulp and those black smears on their fingertips from holding a real paper in their hands to the less expensive if less intimate documents on computer and cell phone screens.
We who write for papers must follow the industry leaders if and when we can: thus the grand migration of many Rhode Island readers (and writers) to the nationally venerated Boston Globe. Papers like the Globe-- keenly aware of the newsprint vs digital edition reality-- are working hard to create subsections in their organizational charts and in their print editions specifically to provide readers far from the paper’s metropolitan core with the local news subscribers rightfully yearn to read.
Somewhere in this major shift which is in play across the nation and globally, journalism must adapt not only to the economic challenge the digital market may represent but also to the business advantage it can provide as we all move into the 21st century together.
Readers (and some newspaper folks as well) must embrace the new technology, which is as epic and similar to moving from messages on cave walls to papyrus scrolls, then to small-press newspapers, and finally to two-inch thick Sunday paper editions. Electronic news has the advantage being permanent and shareable and gives readers a more direct chance to comment if/when they like. The elderly, economically struggling, and technologically challenged who fail to master digital news risk isolation and even the dangers of not receiving public information on important health and safety matters as well as other public service alerts and advice.
We haven’t abandoned newspapers: newspapers, as defined for centuries, have abandoned us, in a way—but only the hold-in-your-hands variety. News and those who provide it are still there in the digital format, and there is more of it than ever!
More importantly, readers as well as writers understand that, far from being the “enemy of the people,” the press is their voice and the sentinel at the gate of national and international chaos.
Please continue to “hear” that voice whether it is calling at your home door every morning, or staring at you from a computer screen. For folksier local information, we have our city’s or town’s weekly papers.
In all its forms, the truth it waiting to be read and embraced. So boot up that screen and let it set you free.
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MARY ANN SORRENTINO BOSTON GLOBE and think about subscribing to the VERY affordable digital edition, or look for her columns here on this blog. Mary Ann can be reached on Twitter @Thatmaryann or email her at thatmaryann@yahoo.com
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