This is a very tough period for journalism.  I made my living as a reporter for nearly 10 years (1970s & early 80s) and have written this volunteer local news blog for more than 9 years.  I am very concerned about the state of the news business now.  Here are just a few reasons why.

First, Alden Global Capital appears to be the new owner of the Chicago Tribune, one of the premier newspapers in one of America’s largest metropolitan areas.  Alden is a hedge fund.

The experience so far of hedge funds buying newspapers illustrates that staff will be cut savagely, maximizing the profit margins with little or no regard to how it impacts news coverage.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with news organizations making a profit, but the hedge fund history of an insatiable desire for higher and higher profit margins has the newspaper Guild in Chicago plenty worried.

If Alden does what other hedge funds have done in the past, look for massive layoffs of journalists at the Tribune.  I would hope that doesn’t happen, but I’m not optimistic.

It should be noted that the Tribune Company owns newspapers in other eastern U.S. markets, including Baltimore, Orlando and many more.

The second item of note deals with CNN and Chris Cuomo.  As you may know, his brother Andrew happens to be the governor of New York.  Whenever I saw Chris interviewing brother Andrew on his prime time CNN talk show, I cringed.  Why is CNN allowing a prime-time host to interview his own brother?  I saw that as a bad look for CNN.

Now, we know it was much worse than that.  It has come to light that Andrew Cuomo received advice on how to handle sexual harassment allegations from his brother Chris.  That crossed an even brighter line on what a news person should not do.

Chris Cuomo went on his program and apologized, but the stain remains.  Why did CNN ever get itself into this situation?  A clear policy keeping Chris out of brother Andrew’s political affairs would likely have prevented this from the start.

Back in Chicago, African-American Mayor Lori Lightfoot is now commemorating her first two years in office.  As a result, media outlets have been asking for interviews with the mayor.  She announced just days ago she will only grant interviews to reporters of color.  Needless to say, this has created a firestorm of controversy.

Lightfoot says this is a way of highlighting how few non-white reporters have been assigned to cover Chicago City Hall.  The mayor makes a valid point, and this is a problem in newsrooms throughout the nation.

However, news outlets must be able to independently decide which reporters are assigned to any particular beat.  This is a simple exercise of press freedoms that is part of our American traditions and our constitution.

Both the mayor and the news directors & editors all have a point.  I hope they all find a way to solve this.

Here in Fishers, there is plenty of news to cover.  We may be getting a new City Hall because the old one is literally falling apart.  Our local school board is preparing to transition from one superintendent that is retiring to a new one taking the helm on July 1.

I try to provide straightforward reporting on meetings and issues I cover.  On occasion, I will write commentary but only when I feel it is absolutely necessary and no one else is writing about a particular issue.

LarryInFishers.com is about 9 ½ years old.  I tried to quit once, but the pandemic brought me back.  Don’t ask me why, but I am still at this computer keyboard pounding out stories.

The state of local news is bad, very bad.  That’s why the plight of the Tribune Company with all its newspapers is important to us all.  Local newspapers are either folding or drastically cutting-back on reporting staff nation-wide.  This is why I continue blogging, covering the stories that do not always receive coverage from other news outlets.

We all must be vigilant about a free media that can report to you, independently, what is happening in any local community.  I look at the numbers of people reading this blog and listening to my podcasts and I know there is a hunger for local news.  Let’s find a way to deliver that product profitably.