Lessons to be learned as the Buenos Aires Herald goes weekly
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Version 0 of 1. I reported on Monday that the Buenos Aires Herald, the only English-language daily newspaper in Latin America, was to become a weekly. Why, asked an emailer, should we care what happens in Argentina? Leaving aside the chauvinistic rudeness, by recording what is happening in media elsewhere we are better able to perceive what the Herald rightly calls “a worldwide phenomenon”. The central point to be learned from the Herald’s leading article on Wednesday, is universal: journalism is in crisis. In registering its “unspeakable sadness” at giving up daily publication, the paper said it had been “facing difficulties for a while now”. It spoke of the “dramatic change”, which “reflects a media industry in crisis”, and acknowledged that people now prefer to access news for free on digital platforms rather than by reading newsprint. Then it touched on the likely result: “as many as 2,000 journalists may lose their jobs in the country in 2016, a staggering number which will damage the profession greatly”. The Herald is no exception because it is shedding most of its staff due to the change to a weekly. “The overwhelming majority of our colleagues were told that they would be losing their jobs”, said the editorial, which revealed that 14 “are leaving us today”. The 140-year-old title, majority-owned by the Indalo Group, also mentioned “our most illustrious period during the military dictatorship”. That was a reference to the paper’s defiance of the brutal regime in the 1976-83 period by reporting on its abductions of people who came to be known as “the disappeared”. The Herald’s editor at the time, Robert Cox, was forced into exile because of threats and intimidation. His heroism was finally recognised in 2010 when he received honorary citizenship. From 4 November, the weekly Herald will be published on Fridays “to be read at leisure over the weekend”. The emailer might like to reflect on the implications for democracies across the world of the declining number of full-time journalists. I accept that we can overstate our value to societies, and I also accept that we are far from perfect. But - to quote the Herald editorial once more - “freedom of expression is a delicate flower” and, despite the roughness of our trade, its benefits outweigh its faults. You may not cry for Argentina, but shed a tear instead for the fate of journalism. |