Despite the belief that profit seeking newspaper businesses have caused a dramatic decrease in the quality of journalism, the newspaper companies and others support the belief that this has not occurred. In the world of journalism, writing articles and informing the public is not the only responsibility of those involved. "How should success be measured in journalistic business enterprises? Journalistic quality is surely one way, the level of profitability is another, and an important one since there can be no quality of journalism without profits to support it," (1) said John Morton, President of Morton Research, Inc., a group that researched the compatibility of quality journalism and profits. Journalistic quality could not exist without profits. In order to achieve their ultimate goal ­ quality journalism ­ newspaper companies must earn profits. The people who support the view that journalism has not been hurt due to profit seeking argue that newspaper companies have successfully balanced these profits and writing. In fact, many believe that the better the journalism, the more profits, which result in the overall improvement in the quality of journalism.

While newspaper companies have the foremost responsibility to the public of printing quality journalism, they also have the pressure to please shareholders. If newspaper companies do not act in favor of shareholders a lot of the time, they will lose profits. Losing profits means a decline in quality journalism. Thus, by keeping shareholder content, they keep profits and quality up, which fulfills both responsibilities. Lauren Rich Fine, a Merrill Lynch managing director, said during a PBS panel discussing "Profits and the Press," "Shareholders invest in companies for growth, and so even though we are in an economic downturn and there's a lot of pressure on ad revenues, shareholders expect companies to contain their costs and do what they maintain their profitability, if they can't improve it at a time like this." (2) Therefore, newspaper companies must find a balance between pleasing shareholders and printing quality journalism. The con side argues that companies have successfully managed to do this.

The con side argues that newspaper companies have had to layoff staff due to the decrease in advertising revenue and the rising costs of newspaper printing during an economic downturn: these changes in the newspaper environment has made keeping previous profit targets extremely difficult. They argue that the staff layoffs have not been merely the result of a desire for profits. For a newspaper company, a profit margin of 22 to 29 percent is normal. The 2000 profit margin for the Mercury News was 20.8%, just under the 21.7% industry wide profit margin. (3) Although profits have not decreased rapidly, the decline is still significant and the pressure newspaper companies are feeling is heavy. The dearth in ad and circulation revenues has hurt the industry as well. For example, in San Francisco, in addition to the 6.8% drop in total advertising, papers have also had to deal with a 20% drop in help-wanted ad revenue and a drop in total readership (from 65.1% of the adult community to 56.9%). (4) With the nationwide economic recession that is occurring, the newspaper industry has had to confront falling revenues. A US News article said that "plummeting ad revenue and rising newsprint costs have plunged giants like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal into rounds of layoffs and gloom." (5) The newspaper industry is going through an industry economic recession, which is leading all newspapers, including prestigious and well-known ones like the Times and the Wall Street Journal, to cut costs, by laying off staff or cutting pages. Anthony Ridder of Knight Ridder said "Economists may debate whether we are in a recession as they classically define it, but for those of us in the business of publishing newspapers, this is the real thing."(6)

Newspaper companies have attempted to curb the economic recession in other ways than firing quality staff reporters. In order to combat the decreasing ad revenues and the rising newsprint costs, many newspaper companies have raised their circulation prices to increase circulation revenue. (7) However, readers are not willing to pay the extra for newspapers. "Readers do want quality, but they're unwilling to pay for it," said Lauren Rich Fine. (8) Thus, newspaper companies have tried to maintain the quality of newspapers in other ways. They have not, however, received the support from the public that a public company needs to achieve this goal.

Despite the newspaper industry economic recession, the con side argues that the quality of journalism has not declined. In fact, in many instances, newspaper company employees argue that the quality of journalism has increased. Knight Ridder Vice President for News, Jerry Ceppos, said that "the staff size and the content of the [San Jose Mercury News] would provide excellent coverage for the community." (9) Many members of the con side of this debate say that the companies have managed to maintain a fair balance between profits and quality. Also, some argue that quality journalism actually brings in profits, so the motivation to continue with accomplished reporting is high. Mark Willes, Chairman, CEO and President of Times Mirror Company, a company that has faced this problem of printing quality journalism while earning profits recently remarked about this topic: "I don't think it either is high quality, independent journalism or a very successful business enterprise. In fact, I think just the opposite is true. I think the greater the journalism, the more successful we'll be as a business enterprise. And that's what we are trying to do." (10)

The con side of this debate, composed of the newspaper companies, argues that journalistic quality has not diminished, as the pro side argues; in fact, many newspaper companies believe the quality of journalism has steadily improved. Newspapers have had to layoff staff lately because of the decrease in ad revenues, the increase in newsprint costs and the decrease in readership, not because they are looking to earn more profit. The con side also argues that while they have a journalistic responsibility, they also have to please shareholders. Without investors and shareholders, newspapers would be non-existent. Newspaper companies also argue that they need to maintain high journalistic quality in order to earn profits.

(1) Morton, John. "The Separation of News and Business."

(2) Online NewsHour. "Profits and the press."

(3) Kaplan, Karen and Wilson, Dave. "Publisher of San Jose paper quits to protest staff layoffs."

(4) McDonald, Marci. "A different paper chase."

(5) Ibid 4.

(6) Ibid 4.

(7) Ibid 3.

(8) Ibid 3.

(9) Guardian Unlimited. "Ex-Publisher discusses Newspapers."

(10) Willes, Mark. "The Separation of News and Business."

A list of the top newspaper distributers (owners) in the US. Gannet Co. Inc., the largest newspaper distributer in the US, has won many journalistic awards, which shows that its newspapers have maintained journalistic quality despite the urge to get profits. You can find a similar list on Knight Ridder's site.

This article by the Newspaper Industry website discusses the growing cost of advertisements and the rising newsprint costs, which has caused many newspapers to layoff staff members. In reaction to Jay Harris's resignation, a panel of individuals in the newspaper industry discussed the implications of his reasons for leaving. The panel defends the newspaper industry. David Yarnold, San Jose Mercury News executive editor, joined the panel.

Knight Ridder's Coporate Website promotes their belief of their expertise work at balancing quality journalism and profits. The Newspaper Industry Website contains articles and more information on how newspapers must consider profits as well as quality of journalism: they have a business repsonsibility as well as a journalism one.