There is a warning on the front page of the US newspaper The Washington Post. "Democracy dies in darkness" is written under its logo. It is an unusual motto — more gloomy prediction than marketing slogan, as grim as the title of an apocalyptic Hollywood movie. The Post introduced it in 2017, just weeks after Donald Trump became president, and they haven't changed it.
What does this mean? "A lot of us believe this, that democracy dies in darkness, that certain institutions have a very important role in making sure that there is light," said the owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos. One of those institutions is a free press, made up of independent journalists who are a counterbalance to the power of politicians, corporations and governments. The best example: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in August 1974.
Digital danger
In the early 2000's, newspaper publishers made a strategic mistake. They began offering their content for free online, hoping that online advertising revenues would cover the costs. But the plan didn't work. The biggest slice of the advertising cake went to Facebook, Google and co. Even worse: People got used to the idea of getting quality journalism for free, and many readers cancelled their subscriptions. What if this trend goes on? What if people stop buying newspapers altogether?
In some parts of the US, this has effectively happened. Since 2005, the country has lost more than a quarter of its newspapers: some 2,500 publications have shut down. A study by Northwestern University, in Illinois, has found that 70 million Americans now live in "news deserts" — places with very limited access to local news.
"This is a crisis for our democracy and our society," says Professor Penelope Muse Abernathy, the principal author of the study. In communities with no credible source of local news, voter participation declines and corruption increases, she explains. Democracy is in danger when independent journalism disappears.
And in Germany? The past two decades have been hard for newspapers here, too. But recently, publishers have been successfully changing their strategy from free to paid content: In 2022, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the FAZ and Der Spiegel sold more epapers than ever before, and the weekly DIE ZEIT reached an all-time high in its overall circulation. Some regional newspapers like the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung started successful initiatives to attract young readers. The owner of Funke Mediengruppe, Julia Becker, even admitted a mistake: It was wrong to cut editorial budgets in the past, she said.
Investing in journalism instead of cutting costs — this recent strategy of Germany's news publishers gives us reason to hope.