Book Review: Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, by Penelope Muse Abernathy

Abstract

Penelope Muse Abernathy Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. 256 pp.Smaller news organizations might be answer to saving journalism, and it is important that they survive in digital revolution. Community newspapers, the basis of newspaper ecosystem (p. 196) and vitamin supplements for their communities (p. 224), are treasures that need to have game plan to address today's issues. That is overall theme strewn throughout Abernathy's new book.Abernathy, former executive with Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, is Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Using industry-based and academic research, she discusses risks and opportunities newspapers face as they work to reinvent themselves and identify new revenue streams. To start this discussion, context of journalism requires an examination. Abernathy begins by tackling definition for journalism, because traditional parameters of term are out of date due to digital age. Traditionally, papers with circulation of less than fifteen thousand are classified as newspapers (p. 2).However, online technology has changed newspapers:But in digital age, when print circulation for almost all newspapers is dropping yearly- and an increasing number of readers are accessing paper's digital edition only-that definition seems limiting and out-of-date. Many daily newspapers in small and midsized markets, for example-especially those with circulation of less than 100,000-also position themselves as community newspapers. (p. 2)Consequently, her definition of journalism is based on publication's mission and characteristics of markets it relies on for revenue. Under this framework, eight thousand newspapers in United States would qualify as newspapers (p. 21).The book is divided into three sections, and chapters contained within each section act as points of strategy for newspapers to follow as part of five-year plan to revamp themselves in digital era. Several case studies and numerous experiences at wide variety of newspapers are offered as rich references in every section. The first is titled Creating New Strategy. In this section, Abernathy explores why newspapers need to survive, why newspapers must change, and how they must change. The vitality of newspapers is rooted in watchdog role of democracy and agenda-setting function for public, and without this strong foundation, democracy would suffer. Without their vigilance, such concerns might well be overlooked and ignored, and these stories would never be told (p. 17).The second section, Implementing New Strategy, focuses on leadership. The chapters guide publishers and editors to put together a guiding coalition of people within news organization to help them grow a new strand of DNA (p. …