638: 'We have to be concerned about people not even liking or wanting to read'

It's no secret that the rise of the internet and social media has upended the news business. We've been talking about it for decades. But the industry isn't dying, as many like to say, so much as changing.

People still want their news. They just want it in different ways, and the news industry is rising to meet that challenge. That's what Cecile Wehrman, executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, had to say on this episode of Plain Talk.

Part of that challenge is convincing people that local news is worth paying for, especially in a time of subscription fatigue, but some of the challenges are even more fundamental than that. Many news consumers don't want journalism so much as cherry-picked facts and commentary that affirm what they already believe, and even upstream from that is the problem that many Americans don't like reading.

"The last time I checked overall grades, it was 44% are reading at grade level," Wehrman said, referring to numbers from North Dakota proficiency testing. "There are some schools in western North Dakota where that number is as low as 29%."

"It's a long play, but we have to be concerned about people not even liking or wanting to read. I mean, it's that fundamental," she continued. "Aside from all of the other distractions and questions about who's paying and who isn't paying and where the news is coming from and all of those things, if people don't like to read, newspapers don't have anything for them. And that spells disaster for our future workforce, our society, for understanding who to vote for, whether our rights are being taken away. And I mean, it's just that bedrock of an issue."

Also on this episode, my co-host Chad Oban and I discussed the terrible murder of right-wing organizer and commentator Charlie Kirk, and the terrible way his death has been turned into content for the influencer industry, and a new wedge to drive between Americans of differing political sentiments.

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