Spotlight puts focus on value of newspapers

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This article was published 03/10/2018 (2599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Newspapers, and their readers, matter now more than ever.

That was the message Wednesday night as the Winnipeg Free Press hosted a free screening at the Winnipeg Art Gallery of the movie Spotlight, as part of National Newspaper Week.

“Stories that newspapers do, stories that the Free Press does, are stories that you can’t get anywhere else,” Free Press editor Paul Samyn told a crowd of about 150.

“These stories also wouldn’t be told without you. We’re at the point now where the revenue from our subscribers is the one growing revenue line and pays for more of our news (to be covered) than we get from advertising. That’s why we want to thank you and that’s why we want to celebrate you, our readers.”

The movie chronicles the investigative journalism by a team of reporters and editors at the Boston Globe newspaper — known as the Spotlight team — who exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by numerous Roman Catholic priests in the Boston area; abuse that continued unchecked for years, despite the fact senior clergy members knew about it.

The Spotlight team’s work earned the Boston Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The movie Spotlight won the 2015 Oscar for best picture.

Joanne and Barry Craig said they’ve subscribed to the Free Press for 25 years because, in the theme of the Spotlight movie, the newspaper continuously provides in-depth coverage of a wide range of issues.

“The only media in Winnipeg in my book an exhaustive credence is the Free Press because I can go deeper into subjects,” said Barry, who said he was a journalist for 20 years with the Winnipeg Tribune and the Edmonton Journal. “It’s the nature of newspaper journalism. TV can’t because they want something that’s visual.”

Joanne said she still loves the paper product, as opposed to the online version.

“It’s just so much more comfortable to sit down and read the paper, pick the sections you want to read and set some aside for later,” she said.

Jan Weedon and Pat Thomson said they count on Free Press coverage.

“It’s a valuable thing to have. It’s good to be able to read, rather than just watch the news on TV,” said Weedon, who subscribes online and takes the Saturday paper.

“A lot of the local stories, you wouldn’t hear about them,” Thomson said.

Darryl and Mary Ann Preisentanz, subscribers for 43 years, said the work that newspaper journalists do needs to survive the tough times that the print product finds itself in.

“You’ll still have a digital version. The paper may go the way of the do-do bird but hopefully, not for a while,” Darryl said.

Two of the youngest readers in the crowd were Kristen Einarson, 23, and Matt Schaubroeck, 29, who said newspapers are a trusted news source and their journalists are accountable for their work.

“Journalism is very important to democratic society. If we don’t have people criticizing what certain administrations are doing, what can we trust?” Einarson said, adding they take the Saturday paper and subscribe online. “I’ve grown up trusting journalism and trusting journalists. I love the Free Press and I read it every day.”

Schaubroeck said the event was a great opportunity for readers to talk with Free Press staff members.

Samyn pointed to the recent investigative journalism project produced by the New York Times, stories which expose how U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in suspect tax schemes in the past to build his family’s wealth, as an example of the important leadership role newspapers continue to take.

The NYT project involved three reporters and more than a year of research and writing – a project that broadcast media did not attempt but followed after the stories were published.

“Newspapers have long been the ones doing the heavy lifting on journalism,” Samyn said. “The stories that aren’t going to be told unless you dig, the stories that aren’t going to be revealed unless you ask tough questions are generally the domain of newspapers.”

Samyn and publisher Bob Cox answered questions from readers following the movie screening.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca