A New Year’s Journalism Wish: Don’t let Editor & Publisher die

The year 2009 was bad enough for print journalism; a long-time colleague of mine who just took a New York Times buyout counts 40,000 journalism jobs lost and 143 newspapers biting the dust.

Through all the turmoil and hand-wringing, Editor & Publisher stood unique among industry trade magazines. While most trades, say those covering the oil industry or music, tend to cheer lead and act as apologists for the Industry Elite, E&P wasn’t afraid to call newspaper brass boneheads when appropriate. When the press bought George W. Bush’s disinformation about Iraq and Weapons of Mass Deception hook line and sinker, E&P took the minority, unpopular view that newspapers everywhere had left their collective critical thinking skills at the door. Ultimately, E&P was right.

It was also right back in the mid-1990s when it warned newspaper owners to embrace the Internet, or else perish. Like those in the music industry and other media, journalism executives instead chose to fight/ignore the changes tooth and nail. And now, everyone’s paying the price for not listening.

So why has E&P reached the end of the line? As my story on AOL’s WalletPop explains, you can blame it on corporate ownership. The Neilsen Co. sold a batch of its trade publications at the beginning of the month, including Adweek and Billboard. But for some reason, E&P wasn’t part of the package transferring to the new owners, and now it must find new backers or go out of business. This baffles many observers, since E&P look poised to finish 2010 with a profit.

Now, it will be lucky to even start 2010. Its last issue has been put to bed, and this week marks the last under Neilsen’s banner–though not necessarily the end of the line. All the attention to this story–thanks in large part to all those journalist fans E&P has gained over the years–have made the potential demise of this scrappy publication a cause celebre.

As well they should. For 125 years, E&P has served as the bible and unflagging conscience of the Fourth Estate. Right up until the end, Editor Greg Mitchell and his staff have been pointing out that print media conglomerates such as Gannett and McClatchey, for all the hand-wringing they’ve done, are making a profit, thank you very much.

What can you and I do? If I had a big enough cash advance limit on my Master Card, I’d buy E&P myself.

But in the meantime, I’ll be visiting the temporary gathering spot for the E&P posse, “E&P in Exile.” I suggest you do, too. It would be a great start to 2010 if we could say that we did something to keep Editor & Publisher in business.