PRINT JOURNALISM

continued from page 3 people” (not that they really did much for the Chieftain -- or had ever set foot in the community I still call home).

Many (not all) of the Chieftain veterans I had the privilege to work with for years couldn’t get past seeing digital media as a threat to the older print product, which is still -- despite all the cutbacks and compromises on quality -- sought after and sometimes preferred by readers of all ages. I get it -- as an Xennial, I’m on the cusp between my earliest memories of solid, authoritative newsprint, and all the tradition wrapped up in it, and the convenience and serotonin-fueled satisfaction of immediate news alerts that find me wherever I am, whatever I’m doing. I’m not a digital native, but more of a digital navigator.

After leaving the Chieftain, I even spent time at Colorado Springs’ Indy and Business Journal organization, doing some “online stuff” but mainly designing newspaper pages and graphics again and coordinating their print production … served by, you guessed it, the peerless press professionals of the Pueblo Chieftain. Those 51 workers are now facing the undeserved uncertainty of unemployment.

There’s no “killer app” here. Neither the internet nor social media, nor their avid users, are responsible for the depredations suffered by publications like the Chieftain and those it prints (at least until August, when much of that business will go to Denver, and some even further, at great cost). That blame belongs at the feet of out-of-state and out-of-touch executives making decisions for communities they’ve never visited or valued.

The Chieftain is more than a newspaper or a website or mobile application -- it’s home to a printing powerhouse that has allowed diverse publications throughout Colorado to flourish for decades. Now, because they don’t want to invest in Pueblo or its storied press, a faraway force that answers to no one is shutting down a busy commercial printing operation that allows hundreds of journalists to hold the powerful to account and employs dozens of Puebloans. That’s a threat to freedom if ever there was one. The research on this is resoundingly clear: In a “news desert,” as Pueblo and southern Colorado are in danger of becoming, civic engagement and community connections wither, and local leaders too often go unchecked.

A common dismissal of newspapers today is declaring “print is dead” -- but, news alert: That’s an opinion, not a fact. These days the distinction may get blurred, but it’s still there. I always told my colleagues that readers and advertisers decide what formats survive and thrive. That’s an opinion that is supported by facts and data, every time.

Opinion or fact -- which one should be the basis for a big business decision like killing off a thriving community printing hub? Even an ink-stained wretch like me can tell you the answer.