Did anyone miss the papers

We have all gone for more than two weeks without newspapers.

I am not sure what or who to blame it on, or if it is simply a case of the world having changed and me still harking back to my ancient days.

I am still trying to come to terms with the fact that newspapers in Ghana shut down before Christmas and are only now gradually resuming publication in the second week of January.

Once upon a time when I worked in the newspaper world, publication days were almost set in stone.

Newspapers were not published on New Years Day, Good Friday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

And then of course, we didn’t publish on Sundays as Ghanaians never got into the habit of Sunday newspapers. 

So, newspaper journalists did not go to work on Saturdays and went on Sundays, for some of us, most reluctantly.

I remember that we used to wear it as a badge of honour that we went to work on days that the rest of the country was on holiday to make sure that the newspaper would be ready at dawn when people got up.

In trouble

I knew newspapers were in trouble and have, indeed, written about the situation recently, but I had no idea things had reached the stage where newspapers would shut down for two weeks and more.

 I have the exaggerated sense of our importance in those days to actually think that there would have been rioting in the streets if the national newspaper had dared to shut down for three days, never mind for almost three weeks.

When I asked in a recent article if anyone was actually still reading newspapers, I had a few people sent me messages to the effect that only people my age still read newspapers and were the only ones that would notice their absence if they disappeared completely.

You are fighting a losing battle, was one of the kindest responses I got. 

I wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that newspapers were no longer published on public holidays, except to probably accept that newspapers were only now bought for office use and private people didn’t buy or read newspapers.

For example, if there is a public holiday on a Wednesday, in the middle of the week, the newspaper doesn’t come out on that day, it must mean they know only office people buy newspapers.

On reflection, there are no big newspaper vendors around town any more and there must be a generation of young people who have never even heard the yell that accompanies the selling of newspapers.

I don’t recall that I have seen the poster that newspapers used to produce, which advertised the main news in the day’s paper, which used to be plastered around.

I suspect there are newspaper journalists that don’t even know about those posters.

A few years ago, if you were in a car on the road leading to the traffic lights near where I live, there would be quite a number of young men contesting to catch your attention so you can buy “a full set” before the lights changed.

“A full set” for the uninitiated would be one copy of each newspaper that the young man was hawking and it could be five or six different newspapers.

These days, there is no guarantee that there would be anyone weaving through the traffic, selling newspapers and it will be very strange if someone was carrying more than two different papers.

They don’t even say anything to announce themselves, it is almost as though they were embarrassed or they knew they belonged to an endangered species.

I suppose they know when there is a market and when not to waste their energies.

Reality

I imagine that the newspapers see their decision to shut down production for two weeks plus as a reflection of the reality of what happens in the country during the period. Most offices are closed, many factories shut down and many institutions either close down completely or are on skeletal operations.

It is really only the hospitality and entertainment industries that are on full operations and since newspapers now are only patronised by officialdom, one can understand that the newspapers would feel no one would buy if they published.

Even the advertisement section of the paper would reflect the partial shut-down of official activities.

During this period, there are no funeral activities; November and the first two weeks of December are crowded with funerals and all those who can, would have arranged funerals before the start of the Christmas festivities. 

There are usually very, very few funerals in January, not because people don’t die in December or January, but because it is not the done thing to bury or hold funerals in January.

Starting the year with a funeral is tempting fate and the new year would likely turn out to be full of bad luck. 

So, we all keep our dead bodies until February and March and that way, we wouldn’t be starting the year on a bad note. 

Slow business

Business is therefore rather slow in the newspaper advertisement department in the period from middle December through January and a shut-down becomes a cost-saving measure.    

I have no experience of what happens in a newspaper outfit when there is a two-week shut-down, as there was no such thing during my time.

I hazard a guess that with the online operations, the shut-down does not mean the entire setup has been disabled. 

The printing section would be definitely out of action, and those who design and put together the layout would not be needed. 

The newsroom, the nerve centre of the operations of the newspaper, would be alive and kicking, but I doubt that all the reporters would be needed for the online operations and many of the reporting staff have had holidays like the rest of the country.

If the shut-down has provided evidence that no one reads or cares about newspapers anymore, except for a few ancient dinosaurs like me, it has also shown up the most modern parts of the media as being very dependent on the old-fashioned newspaper. 

The morning programmes on radio and television have been struggling without newspapers being available for them to review.

There is no danger of morning discussion programmes being axed, no matter on what format they are being broadcast, streamed or whatever the terminology is or the outlet is, Facebook, YouTube, Television, good old radio, the only critical need is newspapers. 

The newspapers simply have to find a new way of counting the people they reach.

We might not be buying newspapers or reading them, but the programmes we watch and listen to certainly require newspapers.