Over the past few years, newspapers have been declining in circulation across the nation. As more people get the news on the internet, many newspapers have struggled to adjust to the changing times and find new ways of surviving in these tough economic times. All newspapers now have websites that provide news information and articles from its writers. Some papers have followed the example of the Christian Science Monitor, which will switch from daily to weekly circulation in April to adjust to the diminished readership. In my area, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News have cut staff to try to stay economically viable.
Community newspapers are especially having trouble with the changing landscape. Large newspaper conglomerates have slowly bought up many local independent newspapers, and replaced them with papers that do scant reporting of local events and people. These conglomerates have begun to monopolize the source of news, with fewer diversity of views being offered.
I am the weekly cartoonist for the Tri-City Voice, a local newspaper that covers the Milpitas, Union City, and Fremont areas in California. The Tri-City Voice has been fighting the conglomerate MediaNews and its subsidiary the Bay Area News Group for the right of legal notice as a "newspaper of general circulation" for the City of Union City, City of Fremont, Alameda County and the State of California. William Marshak, the editor of the Tri-City Voice, wrote an eloquent editorial about the fight between the Tri-City Voice and the Argus, the MediaNews paper that they hope replaces the Tri-City Voice in the Fremont area.
To fight the Argus, the Tri-City Voice needs to increase its distribution to paid individual subscribers. To be a paid subscriber, one can mail a check for $5 payable to the Tri-City Voice or call 510-494-1999 to use a credit card to subscribe to order an individual subscription for a year. For more information, you can go here .













