Book Review: "News for the Rich, White, and Blue" By Nikki Usher

What are blind spots in reporting? How does philanthropic issues affect journalism? What is grant funding and why don't we have more paid work study programs in journalism for college students?

If you've ever wondered if party politics is putting a strain on the current state of local and national news than you're not alone.

It appears that the liberal, wealthy, and blue are continuing to pour in the funds to bring the news they wish to see.

However, there's change on the horizon as digital subscriptions and firewalls have arrived in full force but are they necessary to monitor traffic, create ads, and entice new readers to pay up?

As a former news reader of the two top papers in Northeastern Pennsylvania the quality is most important to me. In this scenario, Nikki Usher brought to light the fact of losing many qualified journalist to downsizing and it's apparently hurting the bottom line.

When my daughter made it to the PIAA state finals for high school volleyball we weren't able to send anyone to cover the news. Not one journalist during a pandemic.

The fact that the news often covered is not geared to the poor, the impoverished, those suffering from these economic times such as the unemployed and underserved is no laughing matter.

What I've seen locally is a pay to play with firewalls and the need for 'likes' overriding the need for 'quality' material.

I'd be willing to pay for something of value but unfortunately what's being placed is not worthy of payment.

I have many friends who work in the news/journalism/media reporter fields and I can tell you that it's not an easy line to walk. The local paper (1 of 2) decided to charge customers for online views which prompted many to stop following and seek other avenues for their media needs. Several AP sources are now being used for free just to learn about local news.

In fact, the same thing happened with our monopoly of cable/internet. When the company raised prices for local channels and we were paying nearly $90 a month for basic local channels many of us went out and purchased 'Roku' and watched the news for free by using the same money we would've spent on monthly charges.

The author mentions 'bundled' packages and just like the news in print the same news on tv also comes with a hefty price. Why not sell just what channels or what sections of print you need?

Well, for those of us who are on fixed incomes, bankrupt, unemployed, in poverty the choice is rather simple. We cannot afford to be priced out of the market.

There's zero catering to those in need. It's a money market business that caters to the elite and so what you see is what's left of that decision making process.

I now pay $50 a month just for internet because they don't value their long term customers which I've never understood. Rather than give a discount of service to your loyal customers they charge them more. Why? When you state a package price at 'x' amount of dollars why within a month does it go from hypothetically speaking (50 a month to 90) for excess fees and charges that continue to rise and the quality of service has not increased for additional channels but in fact declined in service and value.

The same thing is happening with journalism today.

Accordingly, "The more Democratic a state is, the more funding it receives for the investigative journalism."

Keep in mind, "news that serves the poor isn't getting subsidized by philanthropic efforts, just as it is overlooked by for-profit news outlets."

In addition, "following the 2008 recession, many newspapers were hit hard by a perfect storm of rising costs, decreased print ad revenue, decreases in print subscribers, and the realizations that digital ad dollars could not make up for the money lost from print advertising.

The entire concept of news today after the prior President that centered upon name calling of 'fake news' is quite extraordinary.

As a writer/freelance/trade blogger I can't imagine the censorship, the pressure, the need to please the masses at the extent of one's own health and job security.

It's a rough and tumble world and one that requires constant evolvement and change in order to keep up with the fast pacing societal differences.

Thank you to Nikki Usher, the pub, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.