Above the Fold
What importance do newspapers have today? They used to be the primary source of news, delivered straight to your doorstep every morning (or farther back, morning and evening). Who won the Presidential election? Look at the front page of the paper (except for the Chicago Tribune’s mistake: a jubilant Harry Truman and the front page with “DEWEY WINS”). Want to know which team won the local football rivalry? Check out the back of the sports section. Want to know who got married, divorced, died? It was right there, on your front doorstep, knowledge directly “at hand”.
But that’s not so true today. While newspapers still exist, they are now a “niche” news delivery system. We all have the answers to those important questions literally in our pocket. Our phones know-all: Presidential results, sports scores, local events, obituaries. So why get a newspaper? For the older generation it’s simple habit. We can browse a “paper”, feel the pages, see the black type on white newsprint, and, of course, do the crosswords and wordles and word searches.
There’s a Sunday Columbus Dispatch sitting across the table as I type.
Single Source
And, there are certain important topics which struggle to rise to the level of “news on the phone”. Sure, there’s always an “app for that”, including an app for the Columbus Dispatch. But the paper, the actual paper, is actually a quicker way to “index” what’s going on, especially in local and state news.
Here in Ohio, the Gannett Newspapers own 18 daily papers. That includes the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Columbus Dispatch, and the Akron Beacon Journal; three of the seven major Ohio papers. So when Gannett “speaks”, especially on state issues, they become the one voice that many Ohioans hear. And when Gannett uses a single reporter for years to explain a single issue; that reporter’s view becomes the “sole, single” source for many.
Premier System
My “niche” concern is the State Teacher’s Retirement System. Without getting to “in the weeds”, (OK, maybe a little weedy) the problem is simple. There are over 150,000 retired teachers in Ohio. Those teachers worked in the schools for relatively lower wages, in part, because of a promise: a “Premier” retirement system. In fact, my generation of teachers didn’t even pay into social security or Medicare. The State of Ohio exempted us, saying that our “Premier” retirement would serve all of our needs.
And that was true until it wasn’t, in 2012. The State of Ohio changed the deal. The legislature delegated their powers to the State Retirement Board to make cuts (a “courageous” move by the legislators – “cuts aren’t our fault”). They were worried that there wouldn’t be enough money in the fund to cover the mass of “boomer” teachers retiring; and the Legislature didn’t want to be part of a financial solution. Over the next decade, the Retirement System cut what retirees thought was their “contract”. The most important cut, Cost of Living Allowances (COLA).
It’s simple: you retire with an annual income of, say, $70,000 in 2013. Due to inflation, with prices up over 35% in a decade, that requires $94000 to “stay even” now . An annual 3% COLA keeps “buying power” close to the cost of living. But the Retirement System cut COLAs. It’s like retiring on $45,000 back in 2013, something that you’d never do. When you did retire, the Retirement System, the Premier System in the Nation, promised the COLA. They even put it in writing. And then they broke that contract.
Old Teachers
But even worse, the Retirement System took their billions of dollars of teacher-earned money (over $90 Billion) and invested close to a third in “private equity” firms and in real estate. Those investments paid back less than 7% a year, and there were some years were they lost money. If those funds were simply in the stock market over those years, they would have average over 14% gain a year. Meanwhile, the System paid untold fees to equity firms (hidden from the public) and spent millions in wages and bonuses to the in-house staff as well.
Over 40,000 retired teachers joined together to make changes to the elected Retirement Board. They want to change the way the fund is managed, and stop the profligate staff spending. The goal: secure the fund for the future, provide promised COLA’s to retirees, and allow teachers to retire after thirty years of service (though they certainly can stay longer if they want to).
But the Gannett Newspapers have decided that those 40,000 are simply a “lobbying group”. And their reporter, author of almost every article (in the Columbus Dispatch and the Newark Advocate locally) has taken the current staff’s “line” in most issues. To the reading public, Gannett sees the “lobbyists” as trying to soak the fund for their own benefit. And since Gannett controls the information to most of the state – that’s how this story is heard.
You can go read the Toledo Blade, or the Cleveland Plain Dealer, to get alternate information. If you live in Columbus, you can listen to the great work by WCMH’s Colleen Marshall. Or you can go talk to a retired teacher. But for most of the state, the story is cast as “greedy old retirees” versus “hard working young teachers”.
There’s only one voice heard – Gannett’s.
