Abstract
In-depth interviews with 19 news producers at 22 ethnic newspapers in three Pacific Northwest states reveal barriers to physical and digital preservation of back issues that include inadequate physical and digital space, limited personnel and financial resources and a lack of technological know-how for archiving the newspapers.
The day Cary Rosenbaum learned he was hired at the Tribal Tribune, a fire burned the administration building of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to the ground. On July 29, 2013, the newspaper office in that building lost almost everything from computers to cameras to old newspapers. 1 In the days and weeks that followed, the newly hired media services manager saw the newspaper archives up close and realized the fire’s toll. Just a few years earlier, when he worked in an interim position setting up the newspaper’s website, he “just figured everything was taken care of” 2 in terms of archiving the Nespelem, Washington, newspaper, which had published since 1960. 3
It was not until Rosenbaum was hired and in charge that he realized the scope of a fire that had burned a recent decade of newspapers, and he also recognized how rodents and rain could harm even older records that were stored in buildings nearby.
“We kind of had a fire lit under us, so-to-speak, when they told us we needed to remodel the community center where one-half of [the newspapers were] put,”
4
Rosenbaum said. His work as a sports writer for the daily Coeur d’Alene Press and managing editor for the weekly Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle before returning to the Tribal Tribune taught Rosenbaum how past newspaper records can help produce current news content. He said:
It’s always been in my head since I got here to start an archive and get things digitized. And we’re trying to find the funding to buy scanners and stuff like that to do our best with having a digital archive, creating one.
5
The Tribal Tribune’s story is dramatic. Rosenbaum describes it as a perfect example of “a newspaper that is struggling with the archiving process.” 6 But the story is not unusual. Newspapers publishing print and online content are at a crossroads in determining how to capture and preserve what has come to be called the first draft of history. 7 For example, all the publicly accessible content on the Milwaukee-area’s online newspaper Patch sites—with coverage of the Wisconsin recall and a Sikh temple shooting—were eliminated when the sites closed in 2013. 8 And Andrew Beaujon reported in 2013 that content from his former Washington, D.C., website, TBD.com, vanished when the new owner began redirecting the URL to a TV station. 9
National and state organizations recognize the need to preserve news records and actively create digital archives of historic newspapers. In early 2014, the American Journalism Historians Association and American Journalism announced the launch of a $5,000 Digitization Micro-grant to support projects developing digital archival material for scholarly study. 10 The National Digital Newspaper Program, a U.S.-shared project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress and state-level endeavors, digitized more than 6.6 million pages of America’s newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 in 36 states and territories as of October 2013. Every year, it digitizes 100,000 pages in each state program. 11
The resulting newspaper archive is fully searchable and made public through the Chronicling America website. In two decades, the program will create what it describes as a “national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers from all the states and U.S. territories.” 12 Most newspapers being digitized are English-language papers, although the Library of Congress has begun to include non-English newspapers. 13 State-level projects, including Washington, Oregon and Idaho, all received funding. 14
Hosting such a project and maintaining the site in years to come is expensive in terms of technology. In selecting which newspapers to digitize, decision-makers must undertake financial cost-benefit analyses. 15 Despite the wide scope of these state and national projects, some newspapers—which may include ethnic media—fall outside selection parameters or present challenges of copyright and character-based language too difficult to overcome. 16
For ethnic media, the preservation of a community’s record of the day represents everything from culture to business to language to nation. Historically, ethnic media serve an important community function. They include a wide range of diverse publications such as immigrant media, transnational media, language-based media and identity-based community media, each genre with important nuances that could be lost without preservation efforts. 17 These media reach a wide spectrum of audiences. One survey found that 45 percent of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American and Arab American adults—about 13 percent of the entire U.S. population—said they prefer ethnic media (television, radio or newspapers) over mainstream media, and 80 percent of these populations access ethnic media on a regular basis. 18 For example, New York’s 270-plus ethnic and community publications “are surviving—and occasionally even thriving.” 19 Loss of records of these community voices that are already marginalized or excluded from dominant media raises the stakes for preservation. 20
This study demonstrates the value of archiving intervention for ethnic newspapers. To understand what barriers and opportunities ethnic media practitioners experience in their effort to capture and preserve news content, newspaper producers in three U.S. Pacific Northwest States—including journalists, publishers, managers and editors—were identified through Web searches, news stories and library databases and recruited for in-depth interviews about their archiving and publishing practices. Media kits, advertisements, social media and news stories about 22 ethnic newspapers in Idaho, Oregon and Washington provided context. 21
These producers of hyper-local and culturally valuable news recognized their records’ importance, identified unique barriers to physical and digital preservation, and found solutions for themselves and others. An analysis of their processes revealed interventions to preserve past and future news content.
Ethnic Newspapers and Archiving Practices
The importance of why community and ethnic media past and present matter has previously been argued. And historians, librarians and others have identified archives as a critical resource. Despite this attention, there is little information about how to preserve them in a digital age and little research at the intersection of ethnic newspapers and their archiving practices.
Making newspapers available digitally changes how we study media because of form, method and access. Digitization of historical records has changed in the past decade making significantly more information available. 22 Bob Nicholson writes that the changes in how we do historical research now are comparable to the “revolution” in scholarship in the late 1980s, when historians began writing “new kinds of history based on a growing awareness of the power of culture and language in shaping past experiences and societies.” 23 In the 21st century, this means new ways of tracing “the development and movement of ideas and discursive formations” 24 through keyword searches and related technology.
Some newspaper digitization projects have been criticized for failing to capture text in its original form, which can result in content no longer accessible to a contemporary scholar.
25
The invisible process of constructing search terms, the costly commercial databases and complex database requirements may place critical texts out of reach.
26
Finally, content-selection decisions typically rest in the hands of librarians, funders and the commercial companies doing the digitization, not researchers, Nicholson argues. He writes:
By the time we view a digital archive, its contents have been through a complex process of transformation; the questions we can ask of a digital source are, in this sense, determined before we even login to the database.
27
Digitization projects also make research easier because of the accessibility of material digitally and physically. Keyword searches also help researchers assess quickly a particular newspaper, situate content and make comparisons. 28
Researchers, including historians, recognize archives as more than collections of texts and material remains of the past. When examined closely, archives reflect assumptions about what matters most to historians, and gaps exist of what might appear unrecognizable in a particular time. 29
Researchers are “acted upon by contextual pressures, influenced by prevailing intellectual trends, anchored in tradition or torn between traditions shaped by his/her own training, by ideology and by societal prejudices,” 30 Cheung writes.
Newspaper archives are especially interesting, as they gather socially constructed collections of socially constructed products. Media scholars describe and examine how news content represents media’s organizational products and also reflects the process of “how something is actually created and put together.” 31
It is useful to remember, too, that media represented—or not, as is the case for some ethnic media—in news archives present socially constructed narratives. 32 Media disseminate information as well as portray and confirm “a particular view of the world.” 33 News reading and writing are dramatic and ritual acts through which “reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed” 34 and in which audiences confront “not pure information but a portrayal of the contending forces in the world.” 35 And so newspapers, as well as archives of newspapers, reflect the same power, ideologies, stories and rituals found in other socially constructed artifacts.
In the background of archiving questions is one of adaptation and innovation of journalism practitioners to the Internet, as well as digital literacy. In recent years, many print newspapers, including ethnic newspapers, have begun producing content online. Scholars have identified how new ways of thinking and operating related to the changes are linked to the local circumstances of each newspaper and may rely on previous frameworks or routines. 36
This study focuses on the archiving practices of journalists who produce the record of the day while also knowing that the news is one of the first drafts of history. In broad terms, this study documents and explains important issues of community press, which include hyper-local newspapers that specialize based on ethnicity, language, nation, region, identity and similar audience and content. More narrowly, this study builds on the experience of ethnic newspaper producers in three U.S. Pacific Northwest states who are preserving past and future news content in a digital age. Two questions are at the center of the research:
What barriers and opportunities do ethnic media practitioners, specifically current producers of online and print newspapers in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, experience in their efforts to capture and preserve news content?
What production and archiving practices do these media practitioners employ?
Findings
To answer these questions, this study engaged 19 news producers at 22 ethnic newspapers in three U.S. Pacific Northwest States. These included journalists, publishers, managers and editors identified through Web searches, news stories and library databases. 37 Every ethnic newspaper publishing online and print in 2014 was invited to participate; most newspapers agreed to in-depth interviews about their publishing and archiving practices. The publications that agreed to participate represent a diverse set of practitioners and practices. News content included Chinese, English, Native American, Spanish and Vietnamese languages. News audiences included Asian, Black, Hispanic and Norwegian ethnicities. Looking at similar and contrasting cases adds confidence through precision, validity and stability. 38 Most of the interviews were conducted in person, with a few done by telephone and one done by email; the interviews and transcriptions were completed in May–July 2014. 39 Qualitative research interviews assist in registering and interpreting meaning of the interviewee’s world. 40 Media kits, advertisements, social media and news stories provided context for interviews and organizational processes. Using semi-structured interviews, researchers asked the news producers about their publishing medium, frequency, accessibility of content to those inside and outside the organization, location of archived materials, barriers, opportunities and importance of archiving these media. In each interview, follow-up questions were asked based on the individual comments and answers. The information was grouped according to themes. 41 All interviewees consented to having their names and organization names published in this research.
Barriers to Capturing, Storing and Preserving
These producers of hyper-local and culturally valuable news recognize their records’ importance, identify unique barriers to physical and digital preservation and see solutions. The barriers that stymied preservation efforts were
lack of physical and digital space
need for more people power and time for archiving
organizational logistics and habits
lack of knowledge of technology and resources
Several newspapers identified lack of space as a limitation to preserving print and online content, and finding space for their growing records seems daunting. They worried less about social media news content. Renting storage space is expensive. Jaime Lim, founder and publisher of The Asian Reporter in Portland, Oregon, said, “Paying office-space rent to store large amounts of paper is not economical.” 42 Tony Chu, executive director and president of three Seattle-based publications, has moved several times since starting Chinese Seattle News in 1993 and Seattle Chinese Journal and the Chinese Washington Post in 2005. With each move Chu throws out more old issues: “We just don’t have that many places to store the newspaper,” 43 he said. Julie Jefferson, director for the Lummi Nation Communications Department, which oversees Squol Quol in Bellingham, Washington, said her newspaper needs “a facility that would keep those records safe from air, water, dust—whatever.” 44 And online storage space has restrictions. “I’d like to get at least like the current issues we are working on, on the Cloud,” 45 said Don Pham of Nguoi Viet Tay Bac/Northwest Vietnamese News. But the expense of Cloud storage and back- ups can be a barrier, according to the newspaper’s managing editor, Julie Pham. 46
Most people interviewed said that not having enough people or time posed a barrier to their newspaper’s print and digital archiving. Travis Quezon explained why this is especially challenging for papers like his:
If you’re an ethnic community newspaper, you’re not getting a lot of income to—to do all the archiving …. Most ethnic community—ethnic newspapers, like ourselves, we don’t have a huge staff. So you don’t have someone dedicated. You don’t have an archivist on staff—usually. In terms of International Examiner, we may have an archivist for a little while, through a grant. But it’s not—never going to be an ongoing position.
47
For example, when El Siete Diaz’ graphic designer in Perú got sick, the newspaper stopped updating its website and discontinued its online archiving for ten months.
48
Lori Edmo-Suppah, editor of Sho-Ban News in Fort Hall, Idaho, said she would like a person
. . . making sure everything’s saved and secured and keeping track of the past issues of the newspaper, our morgues, and figuring out ways to keep them so where they’re secure and in a temperature-controlled area so, you know, they’re not at risk of being destroyed.
49
Another barrier is simply organizational logistics and unhelpful habits. This includes the cumbersome process of retrieving files from a tribal records department or a department getting rid of its microfilm machine that could scan newspapers. 50 It means not being able to search for keywords easily with Chinese character-based text. 51 And it could be something as basic as not having a good filing system to find something easily. 52 Other people presented a lack of knowledge about technology and resources as a barrier. Jefferson said it is a matter of not knowing what methods are “out there” 53 besides saving on a hard drive, flash drive or in a file cabinet. “The Cloud—that’s a possibility,” 54 she said, but she worries about how information will be accessed in the future, “especially, if we change from one program server to another.” 55 These last two insights about the barriers related to organizational logistics and adaptation to new technology are similar to insights addressed in previous scholarship that identified “inertia” and other patterns that present challenges for newspapers integrating online tools and practices specifically, as well as digital literacy generally. 56
Opportunities to Capture, Store and Preserve News
The interviewees also identified opportunities for archiving. Technology, although also identified as a barrier, also was presented as one of two main opportunities to aid preservation efforts. Also, outside sources could provide support through funding, advice and archiving.
Technology provides the Asian Reporter in Portland, Oregon, the ability to create a permanent electronic PDF backup of each paper and post a low-resolution version of this PDF so it “is easily portable to anyone who needs it, anywhere in the world.” 57 The newspapers tracks hits from people in Asian and elsewhere. 58 The Web allows information to be in two places, so it doubles the places records are kept, says Michael Leighton, the Portland Observer’s editor. Technology also makes it possible to search on a computer and “usually” find information, which is easier than “going through a bunch of newspapers,” 59 said Dave McMechan, editor of Spilyay Tymoo.
The newspapers also benefit from several outside sources providing funding, advice and archiving support. The International Examiner leveraged its status as a 501(c) 3 for a $5,000 grant to digitize past issues. 60 In addition, the Rainier Valley Community Development will provide $4,000 for Nguoi Viet Tay Bac/Northwest Vietnamese Post to build a website that includes online archiving. 61 Local community sources sometimes archive news content, such as the records offices for tribal newspapers. 62 Also, the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest began archiving El Hispanic when Melanie Davis started the publication, PQ Monthly. 63 Ethnic media organizations, such as National Association of Hispanic Publications, remind publishers such as David Cortinas of La Voz, of the importance of archiving. 64 National and international resources, like the Sequoyah National Research Center and the National Bibliotek of Norway can also gather and store print and online material. 65
Archive Practices
Analysis of the interviews about barriers and opportunities concerning archiving also revealed insights into the archiving practices of these newspaper producers:
producers care about keeping the newspapers’ physical archives in close proximity
different institutional needs shape what and where publication content is preserved
many producers expressed only a vague awareness of how libraries and other outside organizations archive their newspapers’ records
Those who were interviewed also identified a need to have archives nearby. The practice is especially familiar to those who have worked with newspaper photographs because newspapers are transitioning to digital archives. 66 Closer proximity—as opposed to having an archive stored in a library or other off-site facilities—of the physical copies of the newspaper was important to the interviewees for two reasons.
First, the newspaper workers wanted to know who was accessing the information. Much as online analytic tools can track who is using a website, the gatekeeper role of fielding requests for back issues from people outside the newsroom was seen as valuable. Second, newspaper workers used back copies to provide content and context for contemporary stories. The news content in these publications often represented the only news coverage of community events and people because mainstream and dominant media ignored the coverage. So the older copies of the newspapers provided history that might not be available in any other form. David Cortinas, publisher of La Voz Hispanic Newspaper in Pascoe, Washington, said there are companies that are offering archiving and online services. However, he said he prefers to be in control of his newspaper. He makes 50 cents per copy of old newspapers sold to people who come to his office. And the company that manages his website tells him annually how many hits the newspaper gets from Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Seattle, Idaho, California and elsewhere, including “thousands and thousands” 67 of readers from Mexico’s state of Michoacán where many readers have a lot of relatives. Cortinas said he likes to have this information accessible. And “If I can make revenue with my old newspapers, you know, I definitely want to be in control of that.” 68
Another editor and publisher, Chris B. Bennett, co-publisher and editor of The Seattle Medium, said he learned recently that that the organization was missing several years of physical copies from its nearly 45-year history, including the first issue, and that it lost about a decade of online content after moving and updating the website. His company responded by moving more of the online management in house. Bennett said he keeps a close watch on onsite backup, saying “There’s no offsite backup.” 69 He also said he requires stricter practices to store the newspaper’s hard copies.
Now I’ve got to go back and really kind of be more old-school about it—in terms of having something where I can see something. I know where it’s at. I know how we can access it. If something falls through the cracks, it’s based upon a hole in our system.
70
The need for past records shapes the decisions for which information to save and how and where those materials get stored. Specifically, the financial side of the business can shape the process of preserving a publication. 71 This is not a new insight in terms of archives. However, the interviews with these ethnic media news producers provide insight into some of the intricacies of those decisions.
Most newspaper producers named libraries and other outside organizations that are involved in archiving the print, website, electronic files and social media news content. However, with the exception of Melanie Davis, owner and publisher of El Hispanic News in Portland, Oregon, who visited Multnomah County Library to see the records of her newspaper published since 1981, most of the news workers interviewed addressed these outside archives as “out there” 72 and beyond the scope of day-to-day operations. 73 They consistently demonstrated a vague awareness of how outsiders archive or access their records.
One typical example is Raúl Pérez, publisher and editor of El Siete Dias in Bellevue, Washington. He founded the newspaper in 1992 and operates it out of an approximately 600-square-foot office. He knows libraries, such as the one in the neighboring city of Issaquah, subscribe to the paper. But whether the past issues are preserved, he says, “I’m not sure. I send it.” 74 George Liu, managing operations manager of Seattle’s Northwest Asian Weekly and Chinese Post, said the newspapers maintain a list of all the libraries that subscribe. But he said he did not know how far back the libraries keep the old copies. 75
The news producers’ discussion of social media use yielded similar awareness in terms of archiving and identified control as “out there.”
76
The International Examiner in Seattle, Washington, posts some different content on its website, as well as its Facebook and Twitter accounts, from content that appears in print. Editor Travis Quezon says he has “never thought about”
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archiving social media:
I always—you always just assume. Hey Facebook and Twitter will be around forever. And they’re gonna have it. And it will be searchable. But I haven’t put much thought into that.
78
After saying he was not certain about the ability to search some online content, Quezon took time in the interview to test software the newspaper uses to allow online audiences to view news content without downloading it. 79
Opportunities for Ethnic Media Producers
The digital age has created great access for current information. However, digitization of this information and the question of what to do with the pre-digital physical records reveals financial, staffing, space and other barriers to retaining paper content. The research here provides insights into the practices of a set of news producers; it should complement other scholarship, including research in this special issue. Future analysis might go beyond the findings discussed here and identify discernible patterns in archiving discrepancies such as what is saved (or not) and why. Future analysis and research might also investigate reporting routines that may compensate for a reduction in or lack of an archive. Measures recommended by the 2008 “On the Record” Global Resources Forum helped frame the thinking about best practices that emerged from this study of ethnic newspapers that produce both online and print content. 80
First, newspaper producers could talk with libraries about existing holdings and learn how to access them. The time for this conversation is now. Almost every newspaper producer interviewed knew of one or more libraries that had copies of present or past issues as either hard copies or microform. However, with one exception, no producer knew the details and most were vague on which libraries currently hold a copy. This mirrors the Global Resources Forum’s suggestion that research libraries revise their preservation strategies and pay close attention to the search and text-mining tools that researchers demand. 81 But in doing this, ethnic media should be included in the discussion, as libraries are forced to collect fewer titles than in the past. The need to keep fewer collections should lead to smarter selection of titles rather than indiscriminate downsizing.
Archiving is even more essential for ethnic media where so many of these stories central to national history and American culture have already been lost.
Second, newspaper producers could investigate whether and how outsiders who manage the process preserve online content. One Forum goal was to pay closer attention to commercial enterprises that digitize back files, as there can be unexpected gaps in coverage and standardized metadata may not be used. This can, among other things, create redundancies and add expense for libraries that are already financially strapped. 82 The newspaper editors and publishers interviewed for this study use a variety of strategies to publish online, and many of these work well. However, some systems fail. Information can be lost when the papers change providers or when graphic designers who manage the websites get sick or move on. In short, a lack of awareness of systems “out there” 83 can lead to severe consequences.
Third, newspaper producers could seek out community resources for help, including talking with other ethnic media producers for guidance. The newspapers studied here are part of broader communities invested in preserving histories and are sometimes able to lend support, even if it is a summer intern brought on to scan or create keywords. Given the Global Resources Forum’s concerns about the ability of traditional and newer services for archiving, as well as the concerns about the lack of uniformity of collections, it makes sense for ethnic newspaper editors and publishers to consult with preservation experts and each other in order to learn best practices. 84
Future Research
Future research might be a catalyst for change in archiving practices, as the interviews done for this study became an intervention at times. Emily Skaftun identified “institutional inertia” 85 as a reason her organization fails to back up files. Mid-interview this Norwegian American Weekly editor wondered out loud why she backs up her home information differently than content at work: “I just realized we should have an off-site Cloud back up. You know, just nobody thought of it.” 86
At Nguoi Viet Tay Bac/Northwest Vietnamese Weekly, Don Pham, began searching for anti-virus software five minutes after the interview. 87 Almost every interviewee took time before or after the interview to ask what solutions had surfaced thus far in the process. Although no one newspaper approached preservation of its news content the same, all of the newspaper producers spoke of their desire to store past news content in safe, efficient, affordable, and meaningful ways.
“I’m going to do this no matter what,” 88 said Rosenbaum, whose newspaper office burned to the ground in 2013. Even if it means he uses “a hundred-dollar scanner to get things digitized,” 89 he said the archiving will begin. “It’s an emergency state for us. And I’m going to do things whether I have the money or not.” 90
As the Global Resources Forum discussion makes clear, time is of the essence in preserving news content. Archiving is even more essential for ethnic media where so many of these stories central to national history and American culture have already been lost.