All the news that's fit to print - if there's still space.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe

A MAJOR CATASTROPHE has overtaken Americans, most important source of news and information, and few are even aware that it is happening. Scarcity has been driving up the cost of the paper on which newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals are printed, and this is having a devastating effect on the flow of information.

It is forcing newspapers and magazines to drastically cut their newsgathering staffs and reduce the amount of pages for editorial material. It is causing newspapers on the edge to go out of business or merge with the competition, making more and more towns and cities one-newspaper monopolies. It also is creating the perfect environment for large media syndicates to come in and buy up small and medium-sized newspapers quickly and efficiently.

The result is cataclysmic. Anyone in government or in the private sector who has hated the concept of hundreds of pieces of print media focusing sharp spotlights on public and private behavior couldn't be more pleased.

Newspapers faced with the burden of paying the increased newsprint costs, which can run into millions of dollars for major city dailies, have few places to economize. If they raise their prices to cover the new costs, fewer readers will buy their product. The only alternative is to cut staff and pages.

Staff cuts make it far more difficult to do serious reporting, to take time with complex stories, to investigate private and government business practices. It is far easier to run syndicated copy or short, snappy features along with the fast-breaking news of the day than to pay reporters to do the demanding and complex job of analyzing how taxes are being spent, construction fraud, or zoning kickbacks. Newspapers faced with dwindling funds are being forced to stop biting the hands that feed them (advertisers) and concentrate more on entertainment than information.

Space cuts also force editors to forget complicated stories and concentrate on smaller, tighter pieces that seldom go beyond the superficial. Faced with fewer pages and editorial columns and a public mostly disinterested in issues and problems, more and more editors opt for the facile human interest features and quick, summary news paragraphs. Meanwhile, the editors who want to continue good journalism find themselves with no reporters to do the job and no space even when such stories are reported and written.

Seasoned journalists either are being forced out of their jobs because their high salaries make them...