Last week, another defender of good journalism got the ax. Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey Johnson was fired by the Tribune Company, its owner, after refusing corporate demands to make deep job cuts and increase profits. It was the second time in less than a year that the company made such mandates. Johnson said the cuts would damage the paper’s ability to fully report the news. He wasn’t the first person to find himself jobless after taking a stand for quality reporting, and, sadly, probably won’t be the last.

Newspapers are facing threats from two sides: their readership and their ownership. Declining circulation has led to declining advertising sales. Much of this is caused by the emergence of the Internet and its encroachment on the ad territory that newspapers traditionally have held. At the same time, shareholders are demanding, as they do in every industry, higher profits and revenues. But unlike other industries, newspapers already turn in profits upwards of 20 percent, much higher than the average, and more importantly, perform a function that is vital to a free nation.

The strength of media and the strength of democracy are closely intertwined, and, whether intentionally or not, corporate pressures to increase profits year after year are undermining both. Communications experts note two ways media companies frequently attempt to increase profits. One is to lay off as many reporters as possible in an effort to cut costs, as the Tribune Company is attempting to do in Los Angeles. Another is to cover fewer stories on issues affecting the public interest and increase reporting on lifestyle, court cases and celebrity news, which are cheaper to produce and, sadly enough, demand more of the public’s attention.

Media provide a forum for political debate and a way for citizens to scrutinize government actions or inactions. Profit alone cannot be the mark by which its success or failure is measured. Undermining the ability of the press to perform its function just to strangle a few more dollars from it is plainly not worth what it will cost in terms of effectively informing the public.