Don’t cry for newspapers — they’ll find a way
My hometown newspaper has changed a lot. Like all daily newspapers, it continues to struggle with costs, online competition, and relevance. Its very recent changes include another round of difficult staff reductions — all of which have impacted long-time friends and professional colleagues of mine — and dramatic new designs. And while the world’s events maintain a daily swirl around it, my hometown newspaper doesn’t cover them like it used to do.
But then, neither do many other newspapers today. What’s their future? This repeatedly asked question hasn’t been answered to my satisfaction. Maybe because no one yet knows. Is the newspaper industry in a crisis? Sure it is, and it has the misfortune of its crisis playing out in everyone’s driveway each morning. It’s an industry that is reporting its own brutal transition / demise — for all to read about and comment on.
Newspaper struggles are not over. However, we’re beginning to see how the future may look.
For one, the daily newspaper — the print version — probably won’t disappear but may only appear on weekends. We’ll still get it thrown in the driveway, but with more long stories and thought pieces. That’s not so bad.
Next, the bloggers and news aggregators will have an important role, but the jury’s is still out on whether to define their efforts as “journalism” or even “the new journalism.” (After all, the dictionary defines “journalism” as “the business or practice of writing and producing newspapers.”)
And very importantly, and before too much longer, someone will discover journalism’s business model for the future. A new way to make money and report the news. For the survival of the newspaper industry, this has to happen soon. So, necessity being the mother of invention……