The closure of newspapers means for us as Americans that we will have less accountability, less access to information, and just generally less. Journalists are an important piece of the puzzle in our country.
However, this is a scene that doesn’t need to happen. The outright closure of a newspaper never needs to occur, even if that is what the corporate bodies upstairs decide.
Journalism in our country needs to take a refreshing evaluation of itself and realizes different mediums call for different types of reporting:
- Radio and Television: Headlines, Breaking News, etc.
- Newspapers/NewsWeb: Indepth journalism
Truth be told, part of the reason newspapers are dying is because they are focusing on the wrong stories. They try to report stories that are instant, immediate, and not suitable for the morning after. Newspapers are an amazing medium for in-depth investigative journalism. Not weather, not sports scores, but serious hard hitting journalism that takes a page and a half to discuss and dive into.
My advice? Newspapers in our country need to move from daily editions to weekly editions in areas that are not lucritive. I fully expect daily editions of NYT, LAT, and a few other big name papers, but by and large, most papers don’t need to be daily. There isn’t enough news. Weekly or biweekly print, featuring in-depth investigative stories, longer articles, and a ‘week in review’ of top headlines people may have missed has a better chance of saving newspapers.
That, or going to an entirely web-based system and again, focusing less on daily reporting of stories also seen on TV.
You can make money in Journalism, and still have most of your reporting staff if you ask them not to run around town chasing top stories likely seen on the news, but investigating and seeking out.
News agencies need to figure out how to adapt to our current world of electronic print, or they will continue to die off.
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Journalism and the Future
The closure of newspapers means for us as Americans that we will have less accountability, less access to information, and just generally less. Journalists are an important piece of the puzzle in our country.
However, this is a scene that doesn’t need to happen. The outright closure of a newspaper never needs to occur, even if that is what the corporate bodies upstairs decide.
Journalism in our country needs to take a refreshing evaluation of itself and realizes different mediums call for different types of reporting:
Truth be told, part of the reason newspapers are dying is because they are focusing on the wrong stories. They try to report stories that are instant, immediate, and not suitable for the morning after. Newspapers are an amazing medium for in-depth investigative journalism. Not weather, not sports scores, but serious hard hitting journalism that takes a page and a half to discuss and dive into.
My advice? Newspapers in our country need to move from daily editions to weekly editions in areas that are not lucritive. I fully expect daily editions of NYT, LAT, and a few other big name papers, but by and large, most papers don’t need to be daily. There isn’t enough news. Weekly or biweekly print, featuring in-depth investigative stories, longer articles, and a ‘week in review’ of top headlines people may have missed has a better chance of saving newspapers.
That, or going to an entirely web-based system and again, focusing less on daily reporting of stories also seen on TV.
You can make money in Journalism, and still have most of your reporting staff if you ask them not to run around town chasing top stories likely seen on the news, but investigating and seeking out.
News agencies need to figure out how to adapt to our current world of electronic print, or they will continue to die off.
This entry was posted by Brad on August 31, 2010 at 4:01 pm, and is filed under Commentary. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.