Get wired to win.
Not the end of the world
Cross-posted from Media Nation.
Toward the end of a gloomy assessment of the newspaper business in today's New York Times comes this:
I think he's right on the five- to 10-year time frame, but wrong that news sites (let's not call them newspapers) will be less ambitious. Perhaps by "less ambitious" he means more focused on local news. That's true. With a dozens of national and international news sites just a click away, major metropolitan newspapers are going to have to concentrate almost exclusively on local news, sports, business and the arts. But that's not less ambitious — it's just different.
The news business has been through several paradigm shifts since taking on a form we'd recognize beginning in the 1830s. The current one may be unusually wrenching. But it only looks like the end of the world because it happens to be the one we're living through.
Toward the end of a gloomy assessment of the newspaper business in today's New York Times comes this:
The paradox is that more people than ever read newspapers, now that some major papers have several times as many readers online as in print. And papers sell more ads than ever, when online ads are included.That's more than a paradox. It's salvation. The consensus view within the business, Times reporter Richard Pérez-Peña writes, is that "it could take five to 10 years for the industry's finances to stabilize and that many of the papers that survive will be smaller and will practice less ambitious journalism."
I think he's right on the five- to 10-year time frame, but wrong that news sites (let's not call them newspapers) will be less ambitious. Perhaps by "less ambitious" he means more focused on local news. That's true. With a dozens of national and international news sites just a click away, major metropolitan newspapers are going to have to concentrate almost exclusively on local news, sports, business and the arts. But that's not less ambitious — it's just different.
The news business has been through several paradigm shifts since taking on a form we'd recognize beginning in the 1830s. The current one may be unusually wrenching. But it only looks like the end of the world because it happens to be the one we're living through.
1 Comment
-
Comment by LauraFries.com on February 7, 2008 at 12:18pm - I thought it was ironic that this piece was featured in the Romenesko email newsletter only a slot away from "Museum about the news industry scheduled to open April 11."
Add a Comment
About Wired Journalists
Ryan Sholin
created this social network on Ning.
Where credit is due
Howard Owens and Zac Echola are the co-founders of Wired Journalists, sharing all the credit and blame with Ryan Sholin.
Patrick Thornton is around here somewhere, as well.
Contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thanks!
Patrick Thornton is around here somewhere, as well.
Contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thanks!
Chat
Loading Chat...
© 2008 Created by Ryan Sholin on Ning. Create your own social network
You need to be a member of Wired Journalists to add comments!
Join this network