Results matching “future of journalism is”

That the world of traditional media is in crisis, nobody doubts. However the question raised by Michael Hirschorn of the Atlantic, is just how long the industry can continue in its current situation.  He takes the example of the struggling New York Times and hypothesizes about the end coming sooner than anyone expects - May in fact.  Whilst the NYT going out of business within months looks highly unlikely, its current financial status leaves this seemingly far-fetched theory every so slightly more plausible. 

Peter Wilby wondered in the Guardian whether 2009 might see "a revival for serious journalism" in light of the economic recession. He quotes former Daily Express editor Richard Addis who wrote that "when things go wrong, you look for wisdom."  Wilby does not think that past events have given credence to this view, and suggests that in difficult times, people actually look for "glamour and escapism." 

Taking on Independent columnist Johann Hari, Media Guardian's Roy Greenslade finds that the "newspapers-versus-bloggers argument is entirely false," and that there is a future for the industry with the involvement of citizen journalists.

Hari uses the financial state of the industry, following the bankruptcy of the Tribune Co. and the arrival of the Internet, to form a new paradox: "more people are reading quality newspapers than ever before," he writes, and yet, "newspapers are dying."  The reason for this is, Hari says, because "we don't just want it all, we want it free."

There will be an "aching hole where newsgathering used to be," Hari writes, because the leftover sources of news--online sources, such as bloggers--don't have the resources necessary to "make sense of the world."

Greenslade disputes the "us versus them" attitude that many professional journalists take toward bloggers and other citizen journalists.  The future of journalism, Greenslade writes, lies in "participation" between the professionals and citizens.

Traditional newspaper owners are "clinging desperately to an outmoded model," and journalists are following suit, Greenslade writes.  The future of news organizations will be "very different," but there need not be a "hole" if traditional sources fail.  

"We should be finding ways to fill it," Greenslade concludes, building business models to provide resources for the future.

Source: Media Guardian

Is the recent Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich scandal proof that the newspaper industry still has relevance?    

Blagojevich's efforts to remove editorial members of the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times' David Carr argues, show that the newspaper still has an impact--if a governor is willing to allegedly extort money in return for favorable press, then the paper must be doing something right.  

The scandal, he says, is justification for investigative journalism through a print medium.  A daily paper is a "civic necessity." If a community lacks a proper outlet, or was "too diminished" for full reporting, then what would have been the result in Illinois?

"Who says the modern American newspaper doesn't matter?" Carr asks.

TJ Sullivan.  In his LA Observed column "Native Intelligence," Sullivan argues the opposite point.

"Newspapers don't matter," he writes. "Otherwise people would be reading them."

At the Third Annual Arab Press Forum held in Beirut, Lebanon by the World Association of Newspapers, some of the Arab World's top editors and publishers joined to discuss the state of the press. The underlying theme of each conference session was the difficulties that Arab newspapers face in publishing news under governments that often repress journalists.

In the third session, entitled Opportunities and Choices Facing Arab Newspaper Editors, panelists presented some ideas that could be useful for editors around the world:

Members of the UK's regional press will debate the future of journalism training later this week, following a report by the Society of Editors Conference which found that trainees are not meeting the industry's needs in terms of news gathering and writing.

The first Journalism Skills Conference will be held in Greater Manchester on Friday, where delegates and industry leaders will discuss the lack of "core skills" in multimedia.  

The need for training to reflect the needs of "converged" newsrooms and "multi-platform" journalism will be the main focus of the conference, Hold the Front Page reports, and take "a strategic view of the issues associated with educating and training journalists.

Source:  Hold the Front Page

The Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post have announced a partnership with Florida International University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The deal will allow students enrolled in journalism courses at FIU to work as reporters, photographers and videographers, providing content for the three papers' print and online editions as part of the South Florida News Service.  The service will launch in early January. 

James O'Shea, ex-editor of the Los Angeles Times, believes that future of newspapers depends on public trust.  He believes that newspapers will continue to exist, but that the real question is "what kind of journalism will we have in the newspapers that manage to survive the current wave of circulation and advertising declines plaguing the industry."

He brings up a recent interview with Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell who believes that "the newspaper industry truly still doesn't understand that it is in a business with customers and the business must reflect the needs and demands of the customer. And to the extent that we don't do that, we will disappear."  O'Shea does not believe in Zell's philosophy because of "how that vision is applied in newsrooms he controls."

Former editor of the Daily Mirror Piers Morgan said that all national newspapers will be free within 10 years, and his paper should be the kick-off to the transition, according to Press Gazette.

The UK's daily Independent costs its publisher, Dublin-based Independent News & Media a "small fortune" every year, The Evening Standard's Roy Greenslade writes, and is likely to fail.

The way to save the paper is by taking a "revolutionary" step--going entirely online.

Foregoing all of its newsprint editions would be following the paper's tradition of "taking risks," according to Greenslade, and would change the face of newspapers in the UK.

The New York Times is boasting a "successful" advertising campaign on social networking site Facebook, increasing their number of "fans" following the presidential election, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab.

An internal memo from Times president Scott Heekin-Canedy said that the goals of the campaign were to increase the company's number of Facebook fans, "raise awareness of NYTimes.com as an interactive news center, and engage the Facebook community in a conversation about the election outcome."

The idea of an ombudsman, or reader's editor, is not new, but its practice is still relatively infrequent.  Journalism.co.uk discussed with Siobhan Butterworth, The Guardian's ombudsman, why the post is "more important than ever" in the web environment.

There are an increasing number of articles are published straight to the Web.  In fact, there are 10 times as many articles online than there are in print.

Reader complaints are in large supply. Butterworth dealt with 23,000 corrections and complaints via email, telephone and fax in 2007.  The Press Complaints Commission received 10,000 communications last year.

The Trinity Mirror's innovative workflow overhaul, moving three of its regional newspapers into a single newsroom, has been a "morale booster" for staff in a time when the industry has seen its share of downturns.

The new site at Fort Dunlop is the largest open plan office space outside of London, Journalism.co.uk reports.  As the Weblog has reported, Trinity Mirror completely revamped the approach to newsroom management with the transition.

The Kaiser Family Foundation is launching a news service to provide "in-depth coverage of the policy and politics of health care" both online and through collaboration with mainstream media.

The website will be independently run, with a budget expected to reach $4 million in two years, and is a part of the "wave of online ventures that have emerged as newspapers and magazines cut jobs and newsgathering budgets," the New York Times reports.

A free site that helps out-of-work journalists set up their own blogs has been launched, according to Poynter.

The Typepad Journalist Bailout Program provides journalists with "professional help," and is an initiative that helps journalists survive in a changing industry, Poynter notes.

The site "acknowledges that journalism needs a business model," keeping its users planning ahead and "thinking about future revenue streams" by enrolling journalists in an advertising program.

The Typepad Journalist Bailout Program promotes journalists' new sites, and is a positive venue for journalists' morale, "letting them know that storytelling is alive and growing."

Source:  Poynter