Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine blogger, writes about the new ecosystem of news: a press-sphere, in which the press may be involved, but "any of many sources can, thanks to links, add up a story and to fulfilling the need or desire for news and information." Newspapers aren't just news anymore, according to Jarvis, they are more complex with endless sources and handlers.

People do not just receive their news directly from the press anymore; they may have found the news through their peers "who tell us it's news." The definition of news has changed as well, from a story with text and photos to incorporating background information, commentary that may add perspective, and data. "A story never begins and it never ends," writes Jarvis. "[The story] - in whatever medium -- is merely a blip on the line, a stage in a process, for that process continues after publication."

According to Jarvis, the public should replace news as the center of the press-sphere, surrounded by all news sources: the press, peers, non-press media  (e.g., Jon Stewart), search, links, original sources, companies, the government. "It's all information and we curate it and interact with it with the tools available," writes Jarvis. Even readers themselves can be sources now.

One of the commenters on Jarvis' blog didn't agree with "the idea that we can continue to maintain a story alive indefinitely when in fact the story has died or it is no longer relevant..." According to the reader, "Even if [it] was relevant, we would be looking from 20/20 hindsight, which by definition, would put the story in historical context and not within the journalistic purview."

The newsroom has already evolved with the emergence of online. "In print, the process leads to a product. Online, the process is the product," writes Jarvis. Thus, whereas newsrooms were arranged by sections (sports, business, etc) and job descriptions (reporter, editor, photographer, etc.), now there is a print newsdesk and online newsdesk. With the new model, Jarvis believes newsrooms should be organized around topics, tags, or stories "because the notion of a section is as out of date as the Dewey Decimal System." 

Other changes that Jarvis notes, in his own words,:
- The separation of content from presentation on web pages means that design, navigation, brand, and medium can change and are not necessarily controlled by an editor's design.
- Feeds also have an impact on -- and can reduce the value of -- packaging and prioritization (also known as editing).
- Live reports from witnesses also reduce the opportunity to package and edit.
- The ecology of links motivates us to do what we do best and link to the rest. It fosters collaboration. It changes the essential structure of a story (background or source material can be a link away).
- Links also turn our readers into our distributors.
- Links turn our readers into editors.
- Aggregation, curation, and peer links become our new newsstand.
- Search and SEO motivate us to create repositories of expertise (topic pages) and make news stories more permanent.
- Search reduces the power of the brand.
- We see ourselves not as owners of content or distribution but as members of networks.
- These networks can be about content, trust, interest, or advertising relationships or all of the above.

Jarvis concludes that "When we rethink this ecology of news, we'll be in a better position to plan for what's next."
 
Source: Buzzmachine.com through IFRA Executive News Service