Spent some time with friends from the Los Angeles Times (the few who are still working!) and they didn't paint a very rosy picture. They're being told that the only hope is that someone buys the paper, otherwise it's bye-bye. That's unbelievable to me, one of the country's great newspapers, in this dire situation.
I was "Facebooking" with my daughter in Kauai, and she said she will probably drop her newspaper subscription because there is the Internet, news radio and TV news and she finds when she opens the paper that she already knows most everything in it.
I can understand that argument, but I wonder: Who will do the big exposes, like the Walter Reed Hospital story the Washington Post exposed? TV rarely does "investigations" so that leaves a big void.
Will the New York Times become the nation's newspaper?
I think society needs a Watchdog and I'm not convinced that bloggers fill that role.
Online, though, is definitely where it is happening. Even Twitter is breaking news nowadays.
When I was in Huntington Beach, that daughter got all her news from her beloved iPhone.
Everything is changing so fast it's hard to keep up.
Where do you get your news? If at all?
And what does the future hold for traditional media?
Your instincts are right. Free blogs aren't going to produce the high quality journalism we need. But will we figure that out before the absence of it wakes us up?
I think there is a business model that works for good solid online journalism, but nobody has figured it out yet. It involves fewer people, but highly efficient, engaging and interactive advertising models for "monetizing the audience."
Posted by: Aaron | April 14, 2009 at 09:27 PM
My 39 yr old son has recently dropped his subscription to The Chronicle and has blogged about his decision... I bet him that he'd re-subscribe in a month, but maybe The Chron won't be around in a month!!!!!!!
Posted by: Marty Austin | April 14, 2009 at 02:26 PM
Although I am a Union print subscriber, I get most state and national news from the net.
When traveling in the states, I always get a copy of USA Today.
When traveling internationally, I look for the NY Times. As a second choice, the London Times. Last Choice London Daily Mail.
Posted by: DaveC | April 14, 2009 at 01:15 PM