Just heard another news report yesterday that newspaper readership is down another 8%…and it is no secret that many newspapers are going out of business or severely cutting back on staff. For that matter, even broadcast television news shows are cutting staff. So my question is, how is this going to work out?
Myself, I always check into MSNBC to catch news headlines and see what is happening. If there is a particular story I am interested in following, I will often go on to Google it and find other news sources.
My fear is that if (or should I say when?) newspapers begin to be a thing of the past, does this mean that it will come down to factions of people only reading blogs online that may or may not be based on facts - both conservative and liberal?
Or will there be reputable online news sources that try to balance the facts? Granted, even during the heyday of newspaper reporting, there were always conservative or liberal news outlets that had their slant on things.
Will things remain the same? Will liberals search out new sources that are more in line with their views and conservatives do the same? Will this all even out and be nothing more than a different media (Internet vs paper) for the same effect?
Tangential issue that may be of interest only to me–local newspapers remain necessary for certain legal purposes. I sometimes have to publish a summons for a defendant who can’t be found for personal service of process, and can’t go forward with that case until 30 days after the date of first publication if no answer is filed. Also, state law requires various types of legal notices to be published–board meetings, regulatory proposals, calls for public comment, etc. I’m not sure the internet can really replace those functions…
I don’t see why the web couldn’t replace them – a state-, county- or city-run website, with data harvested by Google, would serve the purpose much better than a local newspaper. All that’s needed is for the laws to be changed.
A lot of required public notices for my state are now done through the agency’s website or a central “register” website. The Register of Ohio is the site of public record for some things now. No idea how to solve the problem of publishing notices directed at specific people.
To think, people are making money peddling this bullshit. The best use for a newspaper is wrapping up fish and chips, or wiping one’s ass when the soft stuff has run out.
The internet is simply a stronger reminder that “you can’t believe everything you read”. There will be reputable news sites, and reputable newsblogs, and nonreputable news sites and news blogs… and a lot of dumbards who won’t be able to tell the difference. Sigh.
I have worked in the newspaper industry for about a decade now (Giant Robots for the WIN!) and it has been very sad watching the slow downward spiral of death for this very important institution. It can be argued that without a free press, a democracy (or a constitutional republic for that matter) can’t exist. My hometown paper is transitioning to an online presence, but subscription models are difficult to sell in an environment where everyone expects information to be free. The next 5 years will be very interesting to say the least.
A truly objective news source would be quite interesting to promote.
Blogging is all well and good, but good old-fashioned journalism is irreplaceable (or at least I THINK it is).
The thing I like about newspapers, which I haven’t yet been able to reproduce while browsing the web, is the way you can systematically go through the pages and look at every single story one by one – all the major national and international stories, all the local stories, all the sports stories, all the lifestyle stories, all the entertainment stories, etc. So when you’ve turned the last page you feel like you haven’t missed anything. There’s sort of a linear structure.
Whereas if you look at a newspaper’s web site, it’s more like a tree structure. You never know if there’s an interesting story you’ve missed because you didn’t follow the right set of links.
We’re talking about a LOT of laws in my state. We’re also talking about a very rural state, with a lot of very poor people that don’t have much internet access. There are a few public computers in the county libraries, but that doesn’t really help folks that live on the far side of the county.
Also, when your puppy piddles on the rug, if you smack it with a computer, you may need a new puppy…and/or a new computer.
Without newspapers (and other serious news media), there’s nothing to blog about. At least here in Sweden, it is absolutely so that the newspapers and SVT (equivalent of British BBC) are the one’s breaking the news, and the bloggers and its equivalents follows. However hyped the bloggers et al are, there will not be much to blog about if there are no news. Most likely we will have less papers in the future, naturally, less magazines and so on, but there will be a need for the fuck off Editorial staff and what they put out. If it were to disappear, it would re-emerge because people would pay for it. Personally, I would never settle for rumors and gossip and ad driven drivel. I want to know what’s going on in the world, and I want analysis of why it is happening, and I will pay for it. Perhaps twice as much as I do today, if need be. The golden age of journalism and newspaper is probably behind us, as is the golden age of literature - but in the future there will be good newpapers (or “newpads”) and great, written stories.
We had a local town say they were going to only publish some things on the web and guess who got upset about that - the local paper. When I look at local classified ads now there are very few of them but there are still the legal notices.
But if there are no papers they will have to find some other way to publish those legal notices. Can’t publish in a paper that no longer exists.
EGGSactly! I’m old school all right, but I have to have my morning fix, reading a newspaper.
The average national 30-minute TV news program is lucky to have 10-12 stories in the less than 20 minutes devoted to actual news, and much of that is drivel. The local newscasts are even worse, and mostly gushing garbage. Whereas, even though my local paper is getting skinnier all the time, there must be scores of local, national and international bits of news.
At least in a newspaper, it is pretty obvious, or used to be, which are actual news stories and which are editorials or columnists’ opinions.
I opine that much of the trouble we have now is due to the back that something like 80 percent of the population gets all their news only from TV and the Interenet, alas.
But the legal requirements to post notices can’t keep the newspaper from going out of business, so what happens when the only local newspaper folds? How will the legal public notices requirement be met? That is the question.
The only state-wide newspaper in Oregon, (a very large mostly rural state), The Oregonian, does not even have daily delivery to most of the state outside of the Portland area anymore. I can only buy the Sunday paper, the daily isn’t available even from a box anywhere in my county. There still is another small daily newspaper in my home town but I can see the day coming when neither paper will exist, at least not in a daily delivery form.
So the legal notice requirement will need to adapt, because newspapers will continue to go out of business.
Not to mention that a newspaper is PHYSICAL. I have a copy of the Boston Globe’s coverage of 9/11, as well as when the Red Sox reversed the curse.
Actually from what I understand, PHYSICAL circulation is down, but people reading the Globe online is up.
The good news is that the stranglehold on publication by the big papers has been broken. More news and views can get out.
The bad news is that so much of the population can’t write or is willing to skew the “news”. I mean, look at what happens in Britain with the newspapers’ views, and multiply by 10.
Or, look at the L.A. Times and realize what an “objective” paper can do with presenting just the liberal side, or ignoring stories because they don’t support an institutional opinion.