The newspaper business is in trouble and therefore print journalism is in trouble. To compound the problem, David Carr of The New York Times today implies that some journalists are getting a bit lazy. Thanks to the Internet and easy access to data and sources, and ability to quickly search anything, he suggested journalists may not be leaving the building as they once did in pursuit of stories.
Ad revenue is down, circulation is down, college kids aren’t reading paper papers and the model needs to change. The news business is about reporting and distribution. Newspapers aren’t efficient because they deliver a lot of waste — stories we don’t read. Same with TV, but we can always change the channel. The net is somewhat better because we can focus our search, but the results are often citizen journalism which is hit and mostly miss. The solution lies in a system that allows us to select the type of professional news we want, from the journalists we prefer, delivered in the medium of our choice. What might that look like? Stay tuned.
