I never really aspired to be a journalist.
I have, on the other hand, always loved writing, and that fact was largely the impetus for my involvement in newspapers throughout my school years. Then the fantasy land of school came to an abrupt end, and in need of some source of income to pay down my crushing debt, I began seeking work at - you guessed it - newspapers.
The experience has been a worthwhile one, an opportunity to write for a living and meet some good people. It's far from perfect, sure, but I suppose everything and everyone has some room for improvement.
This guy, for example.
But the long-term prognosis for journalism - at least in its print form - seems to grow more dire by the day.
Aside from the closure of the Rocky Mountain News and the Grey Lady herself turning to
front-page ads and a
$250 million bailout from a Mexican billionaire, there are ominous signs throughout the Republic that print media's time has passed.
There's talk of two-paper cities
losing one - or both - of their outlets. Hell,
even the Globe appears to be on its last legs.
Why is this happening? The economy, of course, has much to do with it, but I think the current circumstances are serving only to accelerate a process that's been in the making for a while now.
People these days, of course, have a lot of options in terms of where they get news, information and analysis. From the aforementioned likes of Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, we can get our daily fix of 'edutainment.' From the likes of Rush Limbaugh or the left-leaning blogosphere, we can get our daily update with the comfort of an ideological tilt. On the Web ... well, we can get
anything there.
So it makes sense, I would think, that something with a riveting nickname like the Grey Lady might be having a tough go of it these days.
But it appears to go deeper than that. Papers haven't just become inconvenient, or an afterthought - they are no longer trusted, or considered to have value as a source of information.
It's tough when you - and seemingly every other major cultural institution that doesn't involve carrying a gun - are
not trusted.
But trust can be rebuilt. Overwhelming apathy, as our political process has demonstrated in the past three or so decades, is far more difficult to overcome. And it looks like that's
exactly what print journalism is facing.
I don't believe newspapers will ever vanish completely, but the future doesn't look good. As the line between news and entertainment continues to blur, as technology continues to change our lives and as the older readership of most newspapers slowly disappears, it would seem that the stars are aligned and the writing - pardon the pun - is on the wall.
That's not a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. For all the benefits of new media like blogs, the controls in terms of quality and accuracy simply do not exist on Web as they do in print. Newspapers give us the definitive record, or at least the impression of it. Done well, print journalism is an incredibly valuable tool for society, and I don't think that can ever be replicated electronically or in any other format.
But the world is changing, and there's no way around it. There's no miracle solution out there to save the Grey Lady and her troubled peers. Papers like mine, that serve a much more targeted population, may have a longer shelf life, if only because the coverage they provide isn't replicated anywhere else. But I wouldn't bet on that, either.
I never aspired to be a journalist. And at this rate, I may not be one much longer.
But I hope I'm wrong, and that I didn't get to the party just before it got broken up.
godspeed,
dk
