Nine minutes of time well spent if you are interested in the future of news. This report by CBS investigator Jeff Greenfield covers the downfall of newspapers, how consumer behavior is changing, and a few of the solutions for the newspaper industry (including a micropayment model).
What's most interesting to me is how many non-media companies are beginning to report on their industries similar to the way a newspaper covers a community now. There may be a couple ideas in here on what your team of content strategists can do to position your company as a more trusted resource.
You'll also note in this video the changing of the competitive set for newspapers. What they don't mention is that many of our information outlets are starting to come from corporate blogs and news sites.
I thought this was interesting but pretty basic and oriented toward an audience not really deeply knowledgeable about what's happening in journalism (it is a mass media report, after all).
One of the problems I see is that too many mainstream journalists seem unable to separate the product from the delivery channel. "Newspaper" is a vehicle; "journalism" is the product. The death of newspapers is no more the death of journalism than the death of the horse-drawn carriage was the death of transportation.
Another problem I have is the view some hold that newspapers are the highest form of journalism. I bow to no one in my admiration of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for what they accomplish. But there are far more lousy papers out there then great ones.
I haven't read it yet, but the reviews of Dave Cullen's Columbine suggest that all the media got that story pretty much wrong from the word go. Cullen took years to put together what sounds like the most accurate and incisive account of what happened and why.
Maybe the future of great journalism lies in a "wiki-style" approach where important stories are told, revised, retold and continually evolve into what most closely approximates reality. Now that's a service I'd pay for.
Posted by: Dan Hutson | April 05, 2009 at 07:18 PM