Breaking news
This morning Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s Republican-turned-Democrat Senator, hosted a town hall meeting on healthcare at the campus where I work. I read about it in the local newspaper over my morning coffee. Later in the morning, I wondered how many people showed up for the meeting and whether the discourse was civil. The meeting was barely over and yet the newspaper already had a story about it – and I can expect a more thorough story in the morning. This kind of coverage was not readily available anywhere else.
The U.S. Newspaper Industry in Transition, a Congressional Research Service report, outlines the rise and fall of the newspaper industry and its future prospects, and investigates the effects of government assistance to the industry. [via Docuticker]
It is clear that the news industry is in a state of change, and that the current model is not the future model. I don’t know whether the government should intervene to help – having government help its own watchdog is problematic – but I do hope that citizens take notice. If the newspapers disappear, where will you get your local news from?
August 14, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I think there are good examples of other nations funding their own news agencies and retaining impartiality. Two come to mind readily: Specifically, the BBC (which can be rather critical of the British government to ensure impartiality) and France 24 (which doesn’t seem to have pro-govt spin and even offers news in Arabic and English).
It will be interesting to see how the coverage of current events, especially on the local level, changes as the old publishing models fall away. I wouldn’t be surprised if we began to see a mainstream acceptance of RSS and journalistic professional ethics revised to accommodate a more holistic set of information and web ethics.
The problem with small/local news providers is that their risks are twofold: they have the challenge of creating/adopting a new business plan (to remain financially viable) and they also have to face the reality that regional consumers may be unwilling to adopt or pay for electronic news. In many ways, I think televised “headline news” exacerbates this problem. (Q: Why pay for local news when one can just watch it on TV? A: Televised news is often superficial and highly politicized.)
August 14, 2009 at 4:32 pm
If the newspapers disappear, where will you get your local news from?
Well, if there’s demand, the profit motive will create supply. So there’s nothing to worry about.
I see the future of local news as rather disaggregated — not just one newspaper, but multiple websites with traffic varying widely over time.