The State of the News

Despite the fact that the State of the News Media 2007 said that the newspaper isn't dying just yet, my personal belief is quite different. The way I see it, the newspaper is dying within my generation, and for right now thats all that matters because in the future our generation is going to be the ones either keeping it alive or laying it to rest.

It's obvious circulation is declining within the newspaper industry and even though many people consider this to be a bad thing, people are still reading the news, in just a different medium, the internet. More people then ever are turning to their computer for up the minute stories and to me I see that as an improvement. Before this Americans had to wait until the next morning to get breaking news, now we a we have greater opportunities to stay connected with whats going on in the world. Even though the newspaper industry may feel the decline in readership, we shouldn't jump to conclusions and label it a bad thing because after all, people are still reading the news and isnt the idea of a newspaper to give people the news? Now we are doing that task a lot better, and a lot quicker, so we should consider this frightening and exciting transition a positive thing instead of a negative thing.

Although the big snag still remains, making money. As a journalist naturally I'm scared of where the industry is going. If newspapers cant keep up their circulation and online news sources can't make enough money to make ends meet, where does that leave me as an aspiring reporter?

My hope is that as more students start graduating from college and joining the industry, there will be a greater group of people specialized in online reporting and ready to take on ushering our industry and our fellow generations into an online media. I don't think that newspapers should view the Web as a threat but instead an asset, a medium to fall back on incase of eventual failure, and more optimistically a complement. If both the Web and the newspaper viewed each other as a threat, they would both fail trying to outdue the other and compete until one or the other falls short.

Even though it is still too early to tell because lets be honest newspaper companies are still surviving, they just aren't thriving, both industries should be hopeful that with the coming years we will learn to reverse the current declining trends in readership and at the same time attract online readers yet still make a profit. In the end though the most important concern is to look out for the public and make sure that we put them first and get them the news the best way we can. The stage is set for the coming years to make a big change and hopefully some big success.