Written by After centuries of growth and critical importance to society, newspapers are increasingly struggling to hold their own in the new internet age. Here is an article in today’s Times on this topic
Newspapers perform a vital function of investigating the news in a way that non-professionals may not have the time or skills to. So their content is truly a commodity. However, many of the papers are finding it hard to pay for this while more and more people turn elsewhere for placing advertising, like craigslist, ebay, google, and their own websites. As the papers cut photographers, writers, cartoonists, and other staff due to revenue cuts, their content becomes less original, and they start to lose ground to bloggers. In the November elections, it seemed like bloggers provided much of the news first, and then the stories almost seemed “old” by the time they made the main-stream press. Unfortunately, the mainstream press often did not go any further with the stories than the bloggers did, which hurt their ability to maintain the high readership needed to continue thriving.
On a slightly different but related note, I’ve been very grateful to my many readers over the last few years, and I feel like in many cases we are making news on this blog instead of merely reporting on it. There are many times that your online comments and ideas eventually make their way into city policy. I always enjoy hearing from you. And I know that we are generating story ideas that the local papers can occasionally pick up. I get hits from media including the Seattle Times, the Seattle PI, the Stranger, and the Renton Reporter from time to time; presumably to see whats on our collective minds. I’m glad they do. It’s fun and democratic to share our opinions and ideas as widely as we can.
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