With all the job cuts and newspaper closures, it seems like we are at the end of the newspaper a we know it. And we are, to be honest. No matter how much I love the feel of newsprint between my fingers and the smell fresh-off-the-press ink, we must admit that this is the end as we know it. But it is also a beginning. And it is not until we acknowledge that this is a beginning that we can save newspapers. One hintof an option is the Christian Science Monitor's (a successful newspaper) decision to drop a daily paper and instead focus on launching the Internet news. They will have a weekly 'news magazine,' but they call it a supplement to the online version only. I think that will be the key to saving journalism and it's high time the old fogies accepted it.
In "The Media Equation: Mourning old Media's Decline" by The New York Times' David Carr, the business reporter addresses just this subject. But far from mourning old media's decline, we should be celebrating the arrival of a whole new day for journalism, a day for us to continue our pursuit of news without compromising the passion that so many of us newspeople feel for newsprint.
Also, I think this election season has proved the need for newspapers. My own paper sold out of their Nov. 5 edition and then later sold out of the Nov. 6 edition, which carried a 'commemorative poster.' I think this could be proof positive that in certain situations, tangible paper trumps the intangible Internet.
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