Journalists: Print Newspapers Are Dying, Time to Pivot
At Medium, journalism professor and inveterate Internet observer Clay Shirky declares the end of the print newspaper and makes a blunt recommendation, “If you are a journalist at a print publication, your job is in danger. Period. Time to do something about it.” In particular, he encourages current journalists to learn to understand and present data, become comfortable with social media as a newsroom tool, and get experience working in teams to launch new products.
Sad but true. I had to switch to the web when they stopped including the content I wanted.
For the past two years I've been writing local history articles for the daily paper. First, it was for the weekly Neighborhoods section. Recently, the paper abandoned the Neighborhoods sections, and move my articles to a similar section in the Sunday paper, but reduced the space allotted by a third.
I know that the paper is depending on articles like mine to keep the interest of their older readers; and these readers are slowing disappearing (okay, dying) and are not being replaced with younger ones.
It's a win-win situation for me and the paper for now. Although I am not compensated financially, I get to write about what interests me, get to also put my stories on the web site of our local History Museum, and, along with another writer, have published many of these stories in book form.
For the papers, they get free copy, and stave off the wolves a bit longer. But for how long? It's really a bit sad.