Not Dead Yet

Okay. Forbes magazine has given newspapers the kiss of death by including the industry in a listing of the top ten fastest dying industries. They culled their information from the research firm IBISWorld. For the period ending 2012, this research firm projects newspapers will experience a 10.5 percent decline in employment, 10.5 percent in revenue and 11.5 percent in output.

But wait, there’s hope for me! Journalism isn’t going to die anytime soon! My husband will be happy I can stay employed for the next 10-15 years while he retires early. This is why I started this blog: so I have some familiarity with digital media to keep me “relevant” and employable for years to come. Because I love what I’m doing. I just have to learn more about being a mobile journalist with digital equipment from digital recorders and microphones to digital cameras hanging off both aging shoulders. And then I have to know how to get it all posted from my home computer. Won’t the publishers love me!

But are physical newspapers dead? I don’t know. The auto industry is seeing significant declines, but has the car disappeared? Not so fast. Newspapers have been around a whole lot longer than cars. Perhaps we diehards that need our physical newspaper can keep up the demand and refuse to leave our papers the same way Americans refuse to leave their cars.

Newspapers, I think, will just maintain their presence as one of the many mediums through which we the people will be able to choose to receive our news. I still like the idea of my news being filtered through an editor to make sure a story is balanced, that I read about both sides. I still want coverage of both sides in more than 10-second sound bites or one-sided blogs.

No doubt the Internet has raised our knowledge of the world exponentially. There is now so much at our fingertips. And that, to me, is one of the problems. There’s so much at our fingertips how do we know what’s credible? What’s real? What source is reliable?

That’s what editors have been doing for years. So I’ll stick with the newspapers that I can hold in my hand and continue to make those physiological connections that have etched neural pathways as deep as the Grand Canyon upon my brain.