Image from guardian.co.uk
As our world continues to transform from a print age to a technology age, I am really beginning to wonder what the future of print journalism is going to be. I am taking a Media and Society class this semester, and the basis of the class is examining the past, present, and future aspects of journalism. Everything we are reading for this class is saying the future looks very grim for traditional print journalism. How close are we to a time were all news and media stories are found online or through other technology sources? How will our society react when print journalism is a thing of the past and everything runs online?
According to my textbook, “Today, online journalism is completely changing the industry.” Many news junkies are now starting their day by logging online and retaining their news information through a wide variety of news, print, magazine, and blog sites, instead of going to the traditional print papers. Unfortunately print papers just can’t compete with the fast, constant stream of information these news sites offer their readers.
One statistic from my textbook states that, “Around 2005, consolidation in newspaper ownership leveled off because the decline in newspaper circulation and ad sales panicked investors, leading to drops in the stock value of newspapers.” This led many popular, well-known newspaper chains to significantly decrease their newsroom staff and in the amount of papers being sold. It also says that since 2007 over 13 thousand newsroom jobs have been lost due to this decline; a decline totaling over 25 percent in the last three years.
These alarming statistics really have me wondering what the future of print journalism is. I think online journalism is a great thing and I love how fast it allows us to get the information we are looking for. However, print journalism has been around for so long and has come such a long way since its beginning days, I hate to imagine a time without it. In my opinion, I feel like we are very close to losing the majority, if not all, of our traditional print journalism. I also think it is going to be a rough transformation from having both, print and online journalism to just having online journalism, but after a few years I believe it will become more accepted. I guess time will tell.
