Free market blues spur calls for new tune
Shrinking newsroom budgets have left
former T-Star publisher John Honderich asking: Whither
serious print journalism? He finds some interesting possibilities
in the U.S., where non-profit foundations and cooperative ownership
models are coming to the fore. Meanwhile, there are no quick answers
for papers that continue to grapple
with the Internet despite the fact that the year is now 2009 and
even the high school dropout next door has figured out that the World
Wide Web is a cash register. Now, after noticing strange credit card
charges and confronting their kids, some newspaper folk have an idea:
Let’s
invent an iTunes for news. But even print readers don’t really pay
for the news – advertisers do – responds Globe and Mail
technology writer Mathew Ingram. In a Nieman
Journalism Lab post, Ingram asks the big question: “Why should
anyone pay for tomorrow’s fish wrap?” Judging by the number of
reader responses arguing all sides, it’s a great question.
(Photo of free newspapers taken by Zefferus as part of the Commons:Wikis Take Manhattan project on October 4, 2008.)
Shrinking newsroom budgets have left
former T-Star publisher John Honderich asking: Whither
serious print journalism? He finds some interesting possibilities
in the U.S., where non-profit foundations and cooperative ownership
models are coming to the fore. Meanwhile, there are no quick answers
for papers that continue to grapple
with the Internet despite the fact that the year is now 2009 and
even the high school dropout next door has figured out that the World
Wide Web is a cash register. Now, after noticing strange credit card
charges and confronting their kids, some newspaper folk have an idea:
Let’s
invent an iTunes for news. But even print readers don’t really pay
for the news – advertisers do – responds Globe and Mail
technology writer Mathew Ingram. In a Nieman
Journalism Lab post, Ingram asks the big question: “Why should
anyone pay for tomorrow’s fish wrap?” Judging by the number of
reader responses arguing all sides, it’s a great question.
(Photo of free newspapers taken by Zefferus as part of the Commons:Wikis Take Manhattan project on October 4, 2008.)
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Patricia W. Elliott is a magazine journalist and assistant professor at the School of Journalism, University of Regina. You can visit her at patriciaelliott.ca.