David Carr writes about troubling implications for the news industry. Read it and weep. My husband & I were talking about this very issue before I came across his analysis of recent cutbacks in newspaper land -- from Gannett to the Christian Science Monitor to the Star-Ledger.
Here's the part of the problem for newspapers: with print subscriptions declining, advertisers move elsewhere. With lower ad revenue, the newspapers trim jobs. With fewer reporters and editors, their product is less appealing to consumers. Who cancel their subscriptions. It goes on and on. Looking at the growing side of the business -- the Web -- yes, it's great more people get their news online, but online advertising doesn't pay enough to support their staff.
My forecast for the future: consumers will get their news from blogs, which increasingly will have less material to write about because -- guess what? -- no one will be able to pay journalists. We will become a nation of fluff and rumor readers. And the sad part is that 99% of consumers won't understand what has been lost.
