If print dies, Web news a “cesspool”
October 29th, 2008 at 02:02pm Linda Grist Cunningham
David Carr writes for the New York Times and nytimes.com. He knows news for print and news for online — and he “gets it”: If print news operations cannibalize their core operations (the staff that does news, information and advertising), there soon will be little or nothing of credible value on the Web.
It’s a conundrum and a potentially self-fulfilling prophecy: You like getting your news, information and advertising online. Untrue though it is, common wisdom says “newspapers are dead because everyone is going online.” So, doesn’t it make sense to stop printing newspapers and just do everything online?
Carr does a superb job of laying out the landscape in a print-and-Web column this week. (You might have to register to read it, but here’s the link.) To whet your appetite, here’s a quick excerpt:
“At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism — the trusted news sources readers have relied on — were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a “cesspool” of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings.
“But in this case, it wasn’t an old journalism hack lamenting his industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.”
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3 Comments Add your own
1. Drew Williams | October 29th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I’m in the IT field, I love google, and I think Eric Schmidt has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to political issues.
Print will die. Its inevitable. However, quality journalism will always remain. Bigger blogs such as huffingpost.com already have mutiple writers and editors to determine what content is published. (Note - I’m not saying huffingpost.com has quality journalism, but they do have a good operating model)
I think local web sites, such as rrstar, have an important place in the future of media. Readers like to relate to people that live nearby, even in the online world. Even when covering national issues, readers still feel “closer” knowing local journalists are the primary contributors.
The biggest issue (or call it opportunity) with current newspaper media is that they are competing with TV for online viewers. I’ve noticed rrstar and WREX seemed to have joined forces in the past few years. This is a good move, and a necessary one. I expect more of this type of convergence to happen in the future.
One of the future problems might be retainment of talent. A journalist from ABC news might goto a larger private blog if the money is right. (of course, the reverse is also always possible)
Still, readers can tell which web sites offer intelligent commentary. And I think most people prefer to get their initial news coverage from unbiased sources, then they can float to their respective biased blogs to vent. The importance of quality editors of web based media will always exist. (So Linda, your job is safe for a long time)
The web is already a cesspool. But most educated people will be diligent enough to know how to acquire the proper information. Print is dead. Quality Journalism will go on forever.
2. the dude abides man | October 29th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Nicely put, Drew.
3. Linda Grist Cunningham | October 30th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Amen to that, Drew. And, I would add one more piece to this: We get too caught up in the discussion of Web versus print; as far as I am concerned, we need both at least for a while.
The Web-or-print discussion misses the financial realities: Whether news is done in print or online, it costs money — a LOT of money. The credible journalists that will report and write so that we have Web sites that “offer intelligent commentary” are expensive. Sure, the Web eliminates the expense of newsprint and delivery, but the real expense in a news organization is people, and whether one does news and advertising in print or online, you’ve got to have people to sell the ads and report the news.
So, who foots the bill for that? The Web world is a “free” culture. No one wants to (and most will not) pay for news on the Web. And, allowing for a rare, rare exception about which I do not know, no standalone news Web site makes enough money to hire — or retain– enough journalists to drive full and integrated news content.
And, trust me on this: No one is going to blog or do Web news reporting for free for long. Yeah, it’s “fun” for a while, but covering the news can be a deadly venture — figuratively and literally — and no one with real skill and passion will do it forever free.
The news content on the Web today — here and around the world — is funded almost exclusively through what I call the “bricks and clicks” model: revenue from the traditional newspaper model (bricks) and revenue from the Web model, RRstar.com makes money and its revenue stream continues to expand, but if rrstar.com didn’t have access to the journalists funded by the Register Star, its news report would be way slim: not much local and definitely no Associated Press, national or international stuff. My AP contract alone costs more than a quarter million annually and payroll is in the neighborhood of three. Without the “bricks” as its benefactor, rrstar.com — and nytimes.com for that matter — would not have the horses to pull the wagon.
Despite common wisdom, newspapers make a ton of money even in today’s financial mess. They are profitable — and most hugely so. I’m talking double digit profitability with twos and threes in the first position. Ten years ago that was fours and fives. For most industries, that’s hardly chump change.
So, it boils down to this: Shut down the printing presses today, and Web news disappears. Until there’s a strong, standalone revenue stream to support online-only journalists covering the news in Rockford and and around the world, we better pray newspapers don’t go under. Web news is in its infancy. It needs its mother around for a while to hold its hand until it can go it along. How long? At least 10 years; maybe 20.
The best way to ensure a vibrant, high-quality, credible Web-only news world for the future? Buy a newspaper subscription today.
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