http://armchairpundit.metapede.com/2009/03/03/let-the-newspapers-die/ Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:12:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://armchairpundit.metapede.com/2009/03/03/let-the-newspapers-die/comment-page-1/#comment-364 Ben Clemens Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:10:08 +0000 http://armchairpundit.metapede.com/?p=529#comment-364 In general journalism is a lot like many other professions that are a lot less unique and valuable with the interweb than without it, and I am good with the transition (and the painful but necessary sucking-out-of money). And certainly there is nothing sacred about how journalism has been practiced; it's a business like anything else. But the present circumstances are not like the car companies or banks, where the products are not selling because no one wants them; the journalism being produced today is extremely popular and the basis for a lot of the other content as commentary on the web. The fact that the web has no business model to pay for this content is a distorted situation; once the papers are dead (and all the local papers too, that's for sure), people will eventually make new cheaper sites and publications to fill the void. In the mean time, much of the existing expertise and knowledge about how to gather and publish the same news that is immensely popular will be discarded, and that will be our loss. In general journalism is a lot like many other professions that are a lot less unique and valuable with the interweb than without it, and I am good with the transition (and the painful but necessary sucking-out-of money). And certainly there is nothing sacred about how journalism has been practiced; it’s a business like anything else. But the present circumstances are not like the car companies or banks, where the products are not selling because no one wants them; the journalism being produced today is extremely popular and the basis for a lot of the other content as commentary on the web. The fact that the web has no business model to pay for this content is a distorted situation; once the papers are dead (and all the local papers too, that’s for sure), people will eventually make new cheaper sites and publications to fill the void. In the mean time, much of the existing expertise and knowledge about how to gather and publish the same news that is immensely popular will be discarded, and that will be our loss.

]]>