Death of a Great American Hero – The Newspaper

“But o’ where shall we ever get our news!?!”  This question is but one of many surrounding the decline of the once great information giant, the American newspaper industry.  With many papers already closing shop some of the big players, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are finding themselves in deep water.  So who is killing them?  What should we do about it?  And perhaps most importantly, should we just let it die?

      However most of this conversation seems to concern one specific demographic over the rest…the journalists.  The fact of the matter is if the common everyday Average Joe isn’t interested, or most importantly “buying” it’s not going to work.  With the plethora of information sources out there, 24/7 cable news networks and perhaps the greatest murderer of the newspapers -- the internet, many consumers are finding the paper counterparts obsolete.  The fact of the matter is there are a lot of other great sources of news out there, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, I-phone apps, BBC.com, Twitter, or communities of great blogging sites…such as… hey Klat.com!

      Yet, we shouldn’t ignore the other side of the issue.   After some more research and a very interesting interview with the editor-at-large with Hearst Newspapers, Phil Bronstein, on the Colbert Report (yes I know, I am a fan, as long as him and Stewart aren’t your only source of news); I began to see the argument more clearly.   Bronstein reasoned that newspaper journalists are some of the most highly trained, motivated, credible, news seekers in the business.  They are responsible for really holding politicians and the news to extreme scrutiny, such as with Richard Nixon and Watergate.  With the age of Twitter news, some of that may be lost.

      It is an interesting conundrum to say the least, but what do we do with the newspapers?  There has even been talk of them receiving bailouts from the Federal Government… is it time though to resuscitate the industry, or shall we stand and salute the heroes as the 21 guns fire and we let this old dog die?