Newspapers to find niche

From UW-Madison student, JOSEPH TROVATO:

The plight of the journalism industry in the digital age is a well-documented tale of decline. Recent reminders of this reality, like the closing of the Rocky Mountain News, or the possibility of losing yet another paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, show that as journalists, we obviously need to change something about the way we conduct business. This is the challenge that our generation faces.

I disagree wholeheartedly with those that would argue that newspapers will simply go extinct, even print newspapers will find their niche, and this is our challenge.

When TV hit the scene in the 1940s and 1950s, everyone believed that radio would die. Well, it didn't. In fact, radio has since flourished, and continues to flourish. The Internet is to print newspapers, what T.V. was to radio. Sure, radio was forced to change, but it did, and it survived.

So too can print.

In my opinion, if print media does not adapt, then yes, it will go extinct, but we, as future journalists must analyze the strengths of newspapers as opposed to online media in order to find a niche. Does that mean charging for Internet subscriptions to newspapers? Does it mean increasing advertising on web sites in order to subsidize print? Perhaps, but I don't think that is the only answer. That is still up for debate.

Personally I think that in-depth more magazine-like pieces will be the saving grace of print. People don't like to sit on their computers and stare at the same story for a long time, they'd rather have that type of story in their hands. Newspapers originally were more in-depth anyway.

The short snippet stories are a more recent phenomenon. The advantage of the Internet is its ability to cover breaking news instantaneously, and up-to-date information. I think newspapers will be saved by thorough thought/debate-provoking analysis of those hard news breaking stories. Newspapers might do big follow-up stories or analytical pieces.

But this, of course, is only the beginning of the debate that we must have to ensure the survival of print and newspapers.