Tuesday, October 16, 2012
An Optimist's View
This is an optimist's view of the fate of journalism presented with an historical perspective. The long look back is important because it reminds us that opinion journalism was the norm until the 20th Century. What is happening today with viewpoints expressed in news stories is simply back to the future. What was new to me was the massive downsizing that the newspaper industry experienced between 1950 and 1975. That is when the country moved to one-newspaper towns. The difference today is that the internet provides more outlets than ever for journalists. However, these outlets are not well paid for the most part, and journalists have become the modern equivalent of "starving artists." Does this mean that more will enter PR once they leave J-school? Probably, and that will keep starting salaries low in the business, as they always have been. To put it another way -- the more things change, the more they are the same.
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