Optimism? Sometimes not so much
June 11, 2007 in industry news
We try to take an optimistic view of the future of journalism here at ICM – after all, we’re talking about training future journalists. But it’s sometimes hard to be so optimistic. Take, for example, the 41 layoffs at the Greensboro News & Record last week. #
I’ve commented on John Robinson’s editor’s blog before. Lex Alexander was a speaker at our first new media conference at Ole Miss. So I’m not so quick to throw blame around for the layoffs of both seasoned and new journalists at the N&R. However, I think it’s worth everyone’s time to read these posts and the comments that follow. It definitely puts into perspective the serious changes taking place in the new media workplace: #
Ed Cone: N&R Layoffs #
John Robinson: Bad News gets personal. #
Len Witt: Suffering from cuts #
Joe Killian: One of those days #
The fact that there are a lot of people trying to figure out this particular mess – in the community and on the internets – gives me a ray of hope about the future of journalism (especially the kind practiced by quality newspaper journalists), but it’s hard not to take this one to the gut. #
Bryan, most of what's been written is wildly off the mark or just plain wrong. There is still plenty of hope and plenty of opportunity. We still have 100 people in news for a 90,000 circ. paper, which isn't terrible. Yes, I'd like to have more, and absolutely, I wish I'd never had to go through last week. But we can still produce excellent journalism and we will.
You know how rapidly the world is changing. Business models are shifting. Readers are becoming audiences. Sometimes, evolution isn't painless. That's what we faced. But we'll be OK, and our audience AND our journalism will, too.