The decline of newspapers

There is much being written at the moment about the decline of newspaper readership, particularly since the emergence of blogs as a legitimate force in reporting, shaping public opinion and affecting outcomes (eg Dan Rather).

I remember similar sentiments when the web generally emerged as a force in the mid to late 90s. As a then journalist I explored whether I should go and work for a web-based publication over (my then place of work), Australia's only broadsheet national daily.

However, Adam Penenberg, assistant professor at New York University notes in Wired that more people than ever are reading newspapers and newspaper formats -- they're just doing it online.

Penenberg argues there's as much need for teaching the fundamentals of good journalism and reporting as ever but we should:

also experiment with novel ways to approach reporting and writing. There will always be a market for young reporters who know how to gather facts and write them up in a clear, convincing manner. For that, you can't do much better than showing students in our introductory classes how to craft a killer lede (sic), a well-honed nut graf and an airtight structure.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't harness the power of the digital medium. I assigned blogs to my graduate students this past semester so they could cover a business beat. Other professors have also jumped fingers-first into digital journalism, most notably Jay Rosen, founder of the media blog PressThink.

Thanks to B.L. Ochman for this one.