10 obvious things about the future of newspapers

AN article that is sure to be linked to and commented upon over the next few days, well worth a look:

10 obvious things about the future of newspapers you need to get through your head

Comments

[Hugh]

Hi Craig, thanks for the mention of the Juval podcast.

I agree with all that's said in this post about newspapers - which is related to the podcast topic in terms of "giving it away". Interesting that the Times and the Independent have both given up charging for their archives. They realise that the money is in the advertising, so why limit page views by charging?

[Colin Randall]

Craig: Very interesting discussion. Thanks for drawing it to attention. This is what I said in a comment just posted to the original article:
As a print journalist trying to make his way, late in life it has to be said, in online journalism, I recognise a lot of the points made in the list. I am both blogger and "mainstream" journalist, trying my best to be objective about both activities, and this item on a friend/collaborator's site explains how it all came about in my own case:
http://www.craigmcginty.com/news/2007/05/colin_rnadall_j.html

But what worries me a little is that there are still countless students out there, certainly in the UK and France and I imagine in north America too, who want to study journalism but for whom it is not easy to see an employed future. I am not optimistic about ever being able to earn a living from my own sites - they are of rather more value to me as a shop window for whatever "mainstream" commissioning editors think I can do for them. Others will do it better, of course, but is blogging ultimately to be just a time consuming hobby and/or loss leader (yes, and contributing to democratic process) or does it have a place in offering some kind of career to those students?

[Craig]

Hi guys, many thanks for posting a comment with your thoughts. I think due to the tools of the trade getting easier to use, this has created much more competition, alongside staff being cut. So like other creative industries maybe newspapers and freelancers have to use their sites to promote other elements of themselves, as unfortunately the advertising side of things really is a numbers game.
There will always be publications, in whatever format, looking for writers the question is whether they stand out from the crowd and use blogs etc affectively.
All the best
Craig