Does journalism have a future?
In case you missed it, the journalism business is in trouble.
Back in December, liberal columnist Michael Tomasky (my editor at The Daily Beast) and I had a big conversation about how to save journalism. Since then, things in the business have only gotten worse.
The challenges we face are complicated, but I see two significant problems plaguing the journalism industry: (1) a revenue model that survived on advertising revenue (until Facebook and Google came along and undercut them), and (2) snarky and/or liberal media bias that alienates half the country.
The former is an external problem that poses a potentially existential threat to the business model (see the recent layoffs at BuzzFeed and HuffPost). The latter is a self-inflicted wound that threatens to expedite this decline.
There’s no dearth of lamentations about media bias (see the “conservatives pounce” trope employed by MSM headline writers), so I’ll spare you the rant. However, if you are interested in the business model/revenue problem, I recommend reading this long-form New Yorker essay titled, “Does Journalism Have a Future?”
So, does journalism have a future?
Yes—but it’s safe to say the industry will look drastically different in a decade. And (as is the case in any rapidly changing business) many of us will be left on the sidelines. Not everyone will evolve and remain relevant. Some of us may have to—as the mean-spirited Twitter meme suggests—#LearnToCode.
The good news is that humans will always crave information, and there will always be a market for people with the insight or wisdom to put it all into context.
There is an old quote (I’ve forgotten who said it, but it’s comforting) that suggests, “There will always be a warm place by the fire for someone who can tell a good story.”
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I had better wrap things up. It’s getting cold out there. Thank you for saving me a warm spot by the fire.
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