Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Guest speaker, Bob Wigginton graced the class with his presence today.

I sat and I listened. I agreed with a lot of the things Professor Wigginton had to say. Having spent 25 years in the newspaper industry, he made some valid points.

In reference to the 6,000 jobs lost in the newspaper industry in the last two years, many blame the economic crisis we now face. I think it is more than the crisis. In a world where, as Professor Wigginton said, "It is vital that we understand the issues," a need for journalists still exists. Nonetheless, the question still lingers as to why journalists are losing their jobs.

With new media outlets constantly growing, Gen Y is doing less of the traditional news gathering and instead focusing their attention on-line. According to a survey done by the Carnegie Corporation, the average age of the newspaper reader is 53. Newspapers are just not as popular as they once were. Gen Y uses other sources for information. The need still exists, it is just switching to different medium.

So newspapers are getting rid of journalists, but that doesn't mean there isn't a place for them. There will always be a need for news in some form, whether it's paper or electronic. Other media outlets will not survive if they do not have a newspaper like source to get their information from.

There are some major downsides to the changes in the newspaper industry. As professor Wigginton said, "Newspapers are controlled by Wall Street." This is ownership style is concerned with making money, which has led to a number of cuts. These cuts are causing newspaper quality to decline. We are seeing backpack journalists hired to fill the missing spots, but it is hard to achieve quality when you are trying to master all aspects.

Moving to the web is something that a lot of newspapers have done. Sure there is still circulation of the actual paper, but news is now available online as a supplement to the paper itself. This slow transition to the internet is a smart move for newspapers. As Generation Y ages, the demographic of news readers will change. Adapting to this change is going to be the most important factor in keeping newspapers, in paper or electronic form, around.

I have no doubt that journalism will continue to be a valued profession (no worries Samantha!). However, it will be interesting to see how the newspaper industry is doing in ten years.