Do journalists love to talk about their own demise? Is the profession much like that of American steelworkers of an earlier age? Read this article in Slate and see if you agree. A favorite quote from the story, written by Jack Shafer:
“The misery of a laid-off or bought-out journalist isn’t greater than that of a sacked bond trader, a RIF-ed clerk, or a fired autoworker. The only reason we’re so well-informed about journalists’ suffering is they have easy access to a megaphone. The underlying cause of their grief can be traced to the same force that has destroyed other professions and industries: digital technology.”
Another thought from the article in Slate: “But newspapers were hemorrhaging before the recession because advertising and reader eyeballs were moving to the Web. Online advertising—a purely digital play—grew faster than advertising on any other new media technology ever recorded. Last year, Web-advertising revenues passed radio-advertising revenues for the first time. The Interactive Advertising Bureau reports that the growth of Web advertising in its first 13 years eclipses that of both broadcast TV and cable TV in their first 13.”
