The Internet has killed Traditional Journalism!

As the old song says, “Video Killed The Radio Star,” and the Internet is killing journalists, or at least news organizations like newspapers and television news shows that no longer provide the same value to their customers.

Journalists are seeing their career paths die right before their eyes. There are even websites like Newspaper Death Watch and a Google Maps project that tracks job layoffs at newspapers across the United States. November marks seven consecutive quarters of declining advertising revenue for U.S. newspapers.

How Did Journalism Get Here?

Journalism started dying when people stopped looking to newspapers and television for news. It is as simple as that. Mindy McAdams, the current Knight Chair for Journalism, recalls that in 1995 people turned to television for coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing, but by 2001 public demand crashed CNN’s online servers in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.

The Internet has slowly, but surely taken over the role of “see it here first” journalism. Even 24-hour news stations like CNN, MSNBC and FOX News do not have the ability to show news as it happens anywhere in the world. The Internet does.

Journalism Is Not Dead, But Professional Journalists Face A Different Future

Professional journalists are people who can write well, edit, shoot photos or video; they will always be needed. A few national and international news organizations will continue to exist in order to cover national and international governments and business.

Local and regional news organizations will need to scale back and cover their niche, local or regional news and sports. There are many openings and opportunities at the local level. Many smaller communities are not served or underserved by the mass media. Well-organized and lean local news organizations could do a great job covering these communities online and with a weekly or monthly print product provided free to the community.

The biggest problem is that too many of today’s journalists see working at a local newspaper as an unfulfilling career path. And too many journalists today see online news as a threat to “real journalism,” and have little or no ability to create online news content on their own.

The Internet is not killing journalism; it is just killing an old model of providing news to people who want information. The new model is as different as printing on a printing press was to hand copying books. Journalism is transforming into something more interactive, where the consumer is also a producer. That is not a bad thing, but it will cause a lot of stress and disruption as the older model fails and the newer model finds ways to succeed.