who will pay for journalism?

As we all know, since the mass media and printing press emerged around the turn of the century, advertising has financed the practice of journalism – however, everything and everyone seems to be turning on their computers and getting their info off the internet. Newspaper sales are dropping as people sit in their little rooms, reading the computer screen (and probably eating cereal – don’t we all read news in that sleepy pocket between waking up and getting ready for the day?). Anyway, the point is advertising is moving with the rest of the world and taking journalism finances, salaries etc away from the professionals. Now, Jay Rosen would have told us to embrace this fact, get on our little journalism boats and sale on over to the new world of the internet.

An article in The Economist magazine said that newspapers are an endangered species, and that to remain un-extinct (yes I know that’s not a word), they should become more commercial – yes, that’s what the world needs, more stories on Tom Cruise and his whack religion. Yuk. I think I would rather see newspapers and journalism go under before I have to read (or write) about scientology. If newspapers want to regain some credibility (and readership) they need to “respond properly to doomsday thinking by relying on their traditional strengths and reject research that tells editors the future lies in infotainment."

Oh and an article from The Australian also brings up a really good point!:

Governments can regulate electronic media through licensing. They do not regulate newspapers. If newspaper advertising and journalism are unbundled, newspapers will not only lose financial independence but society will lose an important institution that has autonomy in the political field. Whatever newspaper critics may say, this move is likely to degrade the information available in a liberal democratic society.

Here it is in full: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24283745-25192,00.html

So, I don’t really know who is going to pay for journalism. Journalists may do it for the love of the job, but this isn’t exactly going to feed their families or pay their mortgages. I don’t think newspapers will die out either, but they will probably have to look to sources other than advertising – and at the moment I’m not really sure what these could be.