Fall of the Newspaper?
by Vlad Jecan - January 18th, 2010
At the 2006 Nieman conference themed “Newspaper’s Survival” at Harvard University, editors, print and online journalists have discussed the future of newspapers and traditional newsrooms. Almost all speakers have started their presentation with the following statement: newspapers are in big trouble. Indeed, it is known that that print has lost considerable terrain due to the rise of the Internet. However, this may be the most serious crisis newspapers find themselves in, but it is not the first. In the 60s “the television began eroding their audience”[1].
Nevertheless, newspapers have survived. Back then, original journalistic genres have emerged and offered the audience a complete new experience. For example, the introduction of the factual fiction current, better known as narrative journalism, gave newspaper readers a whole new experience. Thanks to the fine writings of innovators like Martha Gellhorn, Truman Capote and others, readers have successfully received the new in news reporting. In other words, and to put it short, print journalism has adapted to the new.