stevemullis[dot]net

If you follow the world of journalism, or even read the newspaper, you know that the industry is in “turmoil,” or so they say. It is chic right now to talk about the death of the newspaper industry, the end of journalism as we know it and a half-dozen other clichéd statements being trotted out on the increasing number of journalism blogs these days.

The tidal wave of buyouts and layoffs industry wide, plus the machinations of Sam Zell & Co., have given both journalists and ex-journalists alike a lot of ammo and fingers to point at the current state of the print journalism world. A lot of this outcry is due to journalists seeing an industry which they love and have studied crumbling and changing before their eyes, a valid concern.

The problem I have with a lot of this is that all of the venom-spitting in the world isn’t going to change the way things have turned out. Sam Zell, Randy Michaels and Lee Abrams have a plan for Tribune and no amount of TellZell whining is going to change that. Blog all you want, it’s not going to change the ad structure and revenue models of your standard newspaper that are in steady decline. Trust me, I hate it too and wish much of it wasn’t happening, but the reality is that it is happening.

Our industry, not just print journalism but journalism in general, is changing and evolving. This is a good thing. The problem seems that many journalists aren’t willing to go through the birthing pains of changing the face of journalism, even young journalists. In my experience there are still kids coming out of journalism school that have that delusion of being the fedora-wearing, beat journalist who just hits the streets with a notepad and their wits. While that’s all well and good, it’s not enough and it’s the old model.

Nothing I’m saying here is new and many others have said it better. My point is, the cure for the death of print journalism is already out there, staring us in the face, all anyone has to do is step up and be willing to take a risk because they truly love journalism. Here are a few examples of what I am talking about:

MinnPost.com
Started by a group of ex-journalists, including former Star-Tribune publisher Joel Kramer, MinnPost was their answer to what they felt was the decline of high-quality journalism in the Twin Cities. MinnPost is a non-profit journalism outfit that uses an online and a print-on-demand model. They focus on investigative journalism with a focus on politics, government, science, health and culture. Last I read they were one of the few news organizations in the black.

SportingNews
Now the Sporting News is not a new organization, they’ve been around since 1886. However, there is obviously a reason they’ve survived so long, they innovate. News designer Charles Apple recently joined the Sporting News to help launch their new e-newsletter. Though the paper is supposed to continue print publication as a bi-weekly later this month, this e-newsletter format is something that more organizations should be willing to try. People still want the portability of a paper so why not give it to them while at the same time saving the organization on printing costs. We’ll have to see how this is working out in six months but I think it is a great idea.

Spot.us
Spot.us is an experiment in non-profit, crowdfunded journalism that is scheduled to launch this fall. The project was started by journalist David Cohn after he won the Knight News Challenge. According to the site:

“Spot Us” is a nonprofit that allows an individual or group to take control of news in their community by sharing the cost (crowdfunding) to commission freelance journalists to write important, or uncovered news stories.

Will it work? Who knows, but its boldness and Cohn’s willingness to try something innovative is more than admirable, it’s what the industry needs.

ProPublica
You may have heard of ProPublica already, the independent, non-profit newsroom that squarely focuses on investigative journalism. Investigative journalism is one of the fastest casualties of the slimmed down newsroom. Less journalists equals less time and resources to dig into those real meaty stories that newspapers are supposed to be known for. According to their site, they are “…the largest, best-led and best-funded investigative journalism operation in the United States.” Whether you agree or not, ProPublica looks poised to pick up where traditional news organizations are losing out.

TheUptake
A citizen-journalism Web site, The Uptake has garnered recent attention for a member-submitted story about the protests in Beijing, China. Their motto: “Will journalism be done by you or to you?” Many trained, educated journalists take issue with the citizen-journalism movement but there is merit to having eyes and ears on every corner. News organizations can’t hope to cover every angle of a story and that is where sites like TheUptake pick up the slack. I’m not sure of the history of the site and couldn’t find anything on it, maybe someone from the site can shed some light.

These are just a few examples of bold new steps for journalism and I’m sure there are more. My point here is that the solution to this supposed destruction of modern journalism is not going to come from new owners, publishers or executives. No, it’s going to have to come from the true journalists that love this business, this life and love getting the news to the people that want to read it, listen to it or see it.