Our talk last week with Terry Williams was honestly one of the most informative journalism-related talks I have been able to hear during my time at UNH. It was straightforward, interesting and gave a comprehensive view of today's struggles in journalism through a local outlet that many of us could relate to and put in context. I think it's easy to see stories of newspapers being shut down or scaled back, but they don't really touch us until we get the straightforward facts of the Telegraph's 50 percent revenue cut in the last five years and 35 percent decline in readership. Those facts made the issue that much more real to me.
One thing that really stuck out to me about the talk was his first question "Will innovation save journalism?" It made me think about what it would mean for the journalism industry if an individual or group of individuals managed to come up with a brilliant idea that would redirect journalism back into a profitable industry. Now, the gears in my head are turning, but alas, I haven't come up with anything world-changing quite yet.
In my opinion, coming up with something new and different is probably the only way that the journalism industry has a fighting chance of staying profitable. If we look at how much the world has changed even in ten years, imagine what it could possibly look like in another ten? The newspaper business model simply cannot keep up with these rapidly developing changes, and I think that only moderately updating the way that news is delivered will not be able to keep up with the changes that could occur within the next few years. Sure, we can move headlines onto Twitter and have tablet and mobile interfaces for stories, but no one knows what could happen within the next few years. The journalism industry cannot afford to be left behind again, and must set its sights far in the future to be able to combat a world with shorter attention spans, and more outlets to consume media.
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