Back in May, the news came down the pike from New Orleans that their daily newspaper, the Times-Picayune, would be reducing its print run and eliminating a large chunk of staff in order to focus on digital news.
This decision makes New Orleans the largest city without a daily newspaper, according to the Poynter Institute.
One of the major questions that came up during all of that was whether or not the Times-Picayune should move its contents behind a paywall. Josh Stearns, the Journalism and PR Campaign Director at Free Press, wrote an excellent article at the time, which inquired what it would take to move away from the oversimplified question of paywall vs. no paywall, and more towards: how can we move journalism forward?
This Land Press is a promising potential answer to that question. An article in the latest issue of Columbia Journalism Review about the Tulsa media outfit said that in less than two years, This Land is becoming cash-flow-positive—they’re making more money than they lose—and are right on track to starting to return on venture capitalist Vincent LoVoi’s investment. It’s one of the first media startups of its kind to achieve that.
“I am fully convinced that this is a golden age for journalism,” Michael Mason, editor-in-chief of This Land Press, told me last week, “One of the best times in the history of mankind to take up journalism, because you can be more effective as an individual now than you ever could before.”
More disinterested voices than I would probably write off Mason’s words as foolish idealism, but I think he’s right—this is a really good time to want to become a journalist. Moreover, I think foolish idealism—at least in how we view our jobs—is necessary to pick reporting up.
If journalism can be said to have an underlying fault, it is this: it remains devoted to institutions. Its main source of new reporting comes almost exclusively from expensive journalism schools and its main source of output are the mainstream television, radio and print media outlets—the New York Times, NPR, CBS, etc. Slowly but surely that paradigm is shifting.
Non-profit reporting organizations like ProPublica are proving to be immensely effective at producing quality reportage. Podcasters are taking to the streets, phones in hand, to record pieces from protests; one duo, Radio Dispatch, traveled from New York City to Charlotte, SC during the Democratic National Convention to cover what was happening outside the convention halls. Bloggers are starting to find that their voices are being taken seriously, even if only to a smaller audience.
At the same time, yes—newspaper readership and revenue is declining. Mass layoffs at major papers across the United States and around the world have been happening for year. But do not mistake the groans of growing pains for journalism’s death rattle. So much is changing and ready for dedicated individuals to take control of their own path.
The only question is: who is willing to step forward and own it?
End notes:
1 – Music fanatic department: there is now a Broncho-run music blog that you should check out over at thebronchomixtape.tumblr.com.
2 – PSY department: I am still amazed that Gangnam Style has been viewed nearly 200 million times on YouTube.
3 – As always, you can send a comment about this column to kaile at noescapevg dot com