Thoughts: Internet's Impact on Newspapers

There's been a lot of commentary recently about how newspapers across the US are being forced to close down due to a lack of revenue. The most likely culprit they see for this is the internet.

Now, whilst I do agree that the internet WILL steal some revenue potential, it's the lack in readership that's the biggest cause and, I'd argue, that's got NOTHING to do with the Internet. No, I'd offer that it has been the media's obsession with faux news, gossip mongering and news by media release that has led to their demise. You see, there's only so much of this shite that you can take so what do people do to find real news about real events that hasn't been spun by someone.

You guessed it, the Internet.

If the media dropped this guise that they're presenting news rather than selling it, then perhaps they'd see the real problem here. Get rid of the Today Tonights, A Current Affair, Fox News, "The Sun" - shit, even 60 minutes is full of tripe these days - and return to proper journalism then we'd all be the better for it.

Problem is, I suspect they've all probably too late - we've found a better medium and getting us back will be near to impossible.

UPDATE: A great article posted by ex-ABC journo, Chris Masters, argues a similar case to mine - that only NEWS done properly will solve the financial problems of the trade.