AJR looks at Charlotte, past and present, and the future of newspapers

http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4305

Young journalists at the Charlotte Observer love their jobs. They value what papers do but find them often dull, out of touch and sluggish. They have passion for their craft but are positioning themselves for a future that may leave newspapers behind.

By Carl Sessions Stepp




The subject matter is not unfamiliar, but it's still a good read.

 

I feel those kids pain. Our Web site doesn't even have pictures for freaking crying out loud, let along blogs or anything multimedia. We're just on the modern side of chiseling our paper into cave walls.

 

Yep, hard not to empathize. They have passion for their jobs but know they're becoming irrelevant. They can intuitively feel the clock ticking and know that it's not likely that the old guard will retire or drop dead before they can save their jobs/industry.

 

Being in the middle range I can see the conundrum from both sides. Maybe the smaller places, in more isolated areas, will fare best in the short term. But I think the Charlottes of our business will be OK.