Published on: Tuesday, February 02, 2010

By Linda Blachly, Managing Editor

I’ve been watching with interest the changing world of journalism, which is the driving force behind my returning to school.

Like others, I’ve been trying to figure out if this change is good, bad or just different.

There are a lot of “angry journalists” out there who feel as if their profession has been devalued to the point they can no longer make a viable living from it.

Some are jumping ship to other interests while others – like me – are treading water, hoping to catch the next wave. We are trying to figure out where we fit into the new age of journalism.

Enter the debate of free vs. paid news, which the New York Times opened up, suspiciously, within two weeks of the debut of the new Apple iPad.

The Times is proposing charging for online content next year, and suggesting that this will somehow change the course of journalism and newspapers back to where it was before the recession.

I’d love to hear what readers have to say on this subject.

As I see it, there are two schools of thought here:

1. Paywalls could reset the industry standard and all of a sudden get newspapers in the black and journalists making a respectable wage again.

2. We’ve come too far with free content to go back now. With the new media technology available to the averge citizen, everyone with something to say can say it to a mass audience.

I read an opinion piece, “‘NY Times’ charging for content, and it’s about time” by Nicole Gilbert at statepress.com, which said “Free content all but killed the newspaper industry and will continue to do so until there is no news being reported at all.”

Seriously? Did free content really “kill the newspaper industry” or was it other economic factors? Do you think that if all newspapers closed their doors, there would be no news reported at all?

Now that the general public is conditioned to free news and information on the Internet, is it too late to expect people to suddenly be willing to pay for news? What alternatives do the newspaper industry have to regain its solvency?

Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger says that paywalls make no sense in an article, “Guardian Editor Details Why Paywalls Harm Journalism.”

 (http://whytewolf.us/guardian-editor-details-why-paywalls-harm-journalism).

Rusbridger feels the larger issue is how the traditional media and new media can work together in this new technological age.

In fact, Rusbridger says, “Here the tension is between a world in which journalists considered themselves – and were perhaps considered by others – special figures of authority. We had the information and the access; you didn’t. You trusted us to filter news and information and to prioritize it – and to pass it on accurately, fairly, readably and quickly. That state of affairs is now in tension in a world in which many (but not all) readers want to have the ability to make their own judgments, express their own priorities, create their own content, articulate their own views, learn from peers as much as from traditional sources of authority.”

So, I think we are all watching and waiting – discussing and debating – the future of the new media. If we’re not, we should be.

I have returned to the University of Maryland College of Journalism as a graduate student to take an online journalism class. I am excited to be around the young energy surrounding journalism, and those who will be around to usher in the new age of media. Perhaps we can all learn from each other and ride the technological wave together.

Linda Blachly is managing editor of The Prince George’s Sentinel and can be reached at editorpgsentinel@yahoo.com.