July 7, 2009 - 2:15pm
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about the future of journalism, with much of the discussion centering on the viability of newspapers and other forms of “traditional” print publishing. What role—if any—will traditional publishers play in the coming digital world? And how might we preserve ideals and institutions that are important to our shared culture and democracy? One of the more radical proposals on the table suggests that we make sweeping changes to copyright law, in order to prop up business models that worked well in the print world but which are floundering in the digital economy. In this episode, Harold discusses these copyright reform proposals and offers up his own modest proposal as to how we might save the newspapers.
It’s sad to see so many
It’s sad to see so many traditional companies struggling with rapidly changing technology and society habits but I agree 100% that attempting to maintain the viability of business models is not societies job but the business’ themselves. Change can be hard… but if companies can’t adapt… that is their own fault, not ours. Great series here and I’m very happy to see these efforts by public knowledge to engage your readers and spread the word!
It’s not newspapers per se
It’s not newspapers per se that we need to save, but rather professionalism in journalism and good investigative reporting.
The medium (paper vs. electrons) matters less than getting the professionals paid, making sure that there are enough of them to cover events, ensuring that their work is available, and making sure that there are enough of them that if one or more are biased (e.g. they have conflicts of interest, are “bought,” or cave in to pressure from advertisers or the politically powerful) other sides of the story will be available.
Any business model which accomplishes this is satisfactory.
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