Tribune Co. (USA) files for bankruptcy

Pen1987

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-081208tribune-bankruptcy,0,3718621.story

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/business/media/09sorkin.html?ex=1244437200&en=7dc24b443741d025&ei=5087&excamp=GGDBtribune&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=DB-S-E-GG-NA-S-tribune

Co. controls The Chicago Tribune and The LA Times.

Anyone got an opinion on what this means for the future of newspapers as in-hand, profit-focused entities?

Run_to_da_hills

Not good news at all, and i can foresee it happen in Ireland. As people get tight for cash they will cut back on everything to save a few bob. The purchase of a Broadsheet in Ireland will cost someone an average of e12 a week with the VAT included.

One can view most news topics on line, the advantage of on line media is that it can be "dragged & Pasted" and can used to back up a blog statement unlike media taken directly from a conventional paper.

The Imminent danger that I can see to this is as the trend goes away from conventional papers to Internet source, it leads the system wide open to Internet press censorship before it reaches the public through blocking filters, topics such as reports on "state security" could be prohibited and blocked, yet the public aught to know them because of civil liberties issues.

This is beginning to happen in the UK already. It can only get more worrying if the censorship regulations and filtered comes from a foreign source.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-seek-to-censor-the-media-1006607.html

Pen1987

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

This is beginning to happen in the UK already. It can only get more worrying if the censorship regulations and filtered comes from a foreign source.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-seek-to-censor-the-media-1006607.html

Interesting, I hadn't read that article.

I can't see this happening here in the next five years. Thereafter, possibly. I think it is a given that print media will move online eventually. The question is when, how quickly and in what way.

One way I can see the media moving online as an industry would involve the NUJ becoming far more involved in the work of journos. Blogs would be endorsed with "Pen1987 is a member of the NUJ", i.e. an NUJ stamp of approval. Group blogs would take over from newspapers with all money being made from onsite advertising. Flash media would be used instead of physical pages, similar to the way you can read State Magazine online (turning the pages electronically etc etc).

If this happens, most journos are up the creek. Newspapers will become far less localised meaning far less journalists. Some newspapers are already out sourcing their newsroom to India... (yeah seriously, their newsroom is in India, the newspaper publishes on the west-coast of the US, all the journos in India use the phone and never leave the office)..

Argh!! *runs to up-skill in some other industry!*

Run_to_da_hills

Pen1987 wrote: »

Interesting, I hadn't read that article.

I can't see this happening here in the next five years. Thereafter, possibly. I think it is a given that print media will move online eventually. The question is when, how quickly and in what way.

One way I can see the media moving online as an industry would involve the NUJ becoming far more involved in the work of journos. Blogs would be endorsed with "Pen1987 is a member of the NUJ", i.e. an NUJ stamp of approval. Group blogs would take over from newspapers with all money being made from onsite advertising. Flash media would be used instead of physical pages, similar to the way you can read State Magazine online (turning the pages electronically etc etc).

If this happens, most journos are up the creek. Newspapers will become far less localised meaning far less journalists. Some newspapers are already out sourcing their newsroom to India... (yeah seriously, their newsroom is in India, the newspaper publishes on the west-coast of the US, all the journos in India use the phone and never leave the office)..

Argh!! *runs to up-skill in some other industry!*

The way things are going now I wouldnt be surprised if non essential news reports are outsourced. The internet is full of padding material for the press, even stuff from blog sites, (I have already seen Boards topics appear in the press a day or two after :eek:,) Perhaps one of the reasons the authorities of the future may want a censorship on chat sites. A big worry for political parties is that referendums can now be swayed through blog sites rather than former news paper articles and advertisements.

I still like my "hard copy" of the press for more detail, the editors letters, advertising and the death column that one would not find on line. Nothing like a flick of the papers over a Cappuccino.

It would be a pity to see the quality of journalism deteriorate because of a turn away from hard copies. On the down side of on line reading there iare privacy concerns, Ie one can build a profile of yourself by back tracking the news sites and articles you regularly view just as one can trace your reading material through ISBN number on books and magazines ordered through credit cards.