Kathleen Parker, a columnist for The Washington Post is working to understand what the rise of new media means for print journalists like herself.
Thankfully, she does so in a funny manner:
It’s over. Done. The old media are no more. We are all new media now. All journalists, we are also the news. We are essentially a nation of news-mongering newsies making news as we do the news. At some point, the news will simply consume the news consumer-slash-provider in a big-bangish event that will go unreported.
Parker also offers this bit of insight in to the news business:
If you want friends or money, my first editor told me, get another line of work.
What are we to make of all this journalistic self-loathing? I know what I make of it. Clearly, this is the perfect time to create a new kind of media company. One that holds tight to certain basics—like an informed citizenry being the key to a healthy democracy—while finding new means of production, distribution and monetization. Paid advertising and paid subscribers can’t be the only two methods of making money in this business. Let’s invent some new ones!