Journalism as we’ve known it for 100 years is dying, meaning that dead-tree journalism, the kind that puts type on paper is dying. Journalism by any other definition is thriving, and by that I mean the New Media.
Unaccountably, federal regulators are trying desperately to find ways to protect print from the modern age, discussing things like tax breaks, taxes on electronic devices and other efforts that would disincentivize the actual distribution of news.
Analyst Jeff Jarvis says mind your own business:
The government should favor neither incumbents nor newcomers, but rather create a level playing field by helping every American get open, high-speed access to the Internet. That is the gateway to the real future of news and media.
I believe that future is entrepreneurial, not institutional. The industry’s institutions have had 15 years since the start of the commercial Web and we’ve seen how far they can come. What we need now are innovators — like my entrepreneurial journalism students — to invent new forms, structures, efficiencies and business models for news.
But those entrepreneurs don’t need government help. They need to be left alone with the assurance they won’t be interfered with by the FTC — or the FCC, which has its own hearings and reports on the future of journalism.
Jarvis is right, of course. This is like federal regulators protecting button-hook and buggy whip manufacturers at the turn of the century by penalizing shoelace and auto manufacturers. They didn’t to it because they had more sense back then, apparently.
