James Poniewozik of TIME is the latest pundit to pontificate on likely changes in the future of the news media:
It’s possible, though, that nothing will save the journalism business ? at least as we know it and pay for it today. That doesn’t mean journalism will go away. Reporting won’t go away, though foreign bureaus might. Information won’t go away. Opinion certainly won’t.
But somebody will have to pay ? even, or especially, for the free stuff. Some journalism could become a kind of volunteer work, performed by eyewitnesses, passionate amateurs or professionals in other fields who use journalism as a loss leader to sell their books or build their brands. (That’s the model of the legion of unpaid writers at the Huffington Post.) Even if you filter your own news from Twitter, you’re paying in time and effort.
Those seeking to pay the bills through full-time journalism could find different paymasters. The Associated Press recently started taking investigative reports from four nonprofit journalism groups. And if newspapers can’t afford investigations, advocacy groups and think tanks ? which already hire research pros ? could do their own: a kind of piecemeal return to the old partisan press.
A piecemeal return to the old partisan press sounds like the rise of the ?subsidized, ideological news media.?
