Sub Standard Journalism

Watch it Here!

Media Watch, the guardian of quality journalism in Australia, appears to be one of the only outlets not afraid of telling it like it is.
Addressing the issue of quality journalism as a feature of the internet, it dedicated an entire episode to this pressing issue.
Initially it satirises how ridiculous the cover page of the newspaper online is "the wonders of journalism online" Johnathon Holmes mocked.

Roy Greenslade states that the Newspaper format is a "dead duck". Now writing a blog online (for the UKs Guardian) hebelieves that the movement to newspaper is a purely a matter of lack of advertising revenue.

Australian newspaper sales have held up better than UK and US. However, it is believe that many of Australia's larger newspapers are heading for trouble- due to the classified revenue moving straight to the online format.(Eric Beecher- creator of Crikey.com)
It is the format for advertisers, that makes the internet more appealing.( eg $40,000 for a classified ad in a newspaper is $4000 online.)

Newspapers need to diversify if they are going to survive says Van Niekerk. It is the ever expanding content that is adding onto the revenue to maintain the quality journalism.
However, Holmes counteracts that it is not going to replace the revenue (a realist) and he is correct.
Beecher believes we are defying trends if the new diversification can maintain everything as is.

The most important statement made in the episode is that Newspapers are going to need to adapt a new form of business model to fund quality journalism. If the majors can no longer afford the majority of editorial staff, the capital city offices and international bureaus than quality journalism is going to suffer. Beecher admits that no model has worked on a higher scale, that it is presently acceptable on a local level.
What makes it most difficult is that the best of journalism on a world scale, is currently available, mainly for free, online though they are not yet making any money. This is the most important thing to solve. However, until a general (and possibly international) concept is addressed, then any attempt to rectify the situation will falter.
It can not last- if the advertising physically is paying for it.
Greenslade questions if it can be supported long enough to build and sustain a new advertising base to sustain quality journalism into the future.

Holmes also brings up that it will be quality journalism in the hands of the consumer rather than the communicator (or journalist).

Greenslade says that amateur journalist will be the new approach to journalism, possibly the saving grace. Though this concept of democratic journalism can be frightening- there will be no-one to blame if it is wrong and no-one to check if it is right, and that will become one of the major difficulties coming into the future.

In quality journalism- where newspapers succeed online is by getting their corrections out much faster. However journalists believe that the mounting pressures and times make it more difficult for them to make better stories- and smaller staff numbers. and that celebrity is more interesting than polititcs.

To gain new online readers- Fairfax is risking its quality journalism history - its entertainment focused front page. to gain new readership- eg. SMH online- never traditionally a tabloid paper.
vs guardian and Washington post aren't doing this.
and that has something to do with loyalty. If the value or content is different then people wont transfer their loyalties. Van N is stating that fairfax is doing it successfully. However, if establishing an audience base in this way rather than maintaining previous consumers... alienatation. what happens to their news interests.

Journalists will be out of a job quite soon. Allegedly.

You, Me or Free?

Who will pay for journalism?

News is a commodity- this is undisputable.

Newspaper readership is in decline- again undisputable.

Media industry is diversifying to keep up with technology- fact, fact, fact.

So we have all of these new outlets for news, but the same, if not less, practicing journalists, with even less of a budget…

Disaster? Potentially yes.

If the current emphasis on quality journalism is anything to go by, the pressure is only going to mount for poor overworked journos. Not only will they be expected to continue to churn out amazingly insightful, investigative pieces, but they will be expected to upload it to the internet server, , potentially record it for podcasting, summarise it for snippets, make it available to mobile phone servers (and maybe one day if technology succeeds, teach it to write itself).

A discussion facilitated in class by myself and an equally avid journalist student proposed several options. We consider all to be viable as an option but in the long term, who knows.

Subscription-
In this ideal scenario a user pays for news content online as they would a subscription of a physical newspaper. Obviously this is the ideal scenario. Users have expressed a lack of enthusiasm to the idea- and having much of the world’s news content readily available on other (rival) media suites for free, does little to entice people to subscribe. Exclusivity here may be the key- something the Wall Street Journal is trialling to varying degrees of success (presently there are approximately 80,000 subscribers to its exclusive online content). It offers users limited content online for free, increased content for subscribers and offers packages including a physical copy of its newspaper. Why this works is that the Wall Street journal appeals to a niche market.

Niche Market-
The potential to lure the new audience- the youth- is where niche marketing of newspapers is most attractive as an option. Traditional newspaper sales are decreasing, the magazine industry continues to strengthen within Australia, so why not market a newspaper more like a magazine? Attract the lucrative teen market AND appeal to a more specific advertiser, thus tailoring an attractive option for specific advertisers and guaranteeing revenue.

Stand-Alone Journalism-
This is a very interesting new idea to propose to journalists rather than the media as an organisation. More than a freelancer, these journalists are actively responsible for seeking out stories independently of media outlets.

The positives is that there is no real constraint put upon a journalist (except possibly budgetary), and an investigative piece can be written and then sold and published in a media format that best suits its purpose.

Eg. Back-to-Iraq blogger Christopher Albritton.

There are other potentials to investigate – and alter the ever expanding issue of the media landscape. Publicly funded journalism (like ProPublica) is gaining momentum; civic journalism is a pressing and interesting issue also.

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the long run.

Would you be willing to pay for content online?

As a uni student, I would certainly find this difficult and would instead prefer the niche option of newspapers. As an avid magazine consumer, if I could obtain a newspaper that I found a little more energetic, tailored to me, then I would certainly give it a go.