1. newspapers did not make a huge mistake by giving the content away for free. duh, look at the internet. everything except the porn and the dating services is free.
- agree. many stupid brazilian online newspapers want you to sign up for their pages in order to offer the entire content to you, though.
2. journalism can be done, and done well, without newspapers. it's okay if you love newspapers, but they're really expensive to produce and the audience is abandoning them, as are the advertisers, so it doesn't help us much to go on talking about newspapers.
- agree. and many say that there will be a foldable screen to carry in our bags and read online newspaper anywere.
3. journalism costs a lot of money to do (and especially if it's done well), because it requires dedicated people. so we can't pretend that the work will get done for free. it will not.
- agree. those people must update their carreer plans and move to something else in order to make the money they deserve. although
deserve is questionable those days.
4. citizens and amateurs and well-meaning whistle-blowers, etc., etc., will sometimes commit wonderful acts of journalism. but they will not do so reliably, day in and day out, and there aren't enough of them with the interest, free time, and goodwill to do everything journalists have been doing for about 400 years.
- true. agree. but it´s still better than liable corporations speaking about the facts of the world.
5. newspapers were a nice business. publishers could make the product insanely cheap (remember the penny press), and the advertising would cover the expenses, plus generate fantastic profits. however, this is clearly over. It's done. it worked for a long time, but now, like trans-atlantic leisure travel in big passenger ships, it will never work again.
- agree. and advertisers should move on too. i have a feeling that traditional ad is coming to an end.
6. no one today goes to one spot online as the trusted information source. people don't even go to five or six. everyone goes to dozens, hundreds - more. a subscription scheme is therefore not workable. (update: many people worldwide are not online. i know that. many people are illiterate and cannot read newspapers. let's move on.)
- agree. but i think this thing about going to dozens of spots daily is not a brazilian habit yet.
7. future generations will not read newspapers. ever.
- agree. even though i don´t know why.
8. journalism is vital to a democratic system of government, because without independent busybodies (yes, journalists) sticking their nose into everything, governments and large corporations can cheat, oppress, and starve people. (nobel prize-winner amartya sen famously said there has never been a famine in a democratic country because the news about food shortages or distribution failures cannot be hidden and suppressed)
- obviously agree, even though i´m widely more interested in anarchy than democracy.
9. the business model to sustain journalism in the 21st century has not been seen yet.
- agree. that´s why publishers are still acting so conservative.
10. newspaper companies, in particular, seem unlikely to blaze the trail toward a viable business model for journalism.
- agree. same comment of number 9.
the hole enchillada here.