Journalism on the Brink?

I attended an interesting journalism panel last night at the University of Washington. Titled: “Journalism on the Brink: Can Digital Save it?” the event featured a stellar panel of:

• Cory Bergman, MSNBC, expert on future of local media through LostRemote.com, MyBallard.com;
• Ross Reynolds, host of KUOW’s “The Conversation” and a researcher on public radio as a viable business model;
• Monica Guzman, online reporter at Seattle P-I who has pioneered the effective use of social media tools to share her work;
• John Cook, ex-PI reporter who has created TechFlash, the go-to source for the Puget Sound tech community; and
• Cory Haik, Director of Content at seattletimes.com, who knows how to work through a disaster as NOLA.com managing editor during Katrina.

Bill Corgan has a great summary of the event here.

There were no real solutions that came out of the discussion, except that the traditional media business model needs to be revamped. Each panelist, in some way, offers a unique news service to readers. But until the business models meet their innovation, news will continue to suffer.

If you’d like a “live” recap of the events, check out the Twitter feeds.

KUOW has also been dedicating some time to the issue.

According to yesterday’s “The Conversation” story, on Tuesday, Seattle PI guild members met to consider new ventures if and when their newspaper disappears. They discussed employee interest in purchasing the newspaper. Universally, employees have zero interest in buying out the newspaper in its print form. But there is still talk about purchasing the online portion, or using it as a news aggregator site that links to outside sources. There is also talk of merging the two – by having a small (20-ish person) staff that contributes to the online site, and also link to outside sources.

The full podcast is available here.

Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at NYU, who will tonight be a virtual panelist for a similar “state of the news business in Seattle” event, “No News is Bad News,” was on KUOW today discussing the future of the PI and other newspapers. In the discussion, Rosen says bloggers can gain trust as an online/new news source by disclosing to people who they are, where they are coming from – more and more people want to feel more connected to their news.

You can listen to this discussion here.