The Future of News

The problem with moving the news online is that so far we have not found a way to securely finance and profit from doing so. Judging from the readings we were assigned for this assignment I have come to the conclusion that journalism agencies will only succeed in their online endeavors if they do the following things.

First of all, and most importantly, news agencies must not begin to charge their readers for content that they already receive for free. Doing so will only redirect readers to other news sources that offer similar content for nothing at all, especially now during the economic crisis. However, charging people to access a more expansive and innovated version of what they can already access for free is more likely to generate profits by tantalizing people into subscribing to it.

It is also absolutely imperative for news agencies to create creative and entertaining websites if they are to succeed. The more innovative and original a website it, the more likely it is to accumulate fans and loyal readers. In order to gain advertising revenue you have to first become popular and gain viewers; you can’t to that by being like every other news website!

After reading a handful of articles about the fiuture of journalism I have come to the conclusion that creating a small online news website could be a possible career endeavor for me. Judging from Ryan Sholins’s article, “Are we asking the right questions about online revenue models?”,I realized that creating a news website dedicated to covering local news could be profitable. If you cover a relatively small you can use local businesses to advertise on your site; thar way they would be able to target people in the area and you would be able to profit from it. He also pointed out that craigslist.com hasn’t completely taken over classified ad sales, and that there is still a dollar to be made selling classified ads. People would also be attracted by the proximity of the stories featured on the site.