By ED McGARRIGLE
STAFF WRITER
Loren Fisher, managing editor of The Home News Tribune and Courier News, recently spoke to a class of aspiring journalism students at Rutgers University about the future of the field and how to succeed in it.
Fisher told the students they should not forget that newspapers are still a business, just like anything else. They may aim to inform or entertain the public, but they are still just a business.
“Newspapers are there to make money,” he said. “Make no mistake about it.”
Fisher then went on to address the present state of journalism, its recent downsizing, its future and how the students can hope to strive in this new environment.
The recent downsizing of many newspapers nationwide is related to the loss of readership and advertisements, he said.
Fisher said that between 1998 and 2007, weekly readership dropped by 5 million people. He also stated that newspapers have lost almost half of all its advertisements, specifically classified advertisements, which have moved online thanks to sites like eBay or Craigslist.
Fisher also told students that because of the lack of readership in daily print news, online newspapers and traditional print ones are coming together like never before.
“Newspapers and websites are becoming one in the same,” Fisher told the class.
Fisher went on to tell the class that journalists are able to take advantage of this new way of reporting. Stories are able to be posted on a website moments after they are finished being written. People no longer have to wait for the next day or even the evening news to find out what is happening in the world.
“Traditional print journalism will be dead in 10 years,” Fisher said.
Despite the sometimes bleak outlook of journalism’s future, Fisher told the students to not give up.
“There will always be a need for journalists,” he said. “People are reading more than ever,” he told the class while explaining that they are reading in different ways.
"It’s now Blackberries and iPhones, not the New York Times or Washington Post."
Fisher also had some advice for the class for when it comes time for them to head out in to the working world.
“The key to getting a job? Don’t suck,” he said dryly. “You have to learn to be a mobile journalist. No one can do just one job anymore.”
The class was very receptive to Fisher’s speech and thankful that he came.
“I really appreciated the insight that he shared on the journalism industry and the tips for success that he gave us so that we can achieve whatever we wish,” said Sade Alston, a sophomore at Rutgers. |
