It’s no secret that the newspaper industry is in decline. Long gone are the days of news boys and paper routes. Last Monday, March 9th, a financial news blog called 247 Wall St. published an article it called “The Ten Major Newspapers That Will Fold Or Go Digital Next.” The article was a sensation, immediately picked up by hordes of online news outlets, including Yahoo News and the Times Magazine Online, where it garnered national attention. Number five on the list? Our own local newspaper, The Boston Globe.

The Globe is in the sad company of other waning major newspapers such as The Detroit News, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Sun Times. As subscriptions fall, 247 Wall St. reported that the Globe is losing $1 million per week, with its total worth estimated to be 20 million dollars.

So, why are they losing all that money? In the newspaper industry, revenue comes from two main places: subscriptions and advertising. With the economy failing, the classified ad section has been abandoned for free online advertising, like on Craigslist.com. Furthermore, as stores begin to feel the financial hurt, they advertise less too.

The Globe has been a mainstay for Massachusetts news since its inception in 1872. If it disappears, where will that leave its faithful readers? 247 Wall St. claims that The Globe will likely stay afloat online, publishing news solely through its website, Boston.com. In fact, print newspapers like The Globe are being replaced more and more by online news outlets, like our very own Wayland Student Press.

It’s a trend that’s being followed across the nation and the world. Newsprint is being traded in for blog posts and web addresses. Increasingly, even the reporters are changing. The era of the all-access media pass is being replaced, little by little, by regular citizens with WiFi Internet access. Remember the Hudson River airplane crash in January? The first report on the crash did not come from The New York Times or the Associated Press, but instead Janis Krums.

Krums, an entrepreneur from Florida, witnessed the crash and sent a text to twitter which read: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.” He was also the first to post pictures of crash, taken on his iPhone. One can’t help but wonder: Is this what the future of journalism looks like?

For me, contemplating the death of The Globe is uncomfortable, if not impossible. If The Globe goes under, what will be next? How long can we expect the famous names, like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, to last? How long will it be before all of our news becomes fully automated? There are those who are ready for an Internet takeover. My own personal take? If you can’t read the morning paper at the breakfast table, it’s just not the same.

Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/
http://www.time.com/
http://247wallst.com/