We will survive

Whenever people hear that I'm a newspaper reporter, often times they reply with, "That's kind of dying business, isn't it?"
I have to disagree. My response is, "Well, someone has to write the news that is posted online."

While I have read the countless stories of newspapers going bankrupt, and communities being left without a paper, I like to think that somewhere out there, newspapers will still exist for at least another 20 years.
For you see, not everyone in this country is getting their news from the internet. For that to happen, every person in the U.S. would have to own a computer, or have daily access to it. And given the economic situation this country is currently in, I don't think that will happen anytime soon. I do realize that people can access the internet through wireless networks and cell phones, but once again, the same problem still remains -- people need to have a device to access the internet.

Therefore, the complete death of the newspaper is being protected by the internet boundary since not everyone has access to it. Small town communities still have lively newspapers. They may not be thriving, but people are buying them, if only to read the obituaries.
Now, according to our president, he wants to put internet access in the hands of everyone, and if that is possible (and he gives everyone a computer), then yes, the newspaper business will see an even more dramatic decline.
But it won't die -- just yet.
Many people 50 and younger are used to doing everything online. Yet, there are still some that are 50 and over that would rather turn on their lawn mower than turn on a computer. They want nothing to do with a computer and would rather read the hard copy of everything -- from their bills to their news.
When this generation (which includes my lovely parents) eventually goes to see the Good Lord, then I fear that the newspaper will meet its demise. The lifeblood of a newspaper is advertisers, and with so many digital forms of advertisement out there, the new generation of business owners will not want to resort back to the "old fashioned" way of advertisement. They will want to reach their customers as often and wherever they can, so the hard copy newspaper will not be their primary source. Thus, they will not invest in hard copy newspapers, they will use their dollars at Groupon or on Facebook.
But even if the newspaper does die in 20 years that doesn't mean the end of the reporter. People will still want reliable news. And like is said earlier, someone has to write the copy that is generated on the internet. Computers can't do everything, people.
Sure, there is this turn to the "citizen journalist," but there are still intelligent people out there who know that the news generated on local social networking sites is really just gossip unless validated by a credible source. A reporter's job is to find that credible source and get all of the information, even if that story will only be posted online.
Therefore, reporters will still be needed. They will still capture the images of daily life. They will still tell the stories of people and their communities.
My biggest concern is that as the newspapers continue to diminish, I often worry about the preservation abilities of the internet. Sure, once you put something out in cyberspace, it's there forever. But will people still print off the pictures of their children from online media sites and put them on the refrigerator? Will honor roll lists and scholarship announcements be posted on media sites? Information such as this is the beauty of the community newspaper. Anyone who grew up in a small town and has had their picture in the paper has probably heard someone tell their parents, "Oh, I saw So-and-so's picture/name in the paper this weekend. That's exciting." Will the online media take that away?
Only time will tell, but I can only hope that history will not get lost as the newspaper moves to the internet. One of the features that I treasure about my job is that essentially, I am recording history. Will the internet still serve as a record of history when newspapers are gone? I can only hope.