From CJR, the digital winter turns apocalyptic (and more). Thread: “For those who aren’t quite sure why these media layoffs keep happening, or think ‘it’s the internet!’ or ‘people don’t pay to subscribe,’ there’s a lot more going on”. Did we just experience the hardest decade in journalism? Local newspapers have already been gutted — there’s nothing left to cut. Cancel in protest, or stay with a local newspaper that’s being strip-mined for profits? A fresh look at the rise of nonprofit journalism — and the issues that remain. Does journalism have a future? In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face. What Jill Abramson gets wrong about the future of journalism: Josephine Livingstone reviews Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts by Jill Abramson.
How journalism can win back public trust: Julia Belluz interviews Alan Rusbridger, author of Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now. In the era of fake news, a cottage industry of startups is competing to turn media credibility into a booming business — do we really want that? Facebook and Google need to start paying journalists what they owe us. Regulating Facebook and Google won’t save journalism: It will help — but the industry needs much more to survive.
