Paying for News – Why Not?
I was catching up on The Daily Show (thank you Tivo) this week and caught Jon Stewart’s interview with Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham, who appeared on the show the same day The Washington Post Co. announced it was putting Newsweek up for sale. Check out the interview if you haven’t seen it. Meacham is perfectly candid and raises an important question: If we aren’t willing to pay for news, won’t we compromise the value and quality of news coverage?
I’m as guilty as anyone of soaking up my share of free content online and off. But I believe there are some things worth paying for and news is one of them. Think about the bureaus, the talent, the experience and the equipment that’s needed to cover events up the street from us and around the world today with both accuracy and analysis.
Should it all be replaced by Citizen Journalism? Blogs aside, since there are many bloggers writing with as much experience as journalists at the most established news organizations, I don’t think we want to rely on a guy with a flip cam to report all of our news. Some of it maybe, for immediacy and to be part of the conversation that unfolds around news events on Twitter and Facebook. But there’s more to news – and media – than that.
Just as we value teachers, we should value trained journalists. Just as we still pay to see that summer blockbuster, we shouldn’t shy away from shelling out a few dollars for a weekly news magazine. To a certain extent, you get what you pay for, or what advertisers and sponsors pay for. What do you think?
Our country is doomed without great journalism from sources like Newsweek and The New York Times. I’ll always pay for experienced reporting, except for maybe the obit column (-:
It might be the old “you get what you pay for.” If you want the deep down, true story & investigation, you may have to invest in journalists to get it.