Through a new journalist's eyes

People don't seem to understand why young journalists like me still see hope in newspapers.

There’s a lot of talk about newspaper doomsday – about why things went wrong, who’s to blame, when to get out so that you can still land a job with a decent salary. Yet I find very few people offering solutions to these problems, aside from the silly notion that consumers should pay per article online (an argument we’ll save for another day).

Here’s what I think newspapers should do:

Let go of the print version and go all in online.

And no, I’m not talking about killing the newspaper. In my eyes, a newspaper online is the same as a newspaper in print. They’re still the same newspaper with the same information, same reporters, same advertisers, same publisher, same community. How is one product more of a newspaper than another? It’s time for us to start thinking outside the box a little bit. We’re talking about letting go of a product that uses extensive and damaging amounts of paper and ink for a product that is cleaner for the environment, cheaper for readers (it’s free, people!) and still equally marketable. Take a chance, leave your comfort zone and go completely online with your newspaper.

Lay off some of your staff.

As a recent graduate currently feeling out the job market, I don’t like that idea any more than you or the journalists you’re laying off do. But unfortunately we’re in a struggling economy and industry, and newspapers are a business, and businesses have to make monetarily uncomfortable decisions sometimes. However, I’m only talking temporarily. Switching to completely online will mean that you have to initially run your product slim and tight. You should work with the minimal amount of reporters, advertisers and especially managers possible. Don’t go crazy with big projects and expensive, unnecessary investigations in order to grab readers. Focus on delivering the news, providing information and serving your community. You can reward yourself with the fun stuff later.

Don’t panic.

Though you’re not getting as much money from advertisers with online versus print, the day will come when advertisers see the value of online. The more that newspapers switch to an online model, the more advertisers will turn to online advertising, either because they’re left with no choice or they truly are starting to see where this is going. As more consumers value online news, advertisers will seek to target them, finding that online newspapers are the best environment for such a task. Just because advertising’s slow now, doesn’t mean it always will be. Do what you can to get by at the moment, and wait patiently for the market to pick up again.

Sit tight.

Eventually advertising will pick back up and you can slowly hire more and more people. Start building your new product, using your money wisely. In a few years or a decade or so, a new industry – online news – will be thriving and our generation will sit around and reminisce about the good old days when newspapers were poor.

Don’t lose hope.

Newspapers are necessary to our society. They are the voice of the people. They’re not going anywhere. They’re just changing along with the rest of us.