The digitial demise of the newspaper...or not?

These days everyone is buzzing about the "new journalism" - online journalism. It seems like it pops up everywhere - the Online Journalism Review usually has something to say about it, as does IWantMedia This includes blogs, streaming video, online text, and the like. The biggest claims that people are making these days is that newspapers are on their way out. The Minneapolis Star Tribune says that newspaper readership is down, and the average newspaper reader is 55 years old. Is the Internet taking the place of newspapers, or is the Internet adding layers and options to a pre-existing medium? Last week I talked to Mike McGough, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade who covers the U.S. Supreme Court from inside the beltway. Since he has spent over 25 years working and writing for newspapers, I thought he might have some good insight to share.

McGough said that he is curious about the viability of newspapers. As a print journalist, he has seen the development of pure Internet entities, like blogs, become full-fledged news vehicles. He has yet to start up his own blog, but McGough said that he uses blogs on a regular basis. McGough said that blogs are very helpful in finding sources, as well as not-so-mainstream information. He looks at various law and court blogs everyday to stay abreast with the topics of the moment. "They have juicy tidbits about more local issues," he said. For instance, in writing an article about Supreme Court Justice nominee John Roberts, McGough may look to a blog to find information about what effects his previous rulings in lower courts have had on a more local level.

McGough also said that blogs have helped expose his articles to a wider audience, although he said this can have its downside. "If I make a mistake, odds are that a lawyer will read the story online and ask for a correction," he said.

McGough said that he can't make any official predictions of where newspapers will be in 10 years, but he did say that the Internet makes news better. Read some of Mike McGough's work at www.post-gazette.com.