Panelists at a Region 2 session said they can’t explain "Where is the Industry Headed?" more definitively than anyone else.
"It is a scary time and a bumpy time," said Rem Reider, editor and senior vice president of American Journalism Review.
However, there were tendencies and lessons to cite.
"There’s nothing like the threat of extinction to make you more flexible,"
Reider said, noting the possibility of nonprofit institutions supporting news organizations. On the other hand, he said, the idea of government supporting news would be "a classic conflict of interest."
"Some say we’re dinosaurs," Glennwood Branche said about the network
television news programs.
Branche, vice president of news operations and engineering at the ABC News Washington bureau, said a challenge for traditional media is using new tools: social networking sites and small and lightweight cameras and recording devices, as well as widespread Internet access.
Branche envisioned a future of "combo operations" with reporting, photography and editing functions converged in one journalist. He predicted that more news organizations will cooperate with erstwhile competitors in pool coverage of certain stories.
"In this chaos, there is opportunity," Toni Locy of Washington and Lee
University said. She told students in the audience, "It’s exciting to go into
journalism now… You will be asked to do everything."
However, she cited a disadvantage of the bought-out, stripped-down and converged newsrooms now taking shape: "You’re not going to have mentors."
She also saw a dim future for news aggregation Web sites, as traditional journalism organizations shrink or disappear: "Without news sources, the aggregators will have nothing to discuss."
The panel, moderated by D.C. Pro board member Steve Taylor, didn’t foresee a future when news reporting disappears. "There will always be an appetite for a good story," Locy said.
