Journalism Under Threat

I’d been looking at print journalism, the commercial threats to which have driven change over recent decades, and the steps which have been taken to foster a partial recovery. And then an email this morning reminded me that not merely print journalism, but journalism of any sort is under threat… even in western so-called civilizations. 

November 2 is apparently the UN-supported ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists’. That there needs to be one is, to say the least, a worry in itself. WAN-Ifra has commissioned three opinion pieces highlighting specific situations in the US(!), Europe and of course Palestine, where numbers of journalists have died, some of them targeted. More on that later, but in the meantime, a focus on the change that has taken in the accessibility of printed journalism. 

We’ve quoted a Medill School of Journalism report that notes the rate at independent US publishers are calling it quits, while local digital-only news sites are multiplying, “even thriving”. What authors call the “the festering, 20-year-old problem” is that those digital news sites “don’t come close” to replacing the number of newspapers and journalism jobs being lost. 

Nearer to home, WAN-Ifra has announced the fourth State of Asian Newsrooms Survey in a bid to better understand the key challenges and priorities. Main themes include securing funding and increasing revenue, particularly through advertising and digital engagement, and there is a strong focus on adapting to technological advancements such as AI. More on this from WAN-Ifra and Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Singapore.