Newscoma

It didn’t make it to print but it needs to be read nonetheless as he took a buyout last month at his local newspaper. No worries, he’s still blogging and cartooning, but this column is a must read.

And in a society where advertisers — not consumers — pay for journalism, the answer to the question “what is good” is not necessarily one my mentor Jim Shumaker would have approved. What is good? What gets the most attention and moves the most product. Good for society? That’s another question.

Adherents of the newsroom religion had actually been struggling with this realization for years, but what really brought the issue to a head was a simple fact about the Web: Because it’s a competitive market with lower entry costs, Web-based advertising is significantly cheaper. And though the reach of newspapers (via print and Web) has increased since 2004, the rise in Web readership doesn’t account for the loss of more lucrative print readership.

Read the rest at this place. I just adore this guy.