Mr. Shangkong | Are newspapers dying?
Newspapers may eventually become news "sites" or "iNews" products. But for journalist, as long as you are a good content provider, your readers will remember your bylines.
Are newspapers dying?
I forget exactly when but I've been asked more or less the same question more often in the past few years, in particular after Steve Jobs created the iPhone that claimed to have “changed everything”.
Those concerned about the fate of the print media have good reason - even the New York Times is now in deep financial trouble despite its reputation for top quality reporting every day from New York to New Zealand and from Chicago to Shanghai.
I began my journalist career at an official newspaper in Shanghai in the summer of 2002. I still remember clearly my office at the time was a typical newsroom -- newspapers littered the floor and mountains of books and papers on reporters’ desks. In other words, you couldn't call it neat, but it I liked it.
Later, I joined an American news agency, and then moved again to a British wire service. Perhaps because the two foreign news organizations had a strong focus on financial news coverage, the workplace for reporters and editors looked more like the trading floor of an investment bank rather than an old-fashioned newsroom.
After a total of about eight years working for newswires, I rejoined the newspaper industry early this year -- The South China Morning Post, my current employer. I remember when I first came to the newsroom of the Post to meet the bosses, all my old memories about working for the Shanghai newspaper in the not-so-neat newsroom suddenly came back to mind.