Web blurring line between
news, advertising, journalist warns
BY MARK SHWARTZ
 For Marshall Loeb, former editor of Fortune
and Money magazines, it's a familiar question:
Will the Internet eventually wipe out traditional
newspapers, magazines and other forms of print
journalism?
"Of course not,"
Loeb says, but "just about every media organization
of any consequence is desperately trying to figure out a
way to cope" with the dramatic growth of the World
Wide Web.
Loeb's comments came
during a discussion on how the revolution in information
technology is changing the face of modern journalism. The
March 7 event was sponsored by the Stanford Institute for
Economic Policy Research.
Loeb, now a CBS radio
commentator and an adviser to CBSMarketwatch.com, noted
that the Internet is having different effects on
different mass media.
Print media, he said,
cannot compete with the speed of online news services, so
print will have to adjust by providing more in-depth
analysis.
Broadcasting, he noted, is
as fast as the Internet but not as interactive, so he
predicted that broadcasting will become more
sensationalistic in order to compete.
Loeb pointed out that the
recent explosion in websites and new cable television
channels has had some positive benefits -- at least in
the short term.
"I've never seen such
a favorable job market for journalists," said the
former editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, noting
that 1,100 new print magazines were launched last year in
the United States alone.
He pointed out that, in
the past eight months, Web company advertisements have
skyrocketed, resulting in a financial boom for newspapers
and magazines alike.
He said the growth of
online news services has even increased the demand for
qualified writers, forcing traditional print media to
raise journalists' salaries across the board.
"The revolution in
technology makes it a marvelous time to be a
journalist," Loeb commented.
But there is still
tremendous disparity, he said.
A graduate who receives an
M.A. in journalism from Columbia University in New York
can expect to be hired at a salary in the $30,000 to
$40,000 range. But a graduate from Columbia's business
school just a few doors down is likely to receive at
least three times that amount from his or her first
employer.
When it comes to editorial
matters, Loeb said, journalists are confronting many
troubling issues, including the conglomeration of media
ownership -- such as Disney's purchase of ABC -- and the
lack of journalistic experience among the new crop of
editors.
He also cited a disturbing
trend in newsrooms, where walls that should separate
business and editorial decisions are being torn down
"in the interest of marketing and advertising."
The real danger, Loeb
warned, is not that media owners will dictate what
stories will be reported, but that journalists will
censor themselves and not cover certain stories out of
fear that they might offend owners or advertisers.
"We journalists are
going through a vexing period of self-examination and
self-criticism," he told his audience, but he said
it is vital that reporters tackle the major issues facing
America, such as the growing divide between rich and
poor, and the "knows" and the
"know-nots."
He also maintained that it
is the role of journalists to encourage discussions
between minorities and whites, men and women, the young
and the old -- sensitive cultural divides that are too
often ignored by society in general.
In the future, Loeb
predicted, people will be getting more news on the
Internet. How much will depend on how quickly technology
changes.
He compared portable
information technology to the advent of the portable
radio and asked, would a hand-held Internet device be
that much different from carrying around a copy of Time
magazine or the San Jose Mercury News?
"If we can get a
really economical, convenient, portable device,"
Loeb said, "it will open up more
opportunities."
Despite the crises facing
journalists today, Loeb said he remains optimistic --
even when it comes to sweeping technological innovations.
"I have no special
affection for print technology," he said. "It's
not the printed word that's our salvation. It's the word."
SR
|
