The newspapers have continued to be battered over the last couple months. Dozens of newspapers over the past year have gone bankrupt and shut down operations. Some have stopped printing daily and have moved their operations online. Only the popular newspapers still survive but are weakening fast. Even the New York Times has had to take drastic actions to stay afloat, accepting cash infusions from a Mexican billion, Carlos Slim, to suspending dividends and selling its headquarters building. Main perpetrators of such a downfall are the successes of internet news media that include bloggers and typical cable news outlets.

As newspapers fall, Senators are becoming increasingly concerned that newspapers in their respective states are next. The Newspaper Revitalization act was introduce in the Senate that would allow newspapers to restructure themselves as non-profit entities much like public-broadcasting companies, this would bar them from making political endorsements. There has been some talk of a financial bailout for newspapers, much like what has happened for the banks. This has caused a backlash of criticism from mainstream America, not wanting more money going to companies that are viewed to fail anyways. Committees are being convened in the Senate to research the consequences of all out failure of newspapers.

At first glance this would appear to be another instance of an outdated industry going out of business. Consumers of newspapers are increasingly going online to get their news. Not only can they access the internet easily and from a variety of locations, the news on the internet predominantly free. Hence, the circulation of newspapers are shrinking and so does the purse of the newspapers. A closer look at this situation would reveal that it is not that newspaper industry that is failing, but more specifically the printing industry of newspapers. Online news outlets are flourishing. The production and dissemination of news has left print world and has gone digital. My first reaction to this was to simply dismiss the consequences of the collapse of newspapers; but what is to be seen is another consequence, far more disastrous if left unchecked.

What is really affected by the dwindling newspaper industry is the journalism industry. As newspapers have slowly lost their popularity so goes their journalists. Journalists that have been the government watchdog for decades. The number of news organizations accredited to cover congress is a shadow of what it once was. Newspaper organizations are being replaced by special interest publications as well as foreign newspapers. This creates an environment that encourages political-agenda driven reporting and publishing. The main fear is that journalism can at some point monopolized by a few if not a single conglomerate.

The newspapers have provided the American people a service, a service that casts light into the lurking dark agenda’s that might lurk in the government. What we must assure is that if and when the newspapers fail, the same service can still be provided independently and without censorship. A financial bailout is not the solution; force feeding a failing industry is not a scalable solution, much less a solution at all. The best solution at the moment is to wait and watch, see how things turnout. Students majoring in journalism have been on the rise anyways. Let us see what they can do without the major newspapers.