The future of news will be as much challenge as opportunity. That is,
the resources surely will be limited and will take us places we haven’t
been.
For most of us, that means online. If we can figure out
the ways to make online and the newsroom one, with shared staff,
values, ambition and growth, that could be good — in fact, very good.
For
my newspaper, the future seems reasonably bright. Our journalism is
better than it’s ever been. We’re a successful business in a highly
competitive, growth market. We have the right news values. For a year
now, we’ve been changing the newspaper in ways that readers have
accepted — perhaps more than the staff has.
We have to continue
to make the newspaper more readable, to make many stories (not all)
shorter, to make presentation more compelling, to continue our
commitment to local news, watchdog journalism and to reflect a
dramatically changing community in all its diversity.
And we
have to challenge things as we have always done them, as we look for
new ways to tell stories and for new stories to tell.
But the
shadow of economic uncertainty is always there. Still, we can’t and
shouldn’t obsess over what might — or might not — happen. And we can
make something happen with our journalism so that’s the immediate and
the attainable goal.
After two intense hurricane seasons in
Florida, we learned as a newspaper and as a newsroom that we can knock
down the walls, put aside ego and turf (and even personal discomfort
and property damage) and do a great job when natural disaster disrupts
our communities.
Last year, during and after Hurricane Wilma, we
came together in the most extraordinary way under the most difficult
conditions and put out great newspapers. We served our readers, many of
whom had no electricity for days and weeks. For the first time in a
long time, we were the only source of news. We were indispensable.
What a feeling! It makes me believe that there is a future.
