Can newspapers survive the digital revolution?

Walt Mossberg: Well I actually think the digitalization of the world, or the digital tidal wave that’s sweeping through the world is touching every kind of industry and walk of life. I don’t care if you’re a pre-school teacher, a parish priest, the CEO of General Motors, or a newspaper publisher or editor. It’s touching your life.

The media companies, whether it’s entertainment or information, have been especially hard hit by the change because the Internet is a great platform for media.

Really if you think about it, despite all the hype about video on the Internet and the fact that these videos will be on the Internet, it is still today as we speak in September of 2007 overwhelmingly a text medium. And so it’s a direct competitor for newspapers and magazines. And newspapers and magazines have not been the best managed companies, no matter how good their journalism is. And they have not necessarily been the most entrepreneurial and flexible companies, but they have been hard hit.

I don’t believe journalism as we know it is going away at all. In fact I think all the evidence is it’s booming and expanding. But journalism, as done only by a small group of professional journalists; and only on dead trees; or only on official television networks--that kind of journalism is being radically transformed and challenged by journalism carried on the Internet.

But it’s still journalism.

Recorded on: Sep 13, 2007