We live under the happy illusion that we can transfer news gathering to the Internet. News gathering will continue to exist, as it does on sites such as ProPublica and Slate, but journalistic traditions now must contend with a new, widespread and ideologically driven partisanship that dominates the dissemination of views and information, from Fox News to blogger screeds.

The preceding, most unflattering words for the digital new media era are from former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges.  He is equally damning of new media’s marketing potential.

The Internet will not save newspapers. Although all major newspapers, and most smaller ones, have Web sites, they make up less than 10 percent of newspaper ad revenue. The big advertisers have stayed away, either unsure of how to use the Internet or suspicious that it can’t match the viewer attention of older media.

The phenomenal revenue success of Google’s search-based advertising notwithstanding, Hedges point regarding “big advertisers” staying away from newspaper web sites is accurate, and worth serious contemplation.  Having begun my journalism career with daily newspapers, I’ve long been bemused by media consultants who tell the industry to save itself through web site revenue. Increasing revenue, and the newspapers, are lost causes.  More on this in another post; for now, I strongly recommend Hedge’s well circulated essay.

A former national and international print and broadcast journalist, Bill Bartman is now a consultant to media, new media, telecommunications, and information technology. He operates from Pittsburgh, PA with an office in Washington, DC.

Article Tags: bloggers | Chris Hedges | Digital New media | Fox News | Google | media consultants | New York Times | newspapers | ProPublica | Slate

Filed under: Digital archives, News article, Propaganda, TV, Technology