Changing perspectives: Are newspapers really dead?

"Newspapers are dead" was a notion repeated to me by many people in the last year. Whether it be from the mouths of industry professionals, skeptic professors, or my parents, the idea that newspapers were already dead in the ground was a constant thought when considering what I want to do with the rest of my life. 

My first choice for the summer was to work in DC as an intern for NPR : while newspapers are seeing a decline, public radio was stayed its course and retained listener-ship, which I learned by working at Michigan Radio, the station in Ann Arbor. However, that internship didn't work out for me so I decided to see what the newspaper world was really like. 

When I saw the office of the Tennessean, I was amazed. The printing press is in the same building, right below our offices. The office itself is nothing too terribly special, although it's being spiffed up as we speak. It looks like what you see on television shows: the investigative reporter's desk is covered in stacks of manila folders, there are stacks of CD's in the music section, and most people haven't cleaned up their cubicle in a while.

I've made a few realizations that I find extremely interesting in regards to the future of newspapers: we are still the first source of information, often breaking stories that haven't been covered ever before. Even Michigan Radio at home usually does coverage based off of newspapers stories. 

The Tennessean prints daily, which is rare for a lot of newspapers. They're also testing out different ways to enact a pay wall, and how to balance the budgets in order to stay afloat. Gannett, which owns The Tennessean as well as the Free Press in Detroit, is using Nashville as a test site for different methods in order to keep the paper cost efficient. It's really amazing and inspiring : there is hope for the modern day news paper. 

That being said, I've been extremely inspired by my internship this summer, and it's helped me decide what direction I want to head in with journalism. Even if papers stop printing, there will still be journalism.