Is the Newspaper Dead?

Op-Heads: a virtual chat on the issues that matter


Click above to watch a clip from Tom Fiedler’s and Sacha Pfeiffer’s discussion. Click here to watch the full version.

It’s the paradox of new journalism — as print media enterprises cut jobs and close bureaus, their online offspring, offering free and up-to-the-minute content, thrive. But is print journalism dying, or merely adapting to a new era? And what does the next generation of reporters need to know? We asked two Pulitzer prize–winning newspeople, Tom Fiedler (COM’71), dean of the College of Communication and former executive editor of the Miami Herald, and Sacha Pfeiffer (MET’94), a health and science reporter for BU’s NPR station, WBUR, and a former writer for the Boston Globe, to give us their take on the future of their business.

Got an issue to debate? E-mail today@bu.edu with “Op-Heads” in the subject line.

Edward Brown can be reached at ebrown@bu.edu.

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There are 3 comments on Is the Newspaper Dead?

  1. The newspaper isn’t dead. It’s just geared toward news that sells over news that matters. Television news is the same. People would rather find out about nude pictures of celebrities than about how stupid the population has become. Reality kind of sucks, so why not keep people in happy shiny land, feeling good about themselves?

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  2. I always cringe whenever this question is raised and discussion turns to bloggers as journalists. Let’s have a discussion about newsgathering instead. How many bloggers and self-styled citizen journalists really know how to gather the news? Sure, they do well in commenting on the news, and occasionally, someone breaks a story before the mainstream media does. But as Fiedler and Pfeiffer discuss, you’ve got to know what to do with the “news” that you gather. Just because you can get public documents on the Internet now instead of having to go to the federal building or the courthouse doesn’t make you a journalist.

    I fear the day that we wake up to find all the newspapers closed and only online commentators bringing me the “news.”

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