I've long written about my belief that the current malaise of newspapers and rise of blogs ultimately will evolve into a new era of journalism, with the best blogs morphing into true vehicles of journalistic integrity and a smaller group of print publications reinventing themselves online and on paper to meet the changing needs of readers. This hope for the future doesn't make the current reality of newspaper bureau closings any easier to take. However, the decision of 80-year-old journalist Saul Friedman to walk away from his freelance gig for Newsday Magazine because the newspaper is making out-of-towners like himself pay for online access to his column gives me hope that displaced journalists will populate good blogs and good journalism will permeate the blogosphere.
In his own words, posted on the PoynterOnline blog, Friedman explained:
"From SAUL FRIEDMAN: Your readers may wish to know this: After 13 years of writing "Gray Matters" for Newsday and the McClatchy Trib service, and more than 50 years in newspaper journalism, (for Knight-Ridder and Newsday), I have severed relations with Newsday and will write for Ronni Bennett's Time Goes By.
I will write the weekly Gray Matters as well as a twice monthly essay, "Reflections."
The main reason: The new owners of Newsday, Cablevision, have shut
off access to its web site, even to me. It is available only to Newsday subscribers or to subscribers to Cablevision's ISP. Thus I cannot send my columns to people who don't subscribe to Newsday. And if it is picked up by Google or Yahoo, it would not be accessible. "
NewsDay's loss is the blogosphere's gain, which this link to Friedman's last column for that publication demonstrates.
More power to you, Mr. Friedman.
