Nows and Forevers

For years, those of us who were in traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers) have either lost jobs or seen them change drastically — or, sometimes both — with the rise of social media and online sites like Gawker, BuzzFeed, Vice Media, Huffington Post and others that are either still here or not.

I’m not here to glorify the Good Old Days of Traditional Media, nor am I here to trample on the graves of the publications, in print and online, that have shuttered. There are way too many to mention. But I keep wondering, as the business models of journalism continue to sputter and fail, just what’s next. Because I don’t see the need for news outlets going away.

For a while, digital news was thought to be journalism’s savior. It could survive, creatively, by mass audiences and by the new economics. But that seems so 2013. Now, unfortunately, that isn’t working out, either. Both BuzzFeed and Vice Media have undergone a number of layoffs and, according to this CNN.com article, are in survival mode.

That’s a shame. I wanted digital media to survive, just as I wanted newspapers and TV and radio to survive. We need it all.

As CNN.com reported today:

“At one point, the outlets inspired fear in their legacy media competitors, with each valued at billions of dollars while making splashy hires and threatening further disruption. Now, they’re struggling to keep their head above water.”

Nobody wins in this environment.