Instead of the printing press dictating the location of jounalists’ offices we’ll see aggregators and incubators. Think more evolved versions of Digg and Pajamas Media. It makes no sense for the publishers/aggregators to have more than a passing relationship with journalists. Incubators might be non-profit sponsored collaboratives like VoiceOfSanDiego. Journalists are going to need paychecks and groups of journalists would probably save money if they pooled resources. Journalists of the future might be organized into something like bands of musicians, with leaders, video gurus, specialists, etc.

In a big picture sense I think we’re about to see a one time shift from a non-free market for news(due to a lack of technology) to a free market for news (aggregators). Technology allows the transition but it’s ultimately about good writing and good journalism.

Communities will evolve around elegantly organized aggregators.
“They will point to what others do well and save the expense of doing it themselves. They will do what they so best so others will link to them.” I’m not sold on this idea. They won’t need to link to each other if the aggregators are elegant, and if they’re competing then I wouldn’t expect that anyway.

Can’t say much about advertising (NDAed) but I have a funny feeling journalists of the future won’t be starving, at least the good journalists.

The newspaper dispenser of the future is going to be a big laser printer on the street corner and when you put in your $5 coin it’ll crank something completely up to date, with content from bloggers, journalists, essayists, and cartoonists. And if you log in it’ll be even more customized.

“Sadly, I do not see enough innovation occurring inside the established companies”

Jeff, If you want to know what this might look like drop me a line, I don’t think the investors would mind me demoing it for you. kirk –AT– abinventio.com

You make some valid points but the economic argument ,the low advertising revenue on the internet compared to the printed version where premium prices could be charged,is the most important in this.

This is the economic truth of the future.It is not only in newspapers that revenues are falling but mass communications technology has increased choice and driven prices down.The consumer is no longer prepared to pay premium rates for information,or products.

What has ,I believe,kept the wolf from the door ,so to speak, is the lack of a suitable medium to replace the printed word.Yes people would prefer to go online and pay nothing for content.However we are not at the point where,everyone has access or there is an alternative.For example hand held readers.

Once this point is reached,the industry has an important decision to make,charge for quality journalism or populate cyberspace with mass information and hope that enough people read it to attract advertisers

Jeff Jarvis has written an essay on the future of newspapers. Dave Morgan is writing one (thanks to the admirable Mr Jarvis for pointing me to the blog post which outlines his thoughts).
Morgan predicts that, come 2020, “we will have virtually no pa…

It is a fool’s mission to predict the shape of technology tomorrow.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay

The students began to embrace the idea that many of them would likely be working independently – and not just as freelance contributors but as proprietors of their own minimedia.

Working sans safety net makes people conquer fear and ultimately leads to self-actualization.

And, yes, some gatherers of news will be amateurs: bloggers, vloggers, and whatever comes next.

Shout outs to trolls and gadflies too. LOL.

Most telling line? “We learned long ago that whoever controls the index controls the future.”

I don’t think I’d change a word. And only three more years to go.

Regards/Stephen

If I can give my two cents, I would insist that the role of a newspaper is not only to deliver and organize content but also to offer SERVICES to its community of readers and advertisers. I like to speak about USEPAPER and USEORGANIZATION. Let’s be MORE USEFUL.

Something that you don’t speak about and that I am facing in my daily work with news organizations is the lack of entrepreneurs in media companies. They desperately need ENTREPRENEURS. Great managers are not enough in a media world where CREATIVITY and ACTION are key.

Once again, just my two cents.

Jeff Mignon
http://www.itsmynews.com

If they all make the leap to PR like I did, who am I going to pitch stories to?

Spot on. That’s where the battleground is; that’s the fight that needs to be won… And does Google have a trusted, local ad rep pounding the streets, working his old ‘newspaper’ beat – only not for the benefit of a print press, but for a 2020 medium?

Drill down to a local level and get out there – hit the road with your ad rep – and that’s another question: do local advertisers actually want to be Google’s? Or, as it stands, do they think there’s no real alternative?

They’re just as confused as the rest of us; they want to find a local answer to their advertising and marketing needs; they want to know what their money’s getting; where – exactly – their ads are going.

The person they trust more than anyone is their newspaper ad rep; the person they’ve dealt with for the last 25 years; he’s the one to hold their hand; he’s the one to take them across to the ‘other side’; to where, fingers crossed, a trusted local journalist is waiting to greet him.

There is a need for newspapers, but there must be more interactive methods employed to help it survive.