Innovation before income, hope for finding newspaper’s missing link

I work in a room full of journalists. They are print people. They work day and night to meet a deadline. Each day a new deadline.

At some point in the last 15 to 20 years they were introduced to the internet. From what I can tell it was a slow introduction, recently accelerated by the shift in the economy.

This room of journalists, I can only assume, is much like other newsrooms full of writers working under the constant question of what the future will hold.

The room is abound with ideas and theories, none being obvious large revenue generators. The journalists separate themselves from the thought of how their mission will be funded and focus on the quality of their work and trying to understand the evolving beast that is the World Wide Web.

I find myself in a lucky position. I am a entertainment editor working fully online. Each day, I function in an environment fueled more by the hope of finding the link to newspapers of the future than the guarantee of a big payoff. Of course, there is a hope that the link will be the payoff.

I cannot speak to how my coworkers feel. I can only relate my own anxieties and hopes about the future. But let me make this clear, while there is a lot of anxiety there is as much, if not more, hope.

The shift in newspaper revenue, while devastating for many, may be necessary for news generators at all levels to look at their processes and procedures and put innovation before income.