This weekend The New York Times published an article about the changing landscape of Journalism entitled Digital Defeats Newsroom? In the article the author Brian Stelter talks about the changes happening in classrooms across America in how journalism is taught. There is a recognition that teaching the business of journalism using today’s model is really a history lesson and schools need to examine how the digital age is impacting the business; especially in light of all the recent financial challenges to the newspaper industry which threaten to shut down many of the existing print papers in the market today.

He references some comments by Dan Gillmore, a former columnist for The San Jose Mercury News and author of We the Media, and also a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Mr. Gillmore talks about the need for “new forward-thinking approach” which marries traditional journalistic values and Web classes and an entrepreneurial spirit. More and more we hear this sentiment echoing through the journalism community. Just last week I attended a panel discussion with an editor from a major city newspaper and one of the co-founders of Globalpost, a new innovative online international source, who also highlighted the need for journalist to become entrepreneurs in order to survive in the new digital age.

I find it fascinating that so many people are now taking about journalism in the context of an entrepreneurial model. I fully agree that the digital nature of how people get their news will inevitably lead us to this model. I guess my question is how we can effectively maneuver through this period of transition without losing some of the top talent due to their frustration change. I am hoping that the J-Schools are talking about this with students but more importantly the newspaper industry should be thinking about courses to help veteran reporters navigate this difficult time and better understand the new skill set they will have to develop to survive in the new entrepreneurial world of journalism.

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