Rachel Bunn's story

The newsroom is changing with the addition of new practices, and most believe that journalists will have to develop more skills, although the newsroom will never be obsolete.


Most newspapers and magazines are now using new technology, websites and social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, to break news.

Traditional print media is being thrust into the 21st century, and the newsroom is changing the way it operates, one small step at a time.

“People are so impatient. They want the news and they want it right now, or ten seconds ago,” said Al Summer news editor at the Times-Courier, a small weekly paper in Ellijay, Ga.

Summers said that the integration of computers in the newsroom allows writers to generate more and better stories because they have access to more resources.

Writers now only have to type a single word into Google or another search engine to produce hundreds of websites containing millions of facts.

Computers are also changing the types of jobs needed in newsrooms.

Emily Baldwin, former writer and editor for The Citizen Newspaper in Fayetteville, Ga. became the first web editor when The Citizen launched its website, www.thecitizennews.com, in 2005.

While more jobs involving the web are being created, many traditional jobs are being let go. Baldwin points to her experience being both web editor and editor for the Life and Style section of the newspaper, and The Citizen’s cutting its sports staff from two writers to one.

Newspapers are folding daily and a recent Los Angeles Times article pointed to job reductions as the only way many papers are staying afloat.

As journalism students prepare to graduate in this bleak environment, what lies ahead?

Marc McAfee, a senior at the University of Georgia, believes students will no longer be defined to roles such as reporter, photographer/cameraperson or editor—journalists will have to be able to do it all.

“Everything is going into one narrow channel,” said McAfee.

Summers agrees that the more you are able to do yourself, the better chance you have at getting a job.

In small publications, journalists are already asked to do many different jobs. Journalists looking to go to larger publications will have to start following suit.

“The more skills you have coming in, the more marketable you are,” he said.

With the rise of new media and “jack-of-all-trade” journalists, what will happen to newsrooms?

As for the future of the newsroom, Baldwin, Summers and McAfee agree despite the change in jobs and job titles, the newsroom itself will never disappear.

Baldwin believes that the community in the newsroom and the knowledge of peers is too valuable to abandon the newsroom.

Summers and McAfee agree that publications need a cohesiveness that cannot be found without the newsrooms existence.

“Editors are still important,” said Summers.

The future of newspapers seems a little less clear. Will they disappear in the physical form? Summers does not think so.

Summers believes that for local news, people will always want something they can hold or display.

“Across America people are still going to look to their local paper.”

Baldwin does not agree that physical papers will continue into the future, but believes that change will come gradually.

“It’s a slow evolution for papers.”

She points to the Baby Boom generation and their desire to have a physical newspaper to the reason for papers remaining, and the younger generation’s dependence and love of the internet for the reason papers will eventually go away.

“You have to try to capture the next generation of people, what they want. At the end of the day, it’s a business.”