> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://onemanandhisblog.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Our Real Problem: The Death of the News Package
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2009/12/our_real_problem_the_death_of_the_news_p/
- Published: 2009-12-04T09:13:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T14:42:06.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: advertising, Google, Journalism, magazines, monetisation, news, newspapers, Publishing, six apart

The problem we have to face up to is that just sticking a paywall  
around what we used to do will not solve our problems on its own (and by decreasing page views, may harm ad revenue and make things worse…. ) We actually have  
to re-evaluate what we do from the ground up and separate those things  
that were an inherent quality of print from those that are an inherent  
quality of journalism. (Hint: if your job has “news” or “features” in  
the title, you’re still defined by print.)

Some of our most sacred cows are due for the slaughter, I suspect. I find [this post by Chris Alden](http://chris.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/arrington-on-journalists-faking-objectivity.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), now CEO of blogging platform compny Six Apart, but formerly the [guy behind *Red Herring* magazine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris%5FAlden?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), compelling in the context of this discussion:

> I think hiding behind “expert” quotes is one of the bad  
> habits of professional journalism and ranks up there with “anecdotes”  
> as one of the most abused methods for injecting a story bias. A story  
> bias is when the writer has the story concept first, and then gets the  
> anecdotes, quotes, and statistics to make the case. The bias can be  
> left or right, up or down, but usually it’s in favor of the salacious  
> or exciting story, and against the dull “nothing to see here” story  
> which is more often than not the reality. Even those journalists that  
> can resist an ideological bias often have a hard time resisting a story  
> bias — because without a story they don’t have a job. It’s an inherent  
> conflict.

The sobering truth is that journalists no longer have anything near a  
monopoly on access to publishing tools. We can no longer define  
ourselves by the narrow information channel, the page count and the  
lead story. The internet has destroyed the existing structure of our  
profession and we need to find a new one. And the reflexive habits of  
our profession, shaped by the need to produce a package, need to pass  
away with our old business model.