Pew Research Center released its State of the Media, part of which noted the migration of “high-profile” journalists to digital outlets and a number of digital startups. This is happening while print publications are downsizing and television news is working to produce more content.

The biggest point I took away from this is that a number of jobs in digital news is growing. How can I not? My life is online, my generation is online, and it is inevitable that our jobs in journalism will involve being online in some way.

How do I know this? Pew found that over the past few years digital outlets such as BuzzFeed and Vice Media increased their staff. Meanwhile, there are entirely new jobs in startups like Vox.com and the new FiveThirtyEight blog.

Pew also noted that while there are a number of legacy reporters from publications like The New York Times, editors are increasingly looking for younger journalists with “better digital instincts and skills.”

What does this mean for young journalists?

My classmates and I are constantly being shown that we that we have a place in this digital transition. We can be confidant that many opportunities are ours. We grew up online, so it really is our “Golden Age”.” Digital is second nature to us.

We not only know how to navigate the digital world, we know how to communicate in it and connect to the young audiences.

I can’t help but comment on one news outlet that I think understands the digital age and has the capacity to appeal to younger new consumers: Vice News.

Yes, they have a show on HBO, but they are present on multiple digital outlets as well. I discovered Vice on YouTube, where it gets significant views on its videos. Vice also has a website and it has an app that show its written pieces as well. I’ve heard fellow students mention they’d like to work for this kind of outlet, and it seems to be more and more likely that they will.

At South by Southwest in Austin over the weekend, author of Journalism Next Mark Briggs talked about the new forms of journalism. I watched parts of his talk and found some points to be a great explanation about where journalism is  headed.

He pointed out that the death of print is not the death of journalism, it’s just one form of journalism that is being replaced. I completely agree. Journalists are now adapting to online forms of journalism.

One of the forms that Briggs talked about is entrepreneurial journalism, which I think really highlights the changing business. He described how some online journalism outlets are being back by venture capitalists, meaning that those people want they’re money back. Briggs said that this shows the fact that this new form has a “promising economic future”.

I agree. It means that people realize that journalism on the Web is the new main outlet for journalism, that it’s not going away and therefore it is profitable.

Briggs also mentioned how social media is definitely not a fad. People share links to stories on social media.

One thing he mentioned about Twitter was enlightening to me. He talked about how Brian Stelter formerly of The New York Times used Twitter as a “radical form of transparency,” meaning that he invited people to poke holes in his stories (You can bet I quickly added Stelter to my growing list of journalists that I follow).

To me, this shows that while there are new forms of journalism, the traditional journalism ideals and practices live on and are even maximized by them. Social media provides an even more direct way to be transparent and accountable for stories shared online. Our names our not only attached to the story, they are attached to anything we post online, so we better make sure that what we post is verified.

After Newsweek halted its print edition in 2012, it seemed that it could not make a comeback, but now IBT Media is bringing it back from an almost certain death.

Although 70,000 copies will be printed at $7.99, the web is where Newsweek should stay focused, as it’s where the competition is thriving and more and more news is found and consumed, while it has been the downfall for others that did not adapt. It seems that IBT is on top of that, with its plan to sell the print copies as a sort of novelty item, while web content will be accessed at a smaller price.

The Internet is where Newsweek will remain after its online traffic tripled. Plus, it allows the opportunity to have more advertisers than print edition as online advertisings tends to cost less.

The magazine will be using an online paywall through a Slovakia-based company. This will help Newsweek gain profit and at this point it only makes sense to have a paywall. Many popular news sites have paywalls and are still running, generating revenue and proving that there is no need to be hesitant to expect readers to pay for online content anymore. Paywalls are becoming the norm.

Despite it’s message on Twitter, #LONGLIVEPRINT, a bit ironic, Newsweek’s online presence does not stop at its website. It is making use of social media like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. It joined forces with The Daily Beast to spread its news.

I think as long as Newsweek maintains its online growth, it will have staying power; however, it needs to work on its mobile presence. Newsweek has an app for iPad, and appears to have bad reviews in general. It needs to create an app that reaches multiple devices (Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod etc.) and is user friendly.

February 27th, 2014:        “Piers Morgan Live” was canceled by CNN this week and when I saw the headline I thought, “It’s about time.” I think this situation provides a few counterarguments to ideas discussed in class that I would normally agree with, but they help explain why the show ended up being bad for CNN’s business.

We talked about how Americans want to be entertained rather than informed and that points of view have always been around in the media (though I’m not quick to call Piers Morgan journalist). I have no doubt that as an interviewer, Morgan attempted to entertain us with his arguments and controversial points of view on his show. Normally, I’d say that conflict is entertaining, and it’s often a news driver, but Morgan used it in the wrong way and his opinions backfired. How? He made the mistake of creating conflict between himself and the viewers. He talked to us in a pedantic way about our country’s touchy issues like gun control. I agree with what David Carr wrote about the situation. No one likes to be lectured, especially by an outsider, and it wouldn’t surprise me if most his of dwindling audience thought, “Why is this British man telling us Americans how to run to our country?” as I couldn’t help but do. There was a petition on whitehouse.gov to deport Morgan and it reached over 100,000 signatures (about a fifth the number of viewers some nights during the show, not exactly the best for a primetime spot)!

It just shows that even the big media conglomerates are not guaranteed an audience just because they have control of TV spots. CNN has to worry about its audience and revenue as much as a newspaper. Viewers bring revenue just like readers do, but if there’s no one to watch or read the advertisements, a new business plan has to be made, and I find that’s what CNN is working on by canceling “Piers Moran Live.”

When Rob Urban visited our JRN 301 class, we asked what Bloomberg looks for in job applicants. He mentioned that having credibility on social media is sometimes considered. I think it makes sense to want employees that have “social media clout.”

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter act as an outlet for journalists to post their stories for their followers. Not only that, but articles can be shared and re-tweeted, increasing the number of attention a story gets. If a story is clicked on, it leads the reader to a publication’s full site or suggestions for more related stories from that outlet.

This would be difficult to do without having a pretty solid base of followers in the first place, and solely posting articles does not help gain followers. Some the most successful Twitter accounts I see often include a mix of opinion, insight, article posts, and even jokes. They have a social media personality to keep followers interested.

Social media power comes with a price though; everyone is watching. It’s important to maintain that online personality, while being careful not to offend and turn people away. It could cost your job, like former editor at CNN Octavia Nasr who was fired for tweeting about her respect for Hezbollah leader Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah after his death. Hezbollah is known for denouncing the U.S. and supporting suicide bombings against Israel.

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I read a column on these two new question-and-answer apps: Jelly and Need. The idea for both is for peoplea to gather information with answers from those in their social networks. When I researched Jelly a little more, I couldn’t help but wonder if journalists could use such an app. I mean, they can send out a question and get a wide range of answers, which is pretty appealing to me as a student journalist, especially for those times when I need to wander the campus to get student reactions. It wouldn’t be such a crazy idea; I’ve seen plenty of journalists post questions on Twitter and news organizations like CNN ask questions for discussion on Facebook. The unique thing about those two apps is that they are solely question-and-answer, so a journalist’s questions might not be buried among other random posts as it might be on Twitter and Facebook. With Jelly, users can take a picture of something, circle it and ask: What is this? Another feature of Jelly is that if someone directly in your network doesn’t know an answer, they might connect to someone who does. Need is a little different in that it allows users to “follow” questions and “bookmark” answers. Journalists aren’t scared of social media, and they shouldn’t be. Some have really found how to make the most of it. I’m thinking of how Andy Carvin was able to cover the Arab Spring largely using Twitter while he was at NPR (I read his book, Distant Witness).