Paper Trails

“Mr. Weaver, if you were 30 or 35 years old, would you keep working for a newspaper company?”

McClatchy Vice President Howard Weaver faced that question last week, and as he admits in a blog post, it's the type of query he struggles with. (Hat tip: Journerdism.) Asks Weaver: "Given all the uncertainty in our business – the hiring freezes, the layoffs elsewhere, McClatchy’s sale of the Star Tribune – how can anybody feel good about our profession?"

He ultimately concludes that, yes, he would keep working for a newspaper company, since doing so still offers the same rewards it did when he first started.

But working for a newspaper company doesn't necessarily mean working for a newspaper, as another link from Journerdism shows. Derek Willis has a post up about leaving the Washington Post newspaper to become database editor at washingtonpost.com. When he told colleagues his plans, he writes, "several…responded with a single query and often an uncomprehending look: 'Why?'”

Willis argues that the time has come for newspapers to dispense with the distinction between old and new media. "What’s important is that the entire operation recognize that we succeed or fail together," writes Willis. "It’s not 'the paper or the web,' but the journalism everywhere."