Who will pay for journalism? Is it just about money?

In the first round of seminars, it was primarily about the sustainability of journalism - money and revenue for news reporting. A comparison was made between NewsCorp. and Mediacorp, analysing the annual revenue and newspaper circulation. At the end, the audience was reminded that journalism in essence has a cause to fulfill people's right to know but ultimately is still constrained by monetary terms, just like any other profession out there in the world.

It is without a doubt that journalism in this day and age is losing money and revenue than before. Taking into consideration there will be a minority that does not subscribe to any form of mainstream media publications like magazines and newspapers and rely solely on a new generation of online media platforms - blogs and online news websites. News online in essence is free of charge, it strikes the common people - why pay a dollar or more for a newspaper? Social media and alternative media has disrupted journalism's profitability and thereby affecting its existence in the future.

So ultimately, who will pay for journalism?

Personally, I feel that the pros and cons of private and public journalism can be merged and co-exist to sustain journalism. Take Australia for example, the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) is doing well to maintain transparency, media independence from organisations or government (despite being government funded) and still maintains a high freedom of press. The model works, taxpayers money are pooled into national media but yet does not promote any form of propagandistic works or being a mouthpiece of the government or any influential organisations. Journalism is certainly not just about money, media conglomerates are losing revenue and profits over the years, merely shrinking their business model but chose to pit their horns against economic odds. But why? Simply put, journalism will never die off as more people choose to read what they want, journalists and editors have to provide and cater to a wider scope of audiences and readers in order to keep the money rolling for journalism to sustain.

For 200 years, journalism has come forth to a stand still in profits. Media companies need to rethink their strategy to further integrate online platforms to serve as contributory roles to their mainstream counter parts - to attract more readers and audiences to pick up mainstream media again. To create a more lucrative reading/viewing experience for a large mass of audience. By increasing the number of pages on a newspaper is simply not enough, it definitely has to provide more quality over quantity to win back the hearts and minds of the people.