A Global Complaint

I’m today watching the live webcast from the University of Texas5th International Symposium on Online Journalism. The first panel, Online Journalism in Asia, Europe and Latin America What is different and how does it compare with the U.S.?, featured speakers from Spain, Finland, Columbia, and Japan. All are journalists or professors of journalism. Nonetheless, each said that meetings within online newsrooms in their countries are dominated by the question of how to generate online revenues. No matter how journalistically successful their online media, continued unprofitability threatens not just the online operations but also their traditional media. “We are known within our company as the ‘blood-letting department,'” said the speaker from Yomiuri Shinbum, Japan’s largest newspaper. These speakers’ global perspective reflects the Project for Excellence in Journalism said about what effect continued unprofitability of American online operations have on American journalism.