Blogger and Newspaperman Battle: What's the Future of Journalism?

May 6, 2009— -- It's the end of an era for newspapers and journalism. That much everyone can agree on.

Some major cities eventually might not have a daily print newspaper -- and those that will likely will have newspapers dealing with depleted newsroom staffs.

But are newspapers' troubles a harbinger of a world without scrutiny on local officials -- or a gateway to a golden age of citizen journalism?

A subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is considering legislation that would enable newspapers to seek a nonprofit tax status, heard both views today.

Chairing the hearing was Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., whose hometown paper, the Boston Globe, is in business day to day amid labor disputes with its parent company, The New York Times.

Kerry said the hearing had nothing to do with the situation at the Globe, with its approximately 350,000 circulation.

Also asking questions was Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., whose hometown paper, the Murdo Coyote, has a circulation of just about 600.

Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, said newspapers and publishers have to adapt to the Internet -- including sites like hers and Google, which aggregate news stories from other sites -- and learn to fund their activities through clicks instead of subscriptions.

The Huffington Post streamed the hearing live.

Leading The Huffington Post site during the hearing was a banner, tabloid-style headline for a story written by The Associated Press on jailed Ponzi scheme orchestrator Bernard Madoff and linked to video from NBC.

"The conversation must change from how will we save newspapers to how will we strengthen journalism," said Huffington. "What won't work and what can't work is to pretend that the last 15 years never happened."

Her foil at the hearing was David Simon, an erstwhile newspaper reporter and, more recently, the creator of HBO's "The Wire", which took a hyper-local and exhaustive look at the city of Baltimore.

The two disagreed on most points.

Simon lamented that his hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun, with a circulation of about 232,000, went from a reporting staff of more than 500 to fewer than 200 reporters. He said the public welfare is not served when newspapers lack the resources to cover local police beats, courts and city councils.

Leading the Baltimore Sun Web site during the hearing were stories about a local murder trial and a drug raid botched by the Baltimore Police Department.