From a recent article by Tim Rutten on LA Times.com, “Newspapers are changing to suit reader’s tastes,” he laments the lack of quality news programming on cable and network news, but holds out hope that newspapers can make the transition back to their roots rather than fall prey to the type of programming we see on television news today. He hopes that we can get back to in-depth objective reporting and analysis of current topics rather than the shout-mongering that is the staple of today’s television personalities. It is a way for us to survive.

He quotes a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press study that found the Web audience is “… younger and better educated than most Americans and far more dissatisfied with their country’s news media.” Many people are pointing their browsers overseas to British online media outlets that give them the content they desire. He also quotes Joseph Epstein who states that Wired magazine now defines a new word, “… ‘egocasting’ as ‘the consumption of on-demand music, movies, television and other media that cater to individual and not mass-market tastes.’ The news, too, is now getting to be on-demand.” Reaching that micro audience as multimedia producers is another aspect of our job that should be explored. How we define a “micro” audience and how we tailor content to reach as many people as possible within that structure will be an interesting exercise.

I like how Rutten finishes, with the hope that some type of “hybrid” publication, “… in which an online edition that’s focused mainly on breaking news and service works in tandem with a print edition whose staples are analysis, context and opinion.” The challenge is to make sure that the multimedia stories we produce are quality in-depth pieces that help showcase and explain the human condition. Here’s an excerpt from Rutten’s article:

“Sooner rather than later, the newspaper you’re holding in your hands will be very different from what it is today. Different in what way is the fair and obvious question. The honest answer is that nobody knows for certain, but the odds are it will be a hybrid publication in which an online edition that’s focused mainly on breaking news and service works in tandem with a print edition whose staples are analysis, context and opinion. The former almost surely will have a lot more video and interactivity than it does today; the latter will have to be much more thoughtful and far more intensely and carefully edited. It’s a difficult — though not impossible — transition, and the scandal of cable news’ failed transformation provides a cautionary example. As Fox and CNN demonstrate to the rest of the news media, it’s possible to save your financial skin and forfeit any claim on respect.”