Predictions and year-in-review stories are a staple of news organizations this time of year.
A true journalistic acolyte will tell you that the end of the year is the natural time to look backwards and forwards in deep reflection. A more cynical type (me) will tell you it's because
James McHuff
Newspapers
the news cycle typically dries up between Christmas and New Year's Eve (botched terrorism attempts being the exception) and you need something to fill the white space or the air waves.
Either way, you get some interesting takes on what was and what will be. Ours is here.
A colleague pointed out that in all the top-story and top-trend pieces we're seeing around here, the demise of traditional media (that'd be newspapers and magazines) isn't really being played up. Perhaps that's because it's being lumped into the general job-loss trend. Or perhaps it's a desire by the news media not to be viewed as self-centered.
It's hard to swallow that latter point, though, when we've seen stories about a couple dozen layoffs at a newspaper or magazine get just as much (or even more) play as a story about a couple thousand layoffs at a manufacturing plant.
Let's look forward to less of the layoff story in general in the months ahead. Happy New Year.
