How far is new media from competing with traditional media?

Great question! I do believe that targeted content such as blogs are already competing with major print media publications for several reasons. The main reason is that established media groups are still "quality conscious" and so they are more and more playing catch up to blogs, twitter profiles and other sources of targeted information when it comes to breaking news.

For instance, let's say that a juicy story leaks out to several people about a political figure. Let's say that several of the people it leaked to are bloggers, and several are from NYT, and other established media outlets. What is the first action that each group would take?

The blogger would pull into a starbucks, take out his laptop and publish what he knew about the story in about 20 minutes. The NYT would schedule a meeting to discuss the facts, send in an investigative journalist team and finally, print the story 2 days later on the front page. By this time, many people are thinking, "old news!"

The other reason that I believe "new media" is prospering so much and competing so fiercely with "old media" is the shift in desire towards specific, detailed information over generalized news. 30 years ago, many people enjoyed taking out a newspaper and reading it all the way through from cover to cover. Today, most people would rather find a couple interesting stories and learn every detail about these issues.

They are not content with knowing a little about a lot, they want to know a lot about a little. So, they may start with the NYT but, once they see something that peaks their interest, it is off to the blogs to learn every juicy detail that the NYT could not provide if they intend to reach a large audience with a variety of information. That being said, I do believe that the media market will change dramatically over the next 3 years and I honestly believe that by the time of the next presidential election, we will see a dramatically different media than we had during the last one, with blogs and the internet playing a much greater roll.In the end, I believe that the large media companies will conquer the market and hold at least a large portion of market share but, in order to accomplish this, they will have to do some serious soul searching to reposition themselves in the minds of the consumer.

I believe that they still hold a significant edge in trust (people still trust the NYT more than some random blog) but, they are maintaining this edge at the cost of loosing the battle over speed. They must find a way to add speed and provide greater resources of research on individual stories, while maintaining their reputation for accurate journalism. I believe that they will accomplish this but, as of right now, most of the executives at any of the large media companies would tell you that they are certainly competing with "new media.

" Thanks for a great question, enjoyed answering it! James Shepherd.

I think you need to separate competition between the mediums (online vs. print or online vs. television) and competition between traditional media companies (NYT, WSJ, etc. ) and so-called new media companies and/or bloggers. In regard to competition between mediums, I do think that there is a significant shift that is already taking place away from print and to online. People are getting less of their information from print newspapers and more from online news sites (even if it is the same originating source - like the New York Times and NYT.

Com). I think this trend will continue and increase in speed as new devices provide easier and faster ways to get at information than old media. Regarding the online vs. television point, I just don't see online competing in anything other than a niche market for a while.

I think that DVRs provide the vast majority of convenience that most people need at the moment. Again, there is a small group of people who want to get all their programming online, but most aren't willing to go through all the hoops to be completely online with television.In regard to video, I think you'll see a bit of a blurring of the lines - people will get most of their content from cable or satellite providers, but the integration to youtube or Hulu or streaming Netflix will become more transparent and increase in frequency. Now to the competition among the companies themselves - I think you are seeing an increase in the quality of bloggers and the information they are producing, but on the whole, I think that the quality is still below what you get at an institution like the New York Times.

Personally, I don't see the great names in journalism (WSJ, NYT, etc.) going away - especially if they can find a way to leverage their brands effectively to be known as "go-to", reliable sources of information. If they do it right, I think they can keep most of the competition on the fringes and at least protect the core of their businesses in news information.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.