On New Year’s Day 2010, I will for the first time in 25 years not be employed by a newspaper publisher.
Marc Reeves, outgoing editor of the Birmingham Post, describes his reasons for not only leaving the paper, but leaving the newspaper industry altogether.
(…) I’ve decided to get out, not because I think there’s no future in newspapers, but because I believe that they and and a whole new generation of media brands and services are more sustainable if they’re unencumbered by the legacy and costly infrastructure of the big media owners.
Reeves does think there could be a reversal in fortunes for some large regional groups, but adds:
There may even be newspapers that, having taken radical steps to meet the challenge, will improve their circulation performance (note performance – not sales). The trick for the big companies is to keep all these plates spinning long enough to reach the moment when revenue from their digital operations is sufficient to underpin the whole business.
Also worth a read is departing Birmingham Post journalist Jo Ind’s farewell blog post: http://blogs.birminghampost.net/lifestyle/2009/12/bye-bye-birmingham-post.html