A couple of weeks ago I was in Malta at an international conference of technology journalists. Along with other Americans, CNET Executive Editor Tom Merritt and I participated on a panel at the event where we talked about the future of the news business in the age of blogging.

 

The event was a bit of a culture clash between the Americans and the mostly European and Asian journalists in the audience. To a person, the Americans were pessimistic about the future of print and at least somewhat optimistic about blogging and online journalism.

...

.

But the news business is not about print, it's about information. It doesn't really matter whether you read the news on paper, on a computer screen, on a mobile phone, on a Kindle, or on an as-yet unavailable technology. However the news is consumed, what's important is that there remains a cadre of talented, honest, and enterprising journalists to dig up facts, dispel myths, and keep powerful people in check.

What's sad about the current state of the newspaper industry is that there are now fewer people to do this important work. Some say that's OK because the bloggers will pick up the slack. But a lone wolf opining on a blog

....

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10229323-238.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20