I still have a graphical advert on my site for the Wall Street Journal online, and this very article is rather an advertorial about why you should subscribe to a publication that has two million readers — a million of them online — but I can’t help but ponder whether or not traditional media is still relevant in the Internet age. I mean, why pay to subscribe to a newspaper when you can just check Google News or subscribe to twenty or thirty of the top business and media blogs?
The answer is obvious if you spend a few minutes reading the WSJ and comparing it to other news sources: for breaking news, social media totally rocks. Twitter lets me know about things sometimes hours before mainstream media picks up on the story, but once it has broken, once there is important and often complicated news to report, in my experience it’s up to professional journalists to dig up all the facts, gain access to interview the key players, and create a context and backstory that helps me understand the full issue, not just the knee-jerk punditry of the social media world.
In fact, if I may make a sweeping generalization, most online news seems to be focused almost exclusively on the “what” of the story, without ever digging into “why” or “who”. Makes for a soundbite world that is entertaining, but ultimately leaves us in the dark.
So if you are interested in solid, professional, Pulitzer-prize winning journalism, I suggest you give the Wall Street Journal a shot. An online subscription is $1.99/week. That’s, what, 33% of a tall latte?
Here’s a link to sign up for your trial subscription: Sign up for the WSJ at a discount.