News Reporting in the Age of Blogging and Internet

Smoky Mountain News did a story a while back about blogging in western North Carolina. Of course this blog wasn't in existence at the time. Editor Scott McLeod urged journalists and publications to embrace the new media rather than fear it.
While what's going on with the Citizen-Times and other newspapers is partly indicative of a turbulent economy, it's also partly because of the expansion of new media, particularly blogging, and quite frankly it's a viable competitor with newspapers.
I've been publishing Cherokee Times in print since June. We had to stop when the economy bottomed out in September, and we were backed into a corner. While I know there still is a market for a printed product, that market is aging. I honestly believe that printed newspapers will go the way of the do do in 25 years. Advertisers see the trend, so they've cut back on print ads.
I've decided to embrace the technology. We have our "newspaper" edition online updated regularly. It's much cheaper. It's easier, and we can get the news out faster and to a much larger audience. Plus I like the idea of being able to inform tribal members residing away from Cherokee, who are starved for honest information about tribal government. While our tribal government-funded competition is still printing papers, they're woefully behind the times. They're reaching a fraction of the audience we are. While they may have improved the look of the paper, they still have no website, and we're uncensored.
While the media may change in format when it comes to written journalism, the need for objective reporting, for professional ethics and the principles that earn credibility haven't changed, and it won't change. The profession is still an important part of democracy. The printed product may become extinct at one point, but the profession must remain and tailoring the profession to the new media is what must take place if journalism as we know it is to survive.