The musician David Byrne has written a great two part series in which is discusses the end of newspapers, and for a musician, it’s a shame he’s not testifing in front of congress about the decline of “investigative journalism” in this country, because he has a better grasp of the issue then even some politicians like John Kerry. From his article:

“We’ve seen way too many articles recently about newspapers in financial trouble: closing bureaus, cutting back on commissioned pieces that require in-depth reporting, and erecting paywalls for their online editions in an attempt to reverse the exodus of subscribers expecting to get all their news for free.

While the physical print model of news journals might disappear relatively soon — which will instantly eliminate any such news source from the 1/5 of Americans who rarely use or have access to the Internet, and don’t use smart phones — it doesn’t mean that what they do also needs to end. As the future of these institutions seems increasingly in peril, I recently began to notice some of the incredibly important things they do and have done.”

Read Part I Here
Part II is here…