Signs of the times: The fading newspaper

I still get a newspaper delivered each day in a bright green Boston Globe tube at the end of my driveway. The day just doesn't seem right without a look at the sports section, the front page, the editorial page, and even a couple of other sections.

But newspaper circulation is in decline everywhere in the U.S. with the rise of the Internet as a news medium and as a better way for advertisers to deliver returns on their investments. A recent blog post on BNET paints an even darker picture for the newspaper industry. I alluded to this last month after the Los Angeles Times fired its editor after he refused to follow management orders and cut $4 million from the newsroom budget.

The writer of the BNET post, David Weir, also mentions how industry veterans are anxious about what they should do with their skills. To me, it's quite simple: Go web, or take your writing and editing skills into another arena. Unless you embrace the web as the primary news medium of the future, take an inventory of your skills and start working on your resume.

And if you fear making that move over to the electronic side, take it from me: It's worth the switch!

I welcome any feedback or requests for career advice from any journalists, no matter where you are in your career.