What is journalism?

“And newspapers have to take an even more frightening step: They need to start driving readers from print to online. Yes, that means driving readers from a higher-margin product, print, to a lower-margin product, online —” Jeff Jarvis

You forget to mention the other important aspect of online publishing: the cost can be zero compared to the paper ones.
And this small detail has a dramatic effect on journalism, or at least could.
There are plenty of people in journalism who have neither got what they like nor quite grown to like what they get.
They write pieces they do not much enjoy writing, for papers they totally despise.
And the sad process ends by ruining their style and disintegrating their personality, two developments which in a writer couldn’t be separated, since his personality and style must progress together.

The hired journalist ought to realize that he is partly in the entertainment business and partly in the advertising business, advertising either goods or a cause, or a government.
He just has to make up his mind whom he wants to entertain and what he wants to advertise.
The hypocrisy of the Press begins only when newspapers pretend to be "impartial" or "servants of the public".
And this only becomes dangerous as well as laughable when the public is fool enough to believe it.

What could be more welcome than a space in a newspaper where journalists can be “impartial” or “servants of the public” or just be able to write what they want?
What could be more promising than being able to build a space where to write and be one’s own?