The news about News

"TV, radio and newspapers are gradually becoming obsolete. They are being swept away by the Internet. The Internet is progressively transforming them into “obsolete media”.
The Internet is a supermedia that tends to absorb and transform every other form of communication. This has been said for years, and though it is true, the old media continue to exist, even though they are living with ever greater difficulties."

They will exists as long as the people who consume them will exist.
From 100% of a few years ago we have come to 50, also 25% (depending on the region, on the culture, on the broadband diffusion).
One day they will be 5% and not enought to let them survive.

"However it seems that the point of no return, when the Internet will become central to information, is quite close. There are many indicators which support this view. Newspapers and TV News programmes are being overtaken by News on the Internet, and increasingly from individual sources by means of Blogs.
The speed of publication and of access is forcing the traditional media to go online, and this is not happening without transforming the way that information is handled."

What's good and what's bad?

"New rules exist on the Internet. To stay on line and to make a profit they have to be followed: disintermediation, transparency and trust. The costs of publication and of transformation of the contents, whether its images, audio or text, are extremely reduced on the Internet, and thus can be paid by anyone. Journalists no longer need to have the old media as an intermediary. They can do this on their own. Transparency is obligatory. On the Internet you can’t lie. An article with incorrect data is immediately challengeable. Whoever writes it loses credibility as well as the
body that publishes it. Lying or even merely being imprecise on the internet, means losing readers. Trust is tied in with the person, the individual journalist, more than to a specific editorial brand.
Trustworthiness on the Internet, is of enormously important economic value and is expressed in the number of links, to a site or to a blog. The greater the number of links, the greater the trustworthiness. This derives from the fact that if an item is
considered to be important, or an opinion relevant, it’s likely to be cited and its address shown in a web site or in a blog.
Unless there are new strategies or business models, in a time frame of between 5 and 10 years, the “old media”, will have no audience (and thus no profits) and given the progressive move of information to the Internet, they are destined to disappear."

On one thing I disagree: On the Internet YOU CAN LIE. Just as on every other media.
Remember we are not talking of content: we are talking of new means to spread it.
Written on a real paper or on a virtual paper, behind them (the news or data) there is ALWAYS a MAN, and men NEVER change.