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By Jim Johnson
PoHo contributor and founder of The State of Sunshine blog

Jack Shafer has an excellent piece on Slate.com about the real impact Americans will see when newspapers across the country stop.

His article, Life After Newspapers: Learning from the 1962-63 New York newspaper strike, includes good insight:

No conversation about newspapers’ dismal present is complete without some anguished mention of how democracy will go off the rails unless the press is there to set it straight … But even though the 1962-63 strike upended New York, neither the dozen newspaper accounts I’ve read about the strike nor the histories or memoirs from the era that I’ve pulled down from my shelf make it sound as though democracy and governance disappeared when the New York dailies’ lights went out.

Instead, journalists and publishers improvised, and readers, parched for news, features, entertainment, and advertising, experimented with finding new sources.

This time, however, the new sources are not the solution they are actually the problem.

Jeff Jarvis, author of BuzzMachine, has a saying: “If the news is that important, it will find me.” To some extent I agree.

Journalism, and the larger news world, will not disappear. But it will change. I will get my news from a number of places — each with a particular specialty.

The future of a news organization, be it mainstream (Tampa Tribune, St. Petersburg Times, or WTSP Channel 10) or an alternative media (Creative Loafing), will be the same. Find a niche and specialize. Stop trying to cast a wide net by providing news that is a mile wide and an inch deep… be THE source for a subject or very narrow range of related subjects, and readers will be there in droves. Being just like every other organization, reporting everything to everyone, is a losing proposition.

News organizations are scared. Darn scared. The revolution is coming and only a few will survive.

The count goes on …

• NBC News has Obama taking the lead.
• Raw Story has Hill up by 80 delegates, and McCain running away with it.
• ABC has Huckabee surging as Romney fades.
• AP has the democratic race as a split decision.
• MSNBC’s first thoughts: This is going to get nasty.
• Slate is desperately trying to figure out who won.
• Time Magazine has five lessons from Super Tuesday.
  
• Need a copy of the key to ALL Diebold voting machines? Good news: They posted a picture of it on their website.

In other news:

• Tornadoes killed at least 48 people across the south last night.
• The writers strike will continue — at least through this weekend.
• Heath Ledger’s autopsy is in. Cause of death: oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine.
• Is Al-Qaeda about to strike?
• Apple updates the iPhone: Let the bitchin’ commence …

(Photo by Idcross.)