Michael Hiltzik\u2019s Los Angeles Times column<\/a>, \u201cSupply of news is dwindling amid the digital media transformation,\u201d debunks the sense that we\u2019re moving in a golden age of journalism. Instead, w He quotes George Packer in the New Yorker:<\/p>\n “What the Web has never figured out<\/a> is how to pay for reporting, which, with the collapse of print newspapers, is in desperately short supply, and without which even the most prolific commenters will someday run out of things to say.”<\/i><\/p>\n As for commentary \u2013 which, of course, we need as well, here\u2019s Hiltzik:<\/p>\n One suspects that the real reason that new online journalism sites often focus on commentary, analysis and context isn’t to feed unfulfilled demand, but because the overhead is low. You can comment<\/i>ate from anywhere, including your bedroom or your mother’s attic. Breaking a news story, however, often means buying a plane ticket, checking into a hotel, and deep-ending into a single subject for weeks or months at a time.<\/i><\/p>\n News reporting is often threatening to someone, which creates another expense: lawyers.<\/i><\/p>\n Are there ways to pursue serious journalism in this environment? Of course — I’ll point to the site I often contribute to, Salon, or to ArtsJournal. But many challenges remain. (I’ll point out that I am, for now, optimistic re. Greenwald’s forthcoming investigative site.) So far arts journalism has been hit very hard, and the surge of digital media has not brought it back. Let’s hope some of the new initiatives bear fruit.<\/p>\n A related issue, which cuts into all kinds of things that matter, from newspaper subscriptions to book purchases to museum tickets, is the hollowing out of the middle class. This has long been a concern on the political left, but it\u2019s gotten so bad that business owners are starting to complain about it. After all, consumer spending makes up about 70 percent of the economy \u2013 when the middle-class shrinks, they spend less money, and everyone feels it.<\/p>\n![\"New_York_Times_newsroom_1942-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/New_York_Times_newsroom_1942-1.jpg\")
<\/a>e\u2019re getting more analysis and commentary than ever, but much less reporting.<\/p>\n