• Christian Science Monitor, Thursday, May 4, 2006 1:30 PM

John Hughes, former editor of the Christian Science Monitor and past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, would, naturally, be an unapologetic flag-waver for the newspaper industry.  He explains why in a Monitor column titled "In the Age of the Internet, Newspapers Are Still Big Business."  Hughes' main point, well-taken, is thatnewspapers still retain the large reporting staffs that do most of the heavy lifting in the news business.  Without these teams, the Internet (not to mention television and magazines) would be hard-pressed to deliver valuable news content.  Hughes:  "While technology may change methods of delivery... there is no content to deliver without a news organization to gather and edit it.... Internet-only sites like Slate and Salon that have tried to produce original content have struggled financially... while those thriving financially rely almost entirely on the work of others. Newspapers are the country's biggest news-gathering organizations in most towns and the Internet's primary suppliers."

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