One of our fellow DKOS members recently asked in a diary "where are all the journalists". I have a point of view; others may or may not agree. I worked in the MSM for one of the giants about 30 years ago and it was lots of fun. We owned big city newspapers, broadcast and cable TV, books and magazines. Newspapers and broadcast television were very profitable, with some properties exceeding 50% pre-tax margins. High profitability allowed building great editorial content and most importantly editorial freedom. Advertisers have little influence when no single one can impact your profitability. The Internet killed the big city, home delivered, daily newspaper. Some still survive a shadow of their former selves, and barely making ends meet. Hundreds of channels of cable have made even major market network affiliated stations less of an advertiser necessity.
In my view the golden age of journalism was from 1950-1990. It existed almost exclusively in the US. It was supported by big city mainstream newspapers and the three major broadcast television networks. Those days are gone and they aren't returning. No newspaper today is profitable enough to support the kind of classic, unbiased reporting that we witnessed in the golden age. Today the media is primarily partisan, much like Europe has always been. Cable and the Internet have been able to segment the public into small demographic slices and appeal to people who share their ideological views. In the future more news will be covered by citizen reporters working unpaid and unedited. Journalism will be like acting where a few people will make a very good living and most will need a day job to pay the rent. The MSM is struggling to stay afloat and will not spend the resources doing the kind of investigative reporting on subjects we care about. In addition advertisers now do have substantial influence on editorial content, as do senior corporate executives. Progressive reporting will be up to us.