In a June 28, 2007 article on the PBS Media Shift website, Mark Glaser shares 10 reasons why he feels there's a bright future for journalism, despite the bad news we've heard recently regarding media ownership, declining readership and viewership, and job losses.

Glaser writes:

There’s been a lot of debate lately about the future of newspapers, the future of TV, the future of radio — the future of journalism itself — in the face of drastic change brought by technology and the Internet. I’ve asked MediaShift readers whether they thought journalism’s metaphorical cup was half empty or half full and most people saw a pretty bright future.

As you might imagine, I share their enthusiasm for the future, and wouldn’t be writing this blog if I didn’t believe we will end up in a better place. But I’m also a hardened realist and natural skeptic, and I know there are painful months and years ahead for the (dwindling number of) people working in traditional media. Not everything new and shiny will be good for us, and there are plenty of ethical and technological pitfalls ahead.

But rather than dwell on the negative, rail against change, or damn the upstarts at Google and Craigslist, I’d like to take a walk on the sunny side of life in new media, consider the positive aspects of all that is happening, and how we could end up in a renaissance era for journalism. While I do believe large media companies will have the most difficult time adapting to the changes, they can learn a lot from the successful business models of smaller sites such as TMZ or The Smoking Gun (both owned by media companies).

10 Reasons There's a Bright Future for Journalism

1. Greater access to more journalism worldwide - one can go to a news source from the corner of the world where news is happening for a local angle.

2. Aggregation and personalization - news consumers can program their media experiences, rather than having them programmed by the information providers.

3. Digital delivery = more ways to reach people - there are fewer constraints on how people receive information.

4. More fact-checkers than ever before - bloggers and free-thinkers online provide a new and important check and balance to reporting.

5. Collaborative investigations between pro and amateur journalists - journalists can pull from the expertise and efforts of amateur journalists and fact-finders to help with investigations big and small.

6. More voices are part of the news conversation - journalism is less insular when outside voices of bloggers and online journalists are part of the conversation about the news agenda.

7. Greater transparency and more personal tone - blogging and the creation of more opportunities to discuss the process of journalism outside of news stories leads to greater transparency and a more personal connection with audiences

8. Growing ad revenues online - online ad revenue forecasts predict double-digit increases in the next five years that should help companies stay solvent and may help lessen media concentration

9. Online shift from print could help environment - fewer trees consumed for news print

10. Stories never end - online stories live longer thanks to flexible formats that allow them to be constantly updated

Glaser invited his readers to add more reasons the future is bright for journalism, and several contributed some good ideas.

Click here for Glaser's article in its entirety on the Media Shift website.