It is seldom that I find myself posting on an opinion piece from any publication but this particular one from the Washington Post caught my attention and read in its entirety, offers a view of newspaper journalism which I found quite interesting.

Newspaper journalism is different these days: Suddenly everyone is obsessed with eyeballs, page views, “stickiness,” “click-through rates,” and so on. No one shouts “Stop the presses!” anymore, but they do whimper “Why aren’t I on the home page?” The noble product that we manufacture and distribute throughout the metropolis — the physical thing so carefully designed, folded and bagged — is now generally referred to in our business as the “dead-tree edition.” It gets little respect.

And indeed, so often the print version of the news is Old on Arrival. (By the time Karl Rove’s resignation made the front page last Tuesday, the only people who didn’t already know about it were the ones who didn’t care anyway.) The motto in the corner should be What Happened Yesterday or Maybe the Day Before.

Our future is on the Web. This is the mantra in newsrooms. And the Web lets us discover how many readers each article attracts. The data can be scrutinized in real time, moment to moment. Inevitably, this is going to change the way we do business — excuse me, I mean the way we do journalism.

Interesting isn’t it, how the author feels the future of news delivery is on the web. I for one agree and believe we will continue to see actual subscriptions for major publications decline. With the 24/7 news cycle on cable television, talk radio, and the many on line avenues available for readers to secure their information, many are no longer finding the need for that paper to be delivered to their doorstep.

If you have a few minutes on a lazy Sunday morning, this is a read you might enjoy.