What will become of news

A report on the CBS News website asks:

Newspapers As We Know Them May Cease To Exist ... But What Will Become Of The News Itself?

And it concludes:

Fusing print, video and the Web is drastically changing what reporters do - and must do.

"What that means to me is not only do you have to know how to report and write, you have to be a wire service reporter, and blog, and you have to know how to use a video camera, you have to know how to appear before a TV camera, be on the radio," said Inquirer editor Bill Marimow. "You really have to be a maestro of the media."

And that, says 30-year Inquirer veteran Gail Shister, comes with a cost, but one that has to be paid.

"I think the big downside of speed is that a lot of times, you don't get the quality control," Shister said. "You don't get enough editing. And you don't get the extra phone call to check something."

And while Shister mourns the potential loss of the printed page, she's a realist:

"I think there's no question that we're losing something, but it's generational," she said. "People under 50 never got into the ritual to start with. They don't know what they're missing because they've never had it. And more importantly, they don't care. I still get excited when I pick up a new paper and open it for the first time."