Stephan Russ-Mohl, professor of journalism at the University of Lugano and visiting scholar to Stanford University and the University of Oregon, takes a close look at the downturn of American journalism. In Creative Destruction (or Kreative Zerstörung), he describes and analyzes innovations bubbling up in the news industry due to structural changes. He also examines the various strategies newspaper publishers employ in response to the economic crisis and the Internet age. The book’s title is a nod to economist Joseph A. Schumpeter, as it fuses the analytical tools of economics with communication sciences.

As discussed in the book, the final days of the U.S. newspaper industry seem to have arrived. Circulations are dropping, advertising revenues are shrinking, and the classified business is heading for the Internet at a rapid pace.

Publishing houses, once as profitable as Las Vegas casinos, are laden with debt, some of them already insolvent and many more close to bankruptcy. Even the great icon of U.S. journalism, the New York Times, endures speculation about its demise. And it’s not only media companies who are endangered. The kind of high-quality journalism which can only be provided by large newsrooms is also in jeopardy. The “forth estate,” once providing life blood to democracies, might perish in the U.S. as its “home” has always been on paper rather than television or radio broadcasts.

Stephan Russ-Mohl, Kreative Zerstörung, Niedergang und Neuerfindung des Journalismus in den USA, Konstanz: UVK 2009 Codice

ISBN: 978-3-86764-077-