Death of Newspapers = Death of Journalism?

There has been a lot of talk over the future of the newspaper. Some are already mourning the death of having ink stained hands with their 7 a.m coffee, but are they being too presumptuous?

Just like the news industry its self, I'm torn. Even though I fairly young, I must admit that I have a certain nostalgia attached to the printed newspaper. There is a certain zen that can only be found in the layout of a physical paper.

But....

An online paper is just so easy! I can't afford to get The New York Times, the WaPo, the Wall Street Journal, and the 3 British newspapers shipped to my house on a daily basis. Yeah, the online layout seems a little callous but it works.

The internet also works because it gets the stories to the people and isn't that what is ultimately journalism about? The current position that newspapers are in doesn't necessarily mean that journalism is going to disappear. For democratic reasons, it's impossible not to have the news. The U.S. would either fall to shambles if that happened [Cynic's Note: Like it isn't already?] or revert to a backwards third world country.

As a journalism major, I won't try to be optimistic about the job market in this field. Of course the slow demise of the printed paper is taking effecting who's hired and who isn't but I'm not as demoralized as I should be. I say this, not because I'm donning rose coloured glasses, but because good writing will never go out style.