Terribly true view

I recently read Vincent Laforet's state of the industry piece on SportsShooter. Every PJ (particularly students) should read, "The Cloud is Falling." It's depressing. It's motivating. It's terribly true.

While his piece addresses the challenges (and potential demise) of different photography fields, it doesn't address the reason many of us are in this biz: we want to help people.

We must provide food, shelter and clothes for our families. This is absolute. However, there's a more important issue below the bottom line. I'm nowhere near as concerned about the lack of income as I am about the loss of journalism.

I understand the world has changed, but it isn't changing in a positive direction.

As the industry retracts each day, less professionals are available to find and report facts of importance to democracy's maintenance. Each day, people aren't being helped because individual journalists and PJs can't afford to follow these stories independently.

I'm not sure which is more depressing: 1) The loss of journalism or 2) Reader apathy about what's happening. After all, we work for the readers. What should we do when they don't care?

We (all journalists) should work harder and deliver what readers need.

Enough for now,