Is it any wonder?
Consider this:
A coworker of mine went online yesterday to see if there was any news pertaining to our workplace, the Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC; http://www.eirc.org/). It just so happened that I had a fit of insomnia a few hours prior to her search, so I wrote the post 21st Century Curriculum and Instruction in the very early hours of Sunday morning. Since the blog made a casual reference about EIRC, sure enough, it showed up as a recent news article pertainning to the center.
Think of how tiny and insignificant the blog was. At the time it was there for the purpose of informing eight readers. It wasn't even a ripple in the ocean of cyberspace blogs...but still, it was there, custom-tailored to meet the needs of a coworker who didn't even know the blog existed.
There is a whole new generation that gets it: why carry around a bulky paper with articles of hit-or-miss relevance when the specific news that you are looking for is a mouse click away? Now add to that the recent trend of blurring the line between readers and reporters, through wikis and blogs.
Newspapers will have to follow the readers into cyberspace to maintain readership, keep advertisers and...well...survive. You have to wonder if that is even enough. There is a significant shift going on: the reader, not the newspaper industry, determines what is newsworthy.
There's something to be learned here as future school leaders, too. Your youngest teachers get their news differently; so, because they access information differently, they learn differently and, if unhampered, I suppose they will teach differently. Heaven help the fool who hands them boxes of chalk and lesson plan notebooks on day one, expecting business as usual.
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