Lines are blurring in strange new world of journalism

[Commentary] The struggle to find a way to pay for good journalism is taking some troubling turns. Journalism creates influence for those who produce it, and that influence can be monetized. The traditional way of turning influence into money is through advertising, but that source is failing as the Internet finds more efficient ways to bring buyers and sellers together. Marketing the influence without corrupting the news product has always been a concern. The safeguard, especially for newspapers, has been to keep a wall between the news and advertising departments. In my own newspaper career, I saw it violated just often enough to remind me that the wall was needed. The new forms of journalism will require new kinds of safeguards. Without clear standards, journalism can't be trusted. If it can't be trusted, it won't be influential. If there is no influence, there is nothing to monetize.

[Philip Meyer, professor emeritus in the journalism school at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is the author of The Vanishing Newspaper]