By: Aileen Katcher, APR, Fellow PRSA

The announcement this week that Gannett will begin charging for online content for all of its publications except USA Today is part of a growing trend to charge for news content.  The question is, how will this affect the local newspaper market?

We have already seen a shift in news consuming habits of the younger generation (under 40) to seek news from national sources rather than local sources.  Even if they do occasionally read a local outlet online, will they do so if they have to pay for it?  While those of us in my generation are used to paying for newspaper and magazine subscriptions, those who grew up in the computer era are not.

What about TV and radio sites?  Will they start charging or is the revenue generated by the on air and web ads sufficient to keep them in the black?  And if they do charge, will people pay or just wait to hear or see the news broadcast on radio or TV?

What are your thoughts about this?  Will you pay to read the Tennessean online?

By: Melinda Dale

Eight short years ago, a sophomore at Harvard University launched an online network that would eventually make him the ninth most powerful person on the planet (according to Forbes magazine). As you know, that sophomore was Mark Zuckerberg and the network was Facebook.

This week’s news headlines were full of reports and opinions about Facebook’s move to file for an IPO, which could set its worth at a staggering $100 billion. You might have to sift through dozens of these articles to begin to comprehend the impact this move will have on the direction of the company and the Internet as a whole. But, one article in particular brought to light a monumental fact about the power of this social network.

In the TIME Business article, Why Facebook’s IPO Matters, Sam Gustin highlights recent events that had a global impact because of Facebook and other social media tools:

• Protests that swept across the Middle East, collapsing governments in power for decades
• Activists organizing Occupy Wall Street movements across the country, ultimately shaping a key issue for the 2012 presidential election
• Opposition against SOPA and PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act), causing both the House and the Senate to postpone votes on the bills indefinitely

And just this week, the backlash caused by Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision to pull funding for Planned Parenthood. The announcement was made on Tuesday, and within three days almost 30,000 comments were made on posts on Komen’s Facebook Wall about the decision. Long-time supporters from across the country took to social media to either praise or condemn the organization, threatening to pull their own financial support. This morning Komen reversed its decision.

It’s hard to argue against the power of a Facebook post. In just eight years this tool, and the doors it opened for many other social media platforms, has fundamentally changed the way we communicate, and the way we live.

Now we must ask ourselves…what do the next eight years hold?

*Photo: Protests in Egypt, February 2011. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)