Demise of the golden age of newspapers?

It seems to be true that there have been transition from provider business to consumer business in news industry. One of the reasons for the change is the surplus of information and technological development, which allows audiences to have an easier and complimentary access to news contents. One of the two opposite directions that the impacts of the changing media landscape on news are pulling in is the demise of the traditional news media.

I am very interested in an OECD paper - The Evolution of the News and Internet. According to it, some observers argue that “the golden age of newspapers and journalism when quality and reliability were arguably higher is now sadly gone.” That is, the growing financial pressures and the emergence of “free news” put this golden age increasingly at stake. In addition, novel forms of news creation and distribution and especially Internet-based offerings do not yet constitute a viable alternative to more traditional ones. This is because no online business model has been elaborated which would sustain expensive news coverage. The Internet may be a good platform for a cacophony of voices but the latter leaves the reader in doubt about the accuracy and the interpretation of the information. In other words, the online news ecosystem offers a profusion of opinion, but there is little reporting, and little is subject to any rigorous fact-checking or editorial scrutiny. As a result, most online news players and portals such as Google and Yahoo simply relay information from traditional news organizations: original news material without gathering independent news themselves or adding a lot of value. Is this really the alternative models in sight that will save both the news companies and journalism? In fact.., I have no idea. However, it seems to be quite plain that “the current online news ecosystem ends a period in which news monopolies controlled the news.”