January 4, 2006 - The first "big story" of 2006 is the mining accident in West Virginia in which 12 of 13 miners trapped died. (the survivor is listed as critical as of this writing). What makes this story more tragic is that I, as many other people did, found out after reading in my local paper that 12 were alive. Apparently, my local paper was not alone. On the news report I watched, they showed the headline from the NY Post.

The irony here is that this incident could possibly be remembered in the future as not one of tragedy for 12 families but as the real beginning of the end as newspapers as a source of reliable information; not necessarily the news organizations themselves, but rather the physical paper. In a rush to beat the deadlines, deadlines mandated by physical constraints, the papers went to press with what they, and many others, thought was true. This time there is no doubt that what people read about in the paper was really incorrect. Newspapers have been losing circulation for some time and something like this really proves why - what you get in the newspaper may have been news five hours ago when it was printed but it is no longer news when you read it. It has either been seen before by the reader or it has changed. In this case it's a "feel good" story changing drastically for the worse. It may not be 100% fair to blame the papers but the papers must understand that a lot has changed since "Dewey Defeats Truman." They must look at this example as a wake-up call, just as many of us who turned on the news or decided to go on the Web after reading the morning paper received a shocking wake-up call.

As a result, newspapers may need to prove themselves not as main means of information but rather supplement what's already known and pad it with commentary, analysis, and perspective. This may have already begun as some major papers already seem to be more aligned to certain political views than they had in the past. This may result in a smaller but more loyal paid circulation or it may not. Newspapers really are at a crossroads here and only time will tell what will happen.