Athens Reporter Feels Stress, Not Worried

Adam Thompson, a reporter for the Athens Banner-Herald, spoke at the University of Georgia Monday about his optimism for news writing despite staff and salary cutbacks across the industry.
Thompson said that while cuts have increased work for him and fellow reporters at the Banner-Herald the staff has embraced these new challenges. Along with obstacles the changing face of the media offers new possibilities.
“Online [content] brings a lot of great tools,” Thompson said referring to the ability to link to relevant materials from a news story. But despite these new advantages he did admit that the changing face of newspapers has its fair share of trade-offs.
“It’s just not possible to do the same job with less resources and people,” he said. Thompson himself recently picked up coverage Madison County, which is an example of smaller staffs forced to cover more news. But even with these difficulties, Thompson reiterated the importance of news.
When asked by a student what advice he would offer to aspiring journalists he was very optimistic about a future in newspapers. “There’s always going to be a place for [journalism],” he said. “The need for what newspapers do will still exist whether or not the New York Times comes to your door every day in Athens.”