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When "freedom" becomes real, it threatens to blow away its own staunchest advocates. Who needs reporters when young pub-goers were the first to post information on and photos of the Santika fire? Part-time bloggers can now scoop big media outlets for fun, and the best political analyses or commentaries are coming more and more from nameless posters on unsung web-boards.

It's our turn to be the victim of mass production. We used to tell ourselves that, "No, we are not factory workers", but the truth is, we are. Flat-screen LCD TVs were an amazing work of exclusive art until those with lesser means got the idea of how it's done and flooded the market with similar but cheaper goods. Bloggers, copy-and-paste posters and countless ghost Websites are seeing to it that journalists, and even flamboyant publishers, are in fact among the last remaining overpaid unskilled workers.

We journalists and publishers share sins. With newspaper companies around the globe dropping like flies on a daily basis, the ones who barely survive have tried to hang on to a business model that simply doesn't work anymore. It's not hard to understand why, because everyone naturally wants to utilise the expensive printing machines and the tonnes and tonnes of pre-ordered newsprint, not to mention investment in distribution and all related manpower.

The need to maximise business investments loomed behind publishers' mysterious claims that advertising money had yet to make an exodus to the Web. This is where the industry failed. The executives failed to make a courageous, collective decision to go online and leave the advertisers with no choice but to follow them. The current crisis, which for certain will grow into a tsumani for the media industry this year, has much to do with publishers' virtual conspiracy to delay the inevitable.

Reporters, meanwhile, have been constantly warned. Some listen, others do not, and many are simply confused. What should we do to survive? Should we learn soundbites and video editing? Are video clips, already inundating the Web, the real answer, or will they too become a cheap commodity after three years? Where will the payments come from? Last but not least, is this the end of newspaper journalism?

Like the publishers, reporters are reluctant to leave the comfort zone and thus only prolong the inevitable themselves. The latter's ignorance has partly to do with the tradition of protecting journalists from the commercial side of the industry. It was a good ethic in normal times but losing touch with reality on rainy days will only aggravate problems and misunderstanding. Whereas reporters have been equipped to figure out everything, few ever fathom why their editors suddenly reject proposed coverage of overseas concerts or summit meetings.

If there is any consolation, it's happening to everyone, from shophouse tabloid offices to the most prestigious newsrooms. The speed with which newspaper firms are folding around the world has gone beyond causing panic, and widespread resignation seems to be the order of the day. Google "death of newspapers" and it shows 16 million entries.

Unlike the publishers, reporters do not own the printing houses or have to worry about expensive stockpiles of newsprint. Moreover, journalists have what the publishers do not have without them - the content. From now on, we will see more and more reporters worldwide leaving the comfort zone of good pay and relatively comfortable work schedules and take a leap of faith in the new era. Web or e-publishing is incredibly cheap, meaning a compact team of 30-40 dedicated journalists aided by a couple of effective advertisement sellers can be their own bosses in a promising business.

That might just be the order of the new age. On some Web-boards, reporters are encouraging one another to see opportunities in the crisis. Those standing to lose their jobs are being advised to grab the severance pay and try to join together to start anew. This could be the rebirth, the optimists say. How good is it if "newsmen" can deliver news to consumers the way it's supposed to be - cheaply and instantly and with all the time in the world to concentrate on what really matters - the information and how they think of it?