By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

I'M only a nipper when it comes to having a career in journalism. My first paid day in work as a full-time newspaper reporter was only in August 1997 - many of the more experienced people I work alongside on the Weekly News were probably counting their carriage clocks by then!

But when I look back on how life on the Weekly News has changed in just 10 years, it astonishes me.

When I began, the Weekly News had two branch offices - one in Llandudno, near the railway station, and one in Colwyn Bay, on the main road. Now it just has the one office at the Llandudno Junction headquarters, rising overheads bringing the axe to bear on the trusty satellites.

One of the biggest changes is the explosion of technology in the newsroom. In 1997 there were no such things as e-mails, the internet or mobile phones. Now I wonder how we ever got by without them.

Back then we used to get press releases by fax - how many rainforests were sacrificed so that Environment Agency Wales could keep us informed of its latest news? Now, of course, we're burning up the o-zone by having our computers switched on all the time, but at least the rainforests are safe. Sorry, what's that you say about palm oil and illegal timber...?

In The Age of the E-mail everything is instant (well almost, unless you're the latest victim of a docile server) and instantly disposable. Press releases come and go just as fast as junk mail and unsolicited adverts for Viagra and overseas lottery wins.

Journalism is so much easier in 2007 because of the advent of the world wide interweb, but the fact is the Weekly News only got an internet friendly PC in about 2001, and every single member of staff had to share one inbox for a fair while after that until we got one each. Now it's difficult to see how we got newspapers out on time!

But with the internet comes a cost. Reporters may be able to research a topic at the click of a mouse (all hail the mighty Google, patron saint of life, the universe and everything), but now that most of the world is on the web, that's where people look for their news. There is a real and depressing fear that newspapers will be a thing of the past before very long, rather like the newsroom typewriter and the Microfilm machine.

And so journalism has had to adapt, and go digital. News as it happens, when you want it, at the click of a button, rather than having to traipse to the corner shop and shell out 65p.
And it's a shame, because newspapers are beautiful things. A little decadent perhaps, certainly unwieldy compared to a web browser, but they have helped chronicle our modern history every step of the way like no other form of media.

And it will be a shame to see online news agencies chronicling - even contributing to - the demise of the printed news report. Online journalism is the clear way ahead, but give me a good, reliable local newspaper any day of the week - preferably one that leaves my hands covered in smudgy ink.

I may be a nipper, but I'm still old-fashioned like that.

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