The great End of Newspapers debate is all around me again (still?). Everybody has presumably already seen ([Clay Shirky’s latest piece](http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/) (in brief: newspapers are doomed. Nobody knows what replaces them. That’s what revolutions are like – live with it). I was more interested in the angle brought out by Nick Clayton, in comments to [Pat Kane’s post on the topic](http://www.theplayethic.com/2009/03/futureofjournalism2.html), and particularly the comments by Nick Clayton. He’s interested by the psychological shock to old-fashioned journalists, and whether they’ll cope without the newsroom:
the journalists who are losing their jobs are used to working as a team with a common goal, the next edition. It’s not easy to move to setting your own deadlines.
…
The reason, I believe, that [a triumph of individual journos working from home] hasn’t happened on a large scale so far is because of the isolation that appears built into the model and the accompanying lack of somebody to kick you up the backside when your copy’s late.
…
What’s missing at the moment is a framework which doesn’t assume that one person can be writer, reporter, editor, promoter, ad sales person, designer, photographer, book-keeper and search engine optimiser. Instead there’s a need for an infrastructure which brings together people with those skills quite possibly on a part-time or temporary basis.