Another week, another newspaper is putting an end to its print publication. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is putting an end to its 146-year run of providing a physical newspaper to its subscribers. This comes just a few weeks after Denver’s Rocky Mountain News shut down operations completely.

In today’s digital world, the P-I’s switch to being an online only paper is certainly not going to be the last one to make the switch, but with revenues down across the board in journalism, it makes you contemplate just how many papers will go the way of the Rocky Mountain News and completely shut down.

While the former writers of that paper are trying to band together to form a new online presence, the idea that a newspaper could reach that point is scary to many people.

The ongoing new media vs. traditional media war has played out quite loudly in the sports and politics sections of the news. As bloggers tackled serious issues and did it quite well, a blow was dealt to the traditional media. Some have embraced it, like Andrew Sullivan in politics or Jason Whitlock in sports. Others have openly rooted for the demise of the others.

Print writers want the bloggers, and thus new media to fail and refuse to embrace the changing technology, and bloggers often seem to be calling for all the newspapers to shut their doors.

What neither understands is that they both need each other to survive.

Print journalists, specifically beat writers, will remain relevant and necessary as long as there are sports being played. Yes, they could switch to an all-digital format, but the traditional journalism media must remain intact. Without the beat writers on the front line in the locker room, there are no stories to link to for bloggers, and no investigative pieces with sources and access (see: SI vs. A-Rod). There must be true, salaried, professional authorities in the sports world, forming the foundation of analysis for other mediums.

As for bloggers, they are simply the new generation of sports columnists. Having worked in the media and been in the locker rooms, I can tell you, there are quite a few columnists who utilize their access about as much as the guy in the proverbial parents’ basement. Most columnists are proof that anyone with a sports opinion can write about sports. There are some great ones out there, but really, they are just the original bloggers. Columnists and bloggers tend to both be opinionists and analysts, with both groups having about a 50/50 rate of good-to-bad.

Without the beat writers and real journalists, bloggers will be left to produce their own news. In the future, this might be possible, but right now, it would crash the system. Access is needed to form the news of the sport, while the lack of access is just fine for the analysts. Journalists need to be able to ask difficult questions, something that can’t be done only from home. Sure, you can get some access and interviews, but without being in the locker room or at practice, you don’t get the bigger stories. Only commenting on games is no way to cover a sport. There needs to be a presence at practices and press conferences, and that just isn’t realistic in today’s new media. Again, perhaps in the future, but not right now.

Without the new media of bloggers and online news sources, the writers will struggle to keep up in the 24-hour news cycle of today’s world. Printing the news once a day just doesn’t cut it anymore. But printing the news once a day and putting it online, allowing it to be linked to by multiple other sites indefinitely allows an otherwise old-fashioned news story to live on for much longer.

The worlds of sports media must learn to co-exist. Journalists have a needed role, and the coverage of sports relies on them to lay the foundation of the story. But as technology advances, those stories need the wheels of blogs and Web sites to republish their stories. Bloggers and columnists are doing the same job, one with access to the game, and one with access to the stories.

In today’s world of 800 channels and streaming video and the YouTube, access exists, even without being there. But the fact remains that without the traditional media types being in the locker room asking the hard questions and holding the microphones, the stories won’t get to the bloggers.

The closing of another newspaper is sad news to the journalism industry and a bit of an “I told you so,” from the online world. But in reality, it should be a sad day for anyone who cares about news coverage.

I worked in radio and I now write online, but I know damn well that coverage of the news, sports or otherwise, relies on the traditional, trained journalists who get the stories started.

What we need to see, and will likely see in the years to come, is a joint venture between blogs and journalism, creating a new animal of news and information. Take one part newspaper and one part blog, combine their resources under one friendly Web site, and let the family build a new form of media. Combining the varieties of writers with the access to display video online and we will see a new world of media in the years to come.

As long as both sides get on board with this, it will work. But it has not chance of working until the stupid pissing contests end between new media and traditional media.

Losing a newspaper in print form is bad enough, but losing them altogether — Web presence and all, is terrible.

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