Self proclaimed "recovering journalist" Mark Potts spoke to George Mason journalism students on Feb 17. Potts started one of the first electronic newspapers in 1993.

He also The former Washington Post journalist. Potts addressed students on the future of print newspapers.

"We are going to see newspapers die this year," Potts said.

Potts explained that newspapers don't stand a chance of surviving against the web.

"We get real time news via the web," he said.

Potts told the future journalists, "newspapers were a great busines". Those days, however, are coming to an end. The days of waiting 24 hours to read yesterday's news are over.

It turns out that the cost of printing papers exceeds the profit. When newspapers were a key source of information for people, it was a profitable business. Potts informed students that 80% of advertising spending in Washington, D.C. was through the Washington Post. This is not the case anymore.

So what is next for print journalists? There really is not much profit for online news. There are several specialized papers that are able to charge for their content. One such paper is the Wall Street Journal. Papers with quality, specialized interest may be able to charge for subscriptions, as for the rest...

So which town will lose its newspaper first? Potts' guess is San Fransisco. When referring to the town's reaction of losing their newspaper, Potts did not seem to concerned.

"It's less dramatic than people think", he said. "A year or so after a paper is gone you won't really miss it".

Potts' enthusiasm for the internet could surely be a way to encourage journalists of tomorrow to embrace the power of the web. He quoted Jeff Jarvis " write your best and link to the rest". With all of the other information out there it is almost foolish to not link to other stories to enhance your own. Potts also pointed out how NBC links to everyone else, so it has the best of everything.

It seems that the best thing for a future journalist to do is embrace the web. Online news is the undeniable present. It is no longer a thing of the future, it is happening now. Learn it, embrace it, take advantage of it. The world is literally at our fingertips.