Players in the online media world have for years, saying that they are too large and dinosaur-like. Wednesday's meeting brought out a new wave of criticism.
Gabe Rivera, the founder of Techmeme and several other niche news aggregators, that the current rounds of layoffs that many newspapers are going through are necessary.
"Kerry's premise is false. They weren't competitive. There was redundancy. Trimming the fat yields a competitive organization," .
In his testimony, Sen. Kerry also said steps need to be taken to make sure news media stays diverse and independent.
Implying that the Internet already lets consumers access diverse sources of news, , "There are 90 feeds in my Google Reader."
The hearing was prompted by the crisis facing traditional media outlets, especially newspapers and magazines, as advertisers and readers have migrated to the Web. Close to 9,000 layoffs and buyouts have occurred in 2009 alone at U.S. newspapers, according to .
But some see opportunities in the disruption of the news industry.
Journalist David Cohn, founder of community journalism website Spot.Us, believes that this is an exciting time for news media.
"I think what journalism needs is 10,000 different start-ups," .