Good reads for 10.03.07
Posted on October 3, 2007 by Melissa Worden
Lots of talk about the demise of the industry going on. Some see the glass half-full. But more see it nearly empty. Here are some good reads:
>> Howard Owens gives us 12 things journalists can do to save journalism. “The rules have changed, and newsrooms need to change as well,” he writes. “We need new attitudes and new cultures. This will only happen if individual journalists put forward the effort to change their minds about what their jobs are and how they do them.”
>> Jason Lee Miller responds: “Think, behave, report like a blogger – while, somehow, keeping with your standards and practices, your professional pedigree, your certifications, your piece of paper that says you know what you’re doing. Adopt, understand, and use the new technology before you. But above all, you must engage the audience where the audience is, and come down from your marble hill.”
>> What will be newspapers’ iPod moment? asks Jeff Jarvis. One of his readers responds, “For me, ‘the iPod moment’ for newspapers would be if my 12- or 14-year-old nagged me for a new newspaper, with more stuff inside of it, even though they had just bought one a short time earlier. Don’t see that one happening.”
>> Mindy McAdams Googled the use of that phrase (”iPod moment”) and found some interesting quotes.
>> Dilbert creator Scott Adams predicts the iPhone and its copycats will mark the end of print newspapers. “When you have a web browser in your pocket, a printed newspaper is redundant,” writes Adams. “Eventually, all cell phones will have Internet browsing built in. You might not have a web browser on your next cell phone, but the one after that will have it as a standard feature.”
>> Lucas Grindley is NOT going to advise a college class he’s visiting to pursue a newspaper career. “Online media isn’t limited to newspapers. AOL, Yahoo and Ask all have news sites that need journalists. Micro-local start-ups such as PegasusNews.com are viable alternatives. The truth is that if you’re looking to make progress, these competitors might be more productive places to spin your wheels.”
>> Newspapers don’t recognize the online talent they already have, says Alan Mutter. He writes: “But the young net natives, for the most part, rank too low in the organizations that employ them to be invited to the pivotal discussions determining the stratgeic (sic) initiatives that could help their employers sustain their franchises.”
And a comment to the post that’s worth posting in its entirety:
YES!
The large MSM paper I work for has had virtually 100% turnover in it’s online operations in the last 18 months. I’m not talking about the Podunk Daily News either, you’d know the name.
These people have been replaced to a large extent with folks with little or no web experience, especially in the newsroom.
There’s a story circulating about how the AME of online didn’t know you could type a URL directly into a web browser… and there was that discussion on whether to include a blurb above a story describing, “what the blue underlined words were for”.
When innovation does happen, its done as “skunkworks” and even then, among the praise are accusations of “renegade” work.
This is among the top (of a depressingly long list) reasons I think the battle is already lost. It’s 2007, now is not the time to be relearning basic HTML.
I just don’t understand it, there are people in the mix who really are trying to save this industry but who are battling of all things, this industry.
Tags: future, online journalism, good reads
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I was in the class Grindley spoke at on Monday, and I have to say he never go to telling us not to go into newspapers, although I did read that in his blog before class. He did give us some great advice on blogging and how it can help build a career, though. I really enjoyed it. The best part was my class’s reaction when they realized they’re expected to be able to do the whole online thing when they graduate in order to get jobs. Many are nervous about starting blogs, let alone adding pictures, sound, flash, or widgets.
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