She's not exactly one of my favorite people, but I think she completely nailed it on this issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/journalism-2009-desperate_b_374642.html?view=print Thoughtful, balanced, and snarky, all at the same time. :-) The whole article is worth a read, but here's some choice bits below. -- Ernie P. > Let's be honest, while promiscuity is not good in relationships, it's great > for those looking for news and information. Trying to deny news consumers as > wide a range of options and viewpoints as possible seems shortsighted -- and > ultimately self-defeating. This is a Golden Age for news consumers who can > surf the net, use search engines, access the best stories from around the > world, and be able to comment, interact, and form communities. The value of > having the world of information at your fingertips is beyond dispute. > So it's time for traditional media companies to stop whining and face the > fact that far too many of them, lulled by a lack of competition and years of > pretax profits of 20 percent or more, put cash flow above journalism and > badly misread the web when it arrived on the scene. The focus was on > consolidation, cost-cutting, and pleasing Wall Street -- not modernization > and pleasing their readers. > > They were asleep at the wheel, missed the writing on the wall, let the train > leave the station, let the ship sail -- pick your metaphor -- and quickly > found themselves on the wrong side of the disruptive innovation the Internet > and new media represent. And now they want to call timeout, ask for a > do-over, start changing the rules, lobby the government to bail them out, and > attack the new media for being... well, new. And different. And > transformational. Suddenly it's all about thievery and parasites and > intestines. > Free content is not without problems. But it's here to stay, and publishers > need to come to terms with that and figure out how to make it work for them. > > And all across the country, passionate entrepreneurs are doing just that, > experimenting with new and creative revenue models. TechDirt.com is > monetizing its engaged and highly informed community by turning them into > focus-groups-for-hire. ProPublica is using a not-for-profit model to produce > impact investigative journalism. And there are many different powerful local > journalism models, including Voice of San Diego, which supports its > award-winning local journalism with a combination of advertising and public > radio-style contributions from foundations and users. > As much as I love newspapers -- and fully expect them to survive -- the > future of journalism is not dependent on the future of newspapers. Indeed, > the future of journalism is to be found, at least partly, in the rapidly > growing number of people who connect with the news in a whole new way. > > At the Huffington Post, and at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, we > deeply value the role of professional reporters and editors, and have dozens > of them on payroll. And we think the value of editors will only increase as > the constant stream of information coming at us continues to swell -- making > trusted guides and curators more and more essential to keeping us from being > swept away. > > But there is no denying that thousands and thousands of other people want in > on the process and have much to contribute to it. And that number will only > continue to grow. To deride the value of their contributions is to completely > misunderstand the world we live in. > > And the sooner we all embrace that world, the sooner we'll be able to stop > the name calling, put aside the increasingly desperate metaphors and > increasingly desperate revenue models, and focus on what really matters: > ensuring that in the future, journalism will not only survive, but be > strengthened and thrive. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
