The media in 2009…. not quite dead yet
There’s been a lot of hand wringing over the death of media. And yes, it looks grim: layoffs everywhere, declining ad revenues, papers and magazines shutting down.
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 psp
Former Huffington Post editor Rachel Sklar crystal balls the media in 2009
and yeah it’s bad. But you know what, the media isn’t going anywhere. Anyone who thinks that bloggers can replace the resources of the newsroom (experienced beat reporters, editors, people with good news judgement) is believing too much of their own hype.
I’ve been on both sides of the divide now as an editor at Torontoist and now as a web editor at the National Post. While running Torontoist, I lamented not having proper reporters with contacts, and know-how and the time to chase down a story. Now at the Post, I lament not always being able to be ‘blog-like,’ Not being able to be as irreverent and flippant about the news.
But it is possible for a newspaper newsroom to become more online friendly (I think any paper that has a survival instinct is trying to do that right now). What’s harder is taking a group of contributors working for next to nothing and turning that into a fully-functional news-gathering entity.
Think of it as taking a bunch of professional hockey players (our professional journalists) and asking them to play lacrosse instead. They’ll get the game and eventually their physical training and conditioning kicks in. The reverse, asking a bunch of average joes to pick up a lacrosse stick and play an entirely game, often has mixed results.
Photo: The last front-page of the New York Herald coming off the stands (From Google’s Life archive)
January 5th, 2009 at 9:43 am
[...] my colleague Ron Nurwisah notes, newspaper newsrooms have to become more online-friendly as we move into 2009. I’d like to [...]