Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog January 16, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentGreat round-up by John Thompson at Journalism.co.uk
Current students, take this as a hint!
The Future of Journalism in 560 Words (Four Tweets) « J-School: Educating Independent Journalists January 16, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentFrom Christopher Anderson, PhD student at Columbia:
"Successful journalism is social; the powerful institutions they watch are bureaucracies. What to do?
Social movements are social, like media, and they watch powerful institutions the same way journalism should and used to.
Therefore, a successful– and moral– future journalism will be place-based aggregations of the struggles of relevant social movements.
And objectivity will not be an attitude of disinterest, but an “objectfulness”– a gathering together of objects (once called “reporting.”)"
Swimming Lessons for Journalists | PBS November 5, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentWiden your view of jobs in journalism, urges Amy Gahran:
"In my opinion, journalists need to start leaping en masse from the sinking ship of the newsroom and start working for search engines, nonprofits, think tanks, collaboratives, and other kinds of businesses and organizations. In fact, it might even be a good idea to trade in the label "journalist" for the more inclusive "person with journalism skills" […] That kind of humility offers considerable flexibility and room to grow.
Also, today's journalists can — and probably should — consciously shift away from jobs that revolve around content creation (producing packaged "stories") and toward providing layers of journalistic insight and context on top of content created by others (including public information). Finding ways to help people sort through info overload is far more valuable than providing more information."
WAN: Traditional media has five years growth left – Press Gazette October 20, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentHave predictions of the death of traditional media been exaggerated? From the World Association of Newspapers conference:
"…Marcel Fenez [of PWC] said that although digital advertising will continue to soar over the next five years it will still only globally represent 10 per cent of total advertising for newspapers by 2012.
He forecast that global print advertising will grow 1.8 percent to $123.3 billion in 2012, while global digital advertising will grow 19.3 percent to $13.4 billion.
He said: "One of the things we need to get into context here is that traditional media isn't dead yet and won't be for the next five years."
"It's very important to think why. The over-50s are helping to sustain traditional media, and also in many of the emerging markets there is still plenty of room for traditional media. The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a five-year context." "
Xark!: 10 reasons why newspapers won't reinvent news October 17, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , 1 comment so farDan Conover's list includes:
"5. Newspapers don't "own" enough creative technological expertise […] to constitute a viable tech infrastructure. Instead, most newspaper payrolls are bloated with pluralities of resentful Luddites who struggle with the complexities of e-mail. […]
6. Inertia, uncertainty and toxic paralysis rule most newspaper companies […]
7… Web ads are still merely "upsell" throw-ins to print-advertising contracts at many papers. It's practical short-term tactics vs. long-term business strategy. …
8. n 2008, all meaningful political discourse — the essential element of social currency — takes place on the Web…
9. The connection between quality and profitability has been broken irreparably. Boosting short-term profits by cutting quality is obviously a losing strategy, and the recent wave of newspaper layoffs and buyouts only exacerbated the trend. Editors will admit this privately, but the public already knows."
Roy Greenslade: Journalists cannot be blamed for newspaper industry's decline | Media | guardian.co.uk October 3, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a comment"We British journalists do tend to believe that American journalism is boring and unreadable. But the interesting fact – FACT – is that the declining sales and declining profits of US and UK newspapers are roughly similar in scale despite the differences between their journalism and our journalism. Here's Farhi again:
"The problem has little to do with the reporting, packaging and selling of information. It's much bigger than that. The gravest threats include the flight of classified advertisers, the deterioration of retail advertising and the indebtedness of newspaper owners.And then he moves on to the digital revolution's major effect on the business:
"The real revelation of the internet is not what it has done to newspaper readership – it has in fact expanded it – but how it has sapped newspapers' economic lifeblood. The most serious erosion has occurred in classified advertising, which once made up more than 40% of a newspaper's revenues and more than half its profits."