I've gone over to the digital side
Ta-i Kemosabe, I’m back!
This is the first of my columns since 2005 that will not appear in print. I have gone over to the digital side. If this were Star Wars and journalism the Force, I would be serving on the Death Star. This, however, isn’t Star Wars and print journalism is no longer the force it used to be.
Working for print editions of newspapers these days is more like riding on the back of a dinosaur. It may have a loud roar, but extinction is coming. Stick a bone in it; it’s done. It died about five years ago, but will take another decade or so to bleed out.
I’m one of those throwbacks who enjoys the feeling of a paper in my hands and the smell of ink on my fingers. With my life’s work boiling down to a digital fingerprint, I have to accept the fact that reporting no longer happens in cycles, but is a continuous stream of ever-changing data that we now package as “content”.
I loved being a reporter. Now I am a “content provider” which is the same thing in the realm of cyberspace. Most of what I learned about journalism in college is obsolete. I’m using tools and skills that could not have been imagined back in 1980-something.
As much as things change, the more they stay the same. The Internet may have signaled doom for newspapers, but it cannot touch quality journalism. People will always want and need well-written stories about news events and things they are interested in.
With the exception of bloggers and tweeters who think they can write, most of the stuff that passes for legitimate news is still written by professional journalists and given away online by their employers. Trust me, that is a model that cannot sustain itself much longer. Eventually we humble journalists will want to eat, buy clothes, own homes and other things that we frequently report about. That being the case, you will eventually have to pay for your news. (You don’t know the power of the digital side!)
There is something of a paradox now that I’m working online. It used to be that we were limited by space and had to write stories to fit a certain length. Online we can write to our heart’s content, but readership habits have limited news reading to a headline or less. If you’ve actually read this far, I am truly impressed. You’re a rare bird.
Long gone are the days when you came home to an evening paper and leisurely read it while supper was cooking. That became a quick scan of the paper over breakfast on the run. Now it’s a quick browse online from the desk at work or on your smart phone when you have a down minute or two. If it doesn’t have a shocking headline, a shocking photo and/or the right tags on it, no one will bother to look at it.
Back in the day, a headline might read “School board to re-evaluate superintendent’s contract”. Today that headline would read “Superintendent in hot seat” or “School board barking mad at top dog”. If the headline works, you will click on it and be taken to a story where you expect to see a picture or read about school board members foaming at the mouth, racing around on all fours ready to pounce on the poor, helpless superintendent. If that isn’t there, you’ll be lucky to find anyone who reads three paragraphs into a story about the school board doing the annual performance review of the district’s top administrator.
In other civilized countries of the world, people actually care about how their local school superintendent is performing his duties and the story would be worthy of the front page … er, make that homepage. In the good ol’ U.S. of A., if the superintendent isn’t having an affair, embezzling funds or storing kiddie porn on his computer, people don’t seem to care what he’s doing or how well his performance is.
The same thing goes for most any elected official. Incumbents are usually a lock on Election Day unless they are embroiled in some kind of scandal. Depending on the nature and timing of the scandal, they could be out on their can or re-elected by a wide margin.
The thing is, if it were not for journalists, the average person wouldn’t know about the scandal or the straight-laced duty performance.
All that being said, I’m glad to be back and to still be employed doing what I like. I hope you will stay with me on this grand adventure into cyberspace and beyond.
This is the first of my columns since 2005 that will not appear in print. I have gone over to the digital side. If this were Star Wars and journalism the Force, I would be serving on the Death Star. This, however, isn’t Star Wars and print journalism is no longer the force it used to be.
Working for print editions of newspapers these days is more like riding on the back of a dinosaur. It may have a loud roar, but extinction is coming. Stick a bone in it; it’s done. It died about five years ago, but will take another decade or so to bleed out.
I’m one of those throwbacks who enjoys the feeling of a paper in my hands and the smell of ink on my fingers. With my life’s work boiling down to a digital fingerprint, I have to accept the fact that reporting no longer happens in cycles, but is a continuous stream of ever-changing data that we now package as “content”.
I loved being a reporter. Now I am a “content provider” which is the same thing in the realm of cyberspace. Most of what I learned about journalism in college is obsolete. I’m using tools and skills that could not have been imagined back in 1980-something.
As much as things change, the more they stay the same. The Internet may have signaled doom for newspapers, but it cannot touch quality journalism. People will always want and need well-written stories about news events and things they are interested in.
With the exception of bloggers and tweeters who think they can write, most of the stuff that passes for legitimate news is still written by professional journalists and given away online by their employers. Trust me, that is a model that cannot sustain itself much longer. Eventually we humble journalists will want to eat, buy clothes, own homes and other things that we frequently report about. That being the case, you will eventually have to pay for your news. (You don’t know the power of the digital side!)
There is something of a paradox now that I’m working online. It used to be that we were limited by space and had to write stories to fit a certain length. Online we can write to our heart’s content, but readership habits have limited news reading to a headline or less. If you’ve actually read this far, I am truly impressed. You’re a rare bird.
Long gone are the days when you came home to an evening paper and leisurely read it while supper was cooking. That became a quick scan of the paper over breakfast on the run. Now it’s a quick browse online from the desk at work or on your smart phone when you have a down minute or two. If it doesn’t have a shocking headline, a shocking photo and/or the right tags on it, no one will bother to look at it.
Back in the day, a headline might read “School board to re-evaluate superintendent’s contract”. Today that headline would read “Superintendent in hot seat” or “School board barking mad at top dog”. If the headline works, you will click on it and be taken to a story where you expect to see a picture or read about school board members foaming at the mouth, racing around on all fours ready to pounce on the poor, helpless superintendent. If that isn’t there, you’ll be lucky to find anyone who reads three paragraphs into a story about the school board doing the annual performance review of the district’s top administrator.
In other civilized countries of the world, people actually care about how their local school superintendent is performing his duties and the story would be worthy of the front page … er, make that homepage. In the good ol’ U.S. of A., if the superintendent isn’t having an affair, embezzling funds or storing kiddie porn on his computer, people don’t seem to care what he’s doing or how well his performance is.
The same thing goes for most any elected official. Incumbents are usually a lock on Election Day unless they are embroiled in some kind of scandal. Depending on the nature and timing of the scandal, they could be out on their can or re-elected by a wide margin.
The thing is, if it were not for journalists, the average person wouldn’t know about the scandal or the straight-laced duty performance.
All that being said, I’m glad to be back and to still be employed doing what I like. I hope you will stay with me on this grand adventure into cyberspace and beyond.
posted by Joe Southern | 2:06 PM
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