Getting over competition?

Amy Gahran has an intriguing post at Poynter, where she asks Has News Competition Outlived Its Usefulness?

Amy’s point is that as newspapers shed parts of their core business — unwillingly, of course — it may be time to start shedding some attitudes that stand in the way of becoming better and stronger news organizations in a new media age.

Taking the emphasis off competition, in favour of collaboration, conversation and the like, is an intriguing idea. At the very least, it’s a great conversation starter, as you’ll see when you click on the link to read the comments. (Note to Poynter: not sure if your content management software allows it, but it would be great to have the original article and comments all on one page.)

I don’t think I would much like a world without journalistic competition. I like seeing more and more of it, whether it’s provided through means traditional or new. There’s the variety-of-voice thing, and also the fact that competition can drive journalists to do great things.

But there’s still something to Amy’s proposition, about the depth that collaboration, cooperation and interactivity can bring to journalism. You can argue that journalistic competition came about primarily because journalism became a business that relied on individual publications attracting and keeping eyeballs. With that model slowly being blown-up (increasingly, the internet is becoming one big all-inclusive publication), it’s time to examine all of the the “truths” about the way journalism is practiced and to talk about how it can move from (fading) strength to strength.

TAGS: JOURNALISM, NEWSPAPERS, COMPETITION, SCOOPS