In last night’s squibs I pointed to 10 newspaper myths deconstructed and commented that it featured “lots of overstatement backed by a lack of any sort of proof.” That drew a challenging comment from Oliver Reicheinstein.
Rather than go through all 10, I want to pick out a couple to illustrate what I meant.
Myth 2: There is not enough money in online ads
Fact 2: Newspapers don’t care about online ads
I don’t think the fact is that newspapers don’t care, it’s that they’re late arrival on the internet (at least in a significant way) leaving them captives of a market where the ad rates have already been set, and set low. See Scott Karp on that.
Myth 7: Journalists=professional, bloggers=smearers
Fact 7: Bloggers are journalists
This has pretty much been put to bed. Sure, there are journalists who hold that as gospel, but not many. Newspapers blog, link to bloggers and host blogs. Some blogs drive the news on some stories. See Jay Rosen from January 2005.
Myth 8: The web is just a trend. No need to panic.
Fact 8: Change or die
I haven’t heard a serious newspaper publisher, editor or journalist trot out the idea that the web is just a trend for more than half a decade.
I don’t think, by the way, there’s nothing of value in the list. If I had, I wouldn’t have pointed to it. And calling it more annoying than accurate, as I did in my squib, may have been a little over the top. I would recommend to you another post at the same site, The Future of News: How to Survive the New Media Shift.
The piece is longer, much more thoughtful and nuanced and worth spending some time with. It’s a nice addition to the conversation about the new mediascape. I particularly like the final graf:
Reading paper is an extraordinary experience. Discussing news online is highly addictive. If news organisations manage to leverage and connect both powers you have a chance to escape oblivion and re-occupy one of the many future centers of public attention.
While I may lightly dismiss the top 10 myths list and quibble with some of the content in the longer piece, I offer a hearty “hear, hear” to that. That, in a nutshell, is the grail.
TAGS: NEWSPAPERS, ONLINE, NEW MEDIA
Nice drilldown, Mark, and thanks for the compliments. Of course, the first post was a little harsh, but the nature of the media forces us to be short. That is good at times, as the need to be short makes us think harder, but then again, delicate reflection needs – paper. ; )
Just one add on:
Myth 8: The web is just a trend. No need to panic.
Fact 8: Change or die
This caricature of a headline points to:
1) the Economist’s piece back in October 2006 that basically said: News media is “Cause for concern but not for panic.”
2) the attitude old journalists show when talking to new media people, acting like web workers are some funny tech freaks, detached from reality
Nevertheless I agree that there is considerable rhetoric in the 10 myths piece, rhetoric not in the sense of manipulation, but in the sense of forced shortness…
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Hi again, I just posted a sketch that illustrates how the Washington Post would look as a wiki according to the 10 iron rules:
http://www.informationarchitec.....-as-a-wiki
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