News-Record.com

It IS an exciting time to be in journalism, but also a scary one. From the broadcast perspective, all bets are off. With cameras becoming smaller and easier to use, magic laptops transmitting data via wi-fi, and conglomerates demanding ever more multi-tasking for the buck, there's absolutely no telling what next year's newscast will look like.

Many in my business are predicting doom and gloom - smaller audiences, fewer staffers, a new generation of newsgathering gadgets that will redefine the few job it won't eliminate. I'm not so worried. I'm versatile, and growing far more intrigued with the written word than the moving image. But I know that where ever the new media takes me, it will require every skill I have (and then some) to keep up with the coming onslaught of independent media outlets.

Good thing I ate breakfast.

Keep going forward. The results will be worth it for the News & Record as a leader in the field.

Mark

I'm glad to see you doing this blog, John. Very cool.

I'm the guy behind the Pegasus News project mentioned in Jay's post. I've looked to the Rhino Times for a lot of inspiration, and it looks like you're doing a lot of the things we're talking about.

Did I mention that I'm from Greensboro, too? Must be something in the water. :)

I posted this on the Lex blog, too, but want to put it here since this is the same topic...
A lot of it sounds great, but I doubt any of it would work. Journalists only get ahead by being serious Journalists (and that is Journalist with a capital J).
This entirely "new" media company would need to figure out how to reward people completely differently than other media companies. (In other words, the person who got the big city council scoop would not necessarily be who "gets ahead" -- that person would NEED to be valued equally with the person who does great community journalism.)
The real trick comes with the journalists at this theoretical company and how they want to move up the industry ladder. Their skills and things that -- in theory --- should be valued at this "new" media company won't be valued elsewhere, so how do they advance their career (and more importantly their pay -- since that is how journalists typically get raises that allow them to feed themselves) will be critical to the whole equation.
Of course, to me, the original post is already flawed: the main problem with current media companies is the hubris that exists in the cult of personality that is built around reporters, editors and publishers. By mentioning a few such "experts" in the original post, I'm afraid this "new" media company is already headed down the wrong path.

Jim, I don't think the idea -- or at least my idea -- is to just rebuild a traditional media company in a new package with cheap labor. I think the local blog media will be made up of people who write because they really care about a subject, or because it's their business or field of expertise. They will be loosely joined, not reporting to a centralized entity. The N&R will be a hub around which they might revolve, or sometimes revolve. How will the N&R compensate them for their work? I dunno. Will some of them make the move into professional journalism? Probably. Will the N&R have major internal issues with its own staff if, say, a blog outshines a staffer's work? Yes. Lots to figure out here.

Just a thought: What makes the N and R aggrigator any different than any other aggrigator. Bloggers all over the world are clamoring to get on aggrigators, could the N and R aggrigator be any bigger threat than any other aggrigator? Or is our fear simply based in who happens to own this particular aggrigator?