News-Record.com

I don't know if I should be surprised that we keep getting anti-participatory journalism reports out of the San Francisco paper, but I am, given the free-thinking cultural reputation the city has. Perhaps Craigslist has them thinking backward.

First, columnist David Lazarus proposes the positively 20th-century idea that newspapers should charge for their online content. His argument has been effectively skewered various places.

Now comes a front page story in the Chronicle, again posing old media and new media as enemies.

I understand the need to find a story hook. I understand the need to explain new concepts in ways that traditional audiences will understand. But this us-them characterization is getting tired. It exists primarily in the minds of some journalists, not readers. Besides being non-constructive, it's not even reality. Many newspapers have bloggers and post video on their sites now. Most are filing breaking news stories online before they're published in the paper.

Few of us are cutting edge, but we're slowly getting it. The new publishing tools available to everyone are helping us engage with people -- to say nothing of empowering and furthering democracy, which traditionally has been one of the purposes of newspapers. We can compete for news. We can compete for revenue. But we aren't enemies and characterizing the relationship that way comes off as a bit desperate.

Update: Former Greensborian Mike Orren at Pegasus News provides a stark description of how far we have to go.