Some Media Stuff

Some media bones for you to gnaw on over the weekend.

Wendy, we'll put her in the converted pile, gives some very good advice on etiquette for journalists just now stumbling into our world.

Whether you like a particular post or not and feel moved to comment, don’t hesitate to chime in, ideally on topics related to your blog niche. Journalists are sometimes very reluctant to wade in. We’ve been trained NOT to become part of the story, NOT to offer opinions, NOT to express anything that might be considered “biased” or unprofessional.

Some of us came into this business so long ago, we may have forgot that first feeling of wading in the deep waters. A lot of harsh words have been said on both sides of the media issue and Wendy is providing us perspective from the "other side" and an opportunity for empathy. We should take advantage.

Jay Bookman, we'll put him in the slowly converting pile, talks about the larger issues of the newspaper crisis and addresses the rapidly emerging idea of an i-Tunes model.

Remember that when iTunes began, the music industry was being decimated by file sharing. By coming up with an easy user interface and obtaining the cooperation of a broad swath of music companies, Mr. Jobs helped pull the business off the brink. He has been accused of running roughshod over the music labels, which are a fraction of their former size. But they are still in business.

I'm glad the newspaper industry is finally waking up to the perilous parallels to the record industry. Some of us have only been waving it in their faces for years.

Me? We're going to put me in the I Don't Know pile. I don't know if papers will survive. I know the news will survive and I know writing will survive. And although it's going to be tough and it's going to hurt at times, someone's going to find a way to make this work.

Someone always does.