The Register Citizen is announcing a new initiative that sounds a lot like the mantra heard at the Courant and other media-savvy newspapers: “Digital first.”
The Register Citizen’s parent company — which, like Tribune, is in the financial dumper — is pushing into the social media circuit and planning to “partner” with local blogs. This column by Register Citizen Publisher Matt Derienzo says the information company will help community journalists and local bloggers “get established and make money.”
Good luck with that.
The sad fact, however, is that newspapers are pushing in this direction only partly because they want to, but mostly because they can’t think of anything else to do as their staffs evaporate and their circulation falls.
The Journal Register Co. ‘s collaboration with Growthspur seems a little like Patch.com, but with more independence for the “citizen journalists.” Here’s more about it and the new partnership.
Traditional newspaper readers might worry that the information highway is being populated more and more by idiots, whackos, and self-servers, and less by professional unbiased journalists. They have a point.
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Paul,
First the Disclosure: Although I currently do a fair amount of on-air freelance work for FoxCT. I’m not writing this comment on the company’s behalf. These opinions belong to me and me alone. RH
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Curious to hear your definition of what “traditional newspaper readers” look like these days?
I think my take on the use of bloggers, community journalists and “idiots, whackos, and self-servers” is a bit different from yours. I subscribe to the Long Tail theory of journalism. I would argue that even if newspapers were still flush with cash and bloated news staffs many of these “biased” local niche voices should still have broad access to the digital platforms of established media companies. Diversity of viewpoints — even when we don’t always agree with them is a good thing, no? I can actually imagine the day your site is linked off CTNow.com! Of course I’m not suggesting you are an idiot, whacko or self-server!
Also, I wouldn’t be as quick as you to dismiss the “get established and make money” concept. There are very few serious bloggers and social media enthusiasts who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have their sites exposed to the millions of monthly page views from established sites like courant.com. And traditional publishers shouldn’t be shy nor apologize about going after new money via new business and new readers on new platforms because the old readers on the old platforms have died off or have adopted new methods of receiving, consuming, interacting and distributing news that’s important to them and their social circles.
As a former online news editor you know better than most we are in a transitional and transformative time in journalism. Nobody has all of the answers on how this is going to shake out. New age journalism is just like the new iPhone, a great device with huge media potential, but as Steve Jobs just said in addressing antenna-gate: “It’s not perfect.” Plenty of mistakes have been made. In general, corporate media’s response to the change has often been slow, sluggish and reactionary. In general, the response from traditional and “unbiased” journalists has often been to immediately reject and criticize efforts to adapt to the new media landscape as attempts by dishonest, greedy and unethical executives hell-bent to cut costs and purposely diminish and harm established news gathering efforts.
Both sides can be rigidly myopic and arrogant at times. Neither side wants to acknowledge a vast majority of the news public doesn’t care about our internal conflicts and they are increasingly viewing old media as irrelevant.
Despite the misgivings and mistrust often expressed by many in the Camp I believe the future of journalism at FoxCT/The Courant and elsewhere is bright — different — but bright. I’ve spent plenty of time in recent years on college campuses helping teach the next generation of journalists. I’ve also worked with classically trained journalists across the country in helping update and refine their digital journalism toolbox. I think we’re getting closer to where we want to be both in content and a business model(s) to pay for professional journalism, but I’ll admit we are still a ways off from being there.
Journalism is still a great craft to practice, however the “paper” part of the newspaper business will very soon become a thing of the past, but the “news” part will live forever.
Finally, while I’ll never qualify for full membership into the “Camp” I’ve always enjoyed reading your site
Cheers!
Hi Rick…
Disclosure unnecessary.
I think my problem with the digital era right now is not one of concept, but of percentages.
I value the work of bloggers — even whacko idiot bloggers as I sometimes appear to be — but I worry that the volume of questionable, frivolous, “citizen” journalists is too big a portion of the information pie. I worry that the kind of information our society and democracy need is not being developed in large enough quantities and that the public — a young, impressionable and often undiscerning public — doesn’t appreciate the difference. (I liken it to a generation that has grown up on a diet too rich in McDonald’s hamburgers , soda, French fries and ice cream and relatively unaware that it is obese.)
My skepticism about getting established and making money is more focused on the “making money” part. Hell, even the mainstream media — like Fox and The Courant — haven’t really figured out how to make money online. And when it comes to local news, I see this concept, again, as replacing professional journalists with “citizen” journalists who do not have demanding editors breathing down their necks asking: “Who is your source on this? Have you talked to the other side? Did you double-check that information?”
Sure the mainsteam folks want to facilitate the blogs of folks like me. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, I suppose. Everybody wants the attention. That doesn’t mean there is any useful information being developed, however.