There was a great cartoon in the Boston Globe in early 2005
on the “attack” of bloggers on mainstream media. It showed the barbarian
bloggers storming the castle labeled mainstream media. I often use it is blog
sessions. However, while it was the view of many then, it conveys the wrong
message but some still have this view.
Recently I attended Webcom 2009 in Montreal and talked
about blogging in the age of twitter.
More on that later. This
event attracts a large number of traditional media people and there was a lot
of discuss about old versus new (or social media). I attended an excellent
session I wrote about on this blog on Who killed the Rocky Mountain News? from
John Temple who was the last managing editor of one of the first big papers to
fold. While John admits that many
mistakes were made that led to the paper demise, he has learned a lot from the
experience and offered some excellent suggestions.
Among other things John said that, “if you want to
compete in a medium, you have to understand it.” They built a great web site
with no SEO considerations and no one could find it. Another lesson: measure,
measure, measure. The Web allows you to measure, take advantage of this.
Perhaps most important of all he said that traditional media needs to do
R&D to find innovative new offerings that take advantage of the new Web and
not just try to get more money for current offerings. The “us” versus “them” mentality needs to be trashed.
I was reminded of a session that I attended at Harvard’s
JFK School of Government in early 2005. On one end of the long table were
managing editors of several large papers, including the New York Times. At the
other end were some of the big time bloggers of the time such as Dave Winer,
Dave Weinberger, and Jay Rosen. It
was like the Globe cartoon I opened this post with. The newspapers said that
they spend millions putting reporters out in the field and fact check
extensively while the bloggers attract big followings hanging out in their
basement in their pajamas writing on their laptop. Dave Weinberger objected to
the comparison. He said that the bloggers were just having conversations about
what the news reported, among other things. It was not the same thing. I would agree.
Blogging has opened up a new channel of communication. If
the older ones wake up to this they can see how to effectively take advantage
of the opportunities. The New York Times has done as good a job as anyone in
this area since that 2005 event.
The recent Technorati 2009 survey of the blogosphere also
touched on this topic. It said
that, “despite being perceived by some as enemies of the traditional media,
bloggers actually carry a journalistic pedigree. 35 percent of all respondents
(bloggers) have worked within the traditional media… and the true overlap
reveals itself in the 27 percent of respondents who both blog and work in
traditional media.”
I actually got started blogging by pitching an article on
the topic to a print trade publication early in 2004. I have to confess that I
had only heard about blogs the week before. When I sold the piece I started a
blog as part of my research and started attending Dave Winer’s blog evenings at
Harvard law School. I got hooked and write for many blogs now and still
occasionally for traditional media, as well.
Thierry Hubert, who also attended Webcom 2009 wrote,
about the discussions I alluded to at the start this post in Webcom 09 - The
Misplaced Fear of the Mainstream Media.
He wrote that “The battle is not one of formal versus informal, but one
where formal content providers need to listen and engage in the dialogue.” He adds that at the same time
traditional media need to hold on to their charter as “leaders and champions of
valued and verified information.” They need to participate in the new social
media without losing site of what made them valuable in the first place.
There can, and should, be a symbiotic relationship
between traditional media and the new social media. Traditional media has given me a lot to blog about over the
past five years. I look forward to more and hope that it takes the steps to
survive by better engaging in the new Web.
Here is a recent example of innovative collaboration between social media and traditional media. The Seattle Times recently invited editors from some neighborhood blogs to question mayoral candidates for a town hall-style debate organized by the newspaper and its news partner, KING-TV. The inclusion of the editors underscores a new partnership forged between the city's well-established newspaper and neighborhood news blogs.
