Online Journalism News

Kara Swisher: 'The medium does not matter, so stop griping about the internet'

This week sees the latest attempt at helping publishers monetise online material: the launch of 'Journalism Online', a subscription service founded by three big media names, one of whom is a former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Gordon Crovitz.

Many online commentators remain unconvinced - or undecided. Journalism Online's launch also follows announcements from the Associated Press that make it clear the agency will be renewing its attempt to protect online content.

But, as many quickly asked after AP chairman Dean Singleton's forceful speech, hasn't the horse already bolted? On the other hand, blogs such as Seattle-based Eat Sleep Publish, point out the limitations of commentators criticising the paywall when they haven't read it what's behind it.

The AP's attack seems to be a new initiative to 'stop the internet from being the internet', Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of technology news site AllThingsD, teases in response to Singleton's threats - though cautiously adding that the situation 'is clearly a lot more complicated'. Swisher has not yet shared her views on the 'Journalism Online' project via her blog.

Her site AllThingsD - practically run out of her own home, she says - may be owned by the subscription-loving Wall Street Journal, but it doesn't look like it will be introducing subscriptions or putting content behind walls anytime soon.

Recently - prior to events in the last fortnight - she shared her thoughts with Journalism.co.uk, at the end of the Guardian Changing Media Summit, saying the problems facing the news industry lie with journalists focusing on the 'delivery system', rather than the quality of the content. Her comments seem apt food-for-thought, given this week's internet content debate.

"The medium does not matter," she tells Journalism.co.uk. "It doesn't matter if they want to print the Wall Street Journal on salami and people want to eat it."

"Whatever way people want it is fine: it's the quality and what you're getting that matters. Old-time journalists focus too much on the delivery system," she says, adding that it is now much more prestigious to be published online than in print.

"It doesn't matter how we're delivered, it's what we're delivering. My grandfather used to have a saying: 'if people are hungry they'll eat dog food'. Well, I'm not giving them dog food - I'm giving them good food. They can pick good food.

"We're going to give them high-quality nutritional journalism, instead of forcing them to consume it in a way they don't want to. Whatever the consumer wants to consume, let them. Treat the consumer as a smart person who knows what they want," she explains.

"There's not just a role for just vomiting up information. People want to be told what's interesting, by smart people. People still want authority; they still want guidance; they still want quality; they still want brand. I do".

The future is digital and commentators need to move on from endless discussion about the means, she says. Talking about the role of the internet is like constantly referring to the role of air travel, or electricity, she adds.

"You don't have to fly, but guess what - it's easier to get to the US by plane instead of getting a boat."

"Some day we won't be arguing about it. We won't be discussing the system. You didn't get up this morning and say 'I just signed onto the electrical grid today' - you don't care! Journalists have to embrace what's happening, instead of griping about it," she adds.

Swisher was confident that advertising models will prove successful if publishing costs are kept low and the product is of high enough quality to establish a well-regarded brand.

AllThingsD, a venture with few staff and little marketing, which makes profit through advertising revenue only, is an example of that, she says.

"We take the standards of the WSJ and we move them digitally. The problem is with the blogsphere there's a lot of crappy people mouthing off on stuff without checking.

"We're a very low-cost way of delivering news. The idea that old media can't participate in this? They're giving up way too early." 

Swisher may have been helped by her own existing digital brand of course, earned initially via the mainstream media, which has a great deal of clout: her name and reporting caused significant comment during technology publications' coverage of a possible buyout of Twitter by Google, for example.

Branding aside, her low-cost/high-quality strategy is free for all now: for participation and replication. Time will tell if Dean Singleton and Gordon Crovitz et al, eventually decide to sign up and get on the plane, without analysing the impact on the steamship industry.

Update: 17/04/09 - additional links added in
Journalism.co.uk is currently running a series of articles about journalism in the US: watch out for the tag 'JournalismNY' for a range of features.

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
technology | wall street journal | online journalism | gordon crovitz | cms2009 | journalismny | dean singleton | kara swisher | changing media summit 2009 |

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