January Topic: Cling to the old, or grasp the new?
Happy New Year! I hope you had a fantastic time, whatever you were doing.
Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to last month’s discussion. I don’t know about you guys, but I think December drew some of the most insightful posts we’ve had yet. We’re all learning, and right now I can’t think of a better place to get some relevant, peer-led advice than right here.
So on we go.
This month’s topic was decided, as ever, by Twitter vote. If you want to have your say on future TNTJ topics, you really need to be following us @TNTJ. And, for good measure, you follow @greglinch and @davelee too.
The winning topic, put forward by Daniel Bachhuber, is: Do you think it will be the “old” news organizations that achieve the radical transformation they need, or is it more wise (as a journalist) to invest your time in a “new” news startup?
In other words: You’re out there looking for a job. Where do you aim for? Traditional media outlets, with their big, trusted brands and massive audience? Or do you go the route of the start ups — with the associated risks of not having much money/audience/trust?
Where will the jobs be this time next year?
Both, potentially, could lead to trouble. Big media companies are laying off journalists left, right and centre. Startups, similarly, are bracing themselves for a tough year — many of them rely on investment rather than profitability, and with the [insert cliché economy phrase here], bottomless pockets are much harder to come by.
Over to you.
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January 9th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
So, because I’m over 30 I can’t respond? I really want to see you “under-30″ folks pushing out beyond the confines of the trad media. I think you can do it, and be awesome at it. You don’t have the overhead that some of us over 30 folks have. But it’s going to take some of both to really solve the problems.
January 11th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
This seems to be mis-categorized, should be January 2009 debate, no?
January 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I’d love to be involved in the editorial part of a new media based company. Something like Global Post thats innovative and forward thinking, and not afraid to embrace the next step.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:05 am
[...] post is a response to this month’s Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists question: Do you think it will be the [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I also think that it is time for even more radical approaches – I just wish I knew what they were! I have been on several newsites and really all they appear to be is online copies of broadsheets, limited I expect by the quality and imagination of the software writer. There is no attempt to do anything different. It would be good for example to call up a subject, for example Iraq and see all the possible inputs on one screen (news, blogs, video, TV, radio, NGO comment, government fact sheets etc etc) and be able to expand and reduce as needed. In this respect Windows is limiting because you need to wait for a reload then you get one totally new page and all the other relevant possibilities have dissapeared, sometimes never to re,appear.
I think we will have to wait for a software writing journalist before we see the true capability of online media delivery.