Lots of people are talking about this week's Daily Show schtick on blogs and big media.
My favorite line was the bit about the Washington Post's new motto: "You heard it here -- twelfth."
I've said this to death, but it's an important notion to help us keep our focus: The digital native media -- whether that be blogs, podcasts, mobile or flash mobs -- has fundamentally changed the rules of engagement. And the mainstream doesn't like it.
This new guard can't fully replace the mainstream though -- the blogosphere, for instance, is great at fact-checking and jumping on the intriguing or controversial story. But, without people whose daily bread depends on getting the story filed, too much will get missed.
That's a big part of our opportunity. We don't have an existing newsroom structure or businesss model to overcome. We're starting with a model in which we don't produce it if anyone else can or will. Unique or aggregated. We can have it both ways.
The other day, someone put it this way: "You have amateur journalists and you have professional journalists. You have a system that puts checks on both. The only difference is whether or not they collect a paycheck."
We think that fully engaging the resources of both worlds will change the news business.
Comments