We have met the enemy and he is us

Agree with him or not, Vin Crosbie always cuts to the quick of the matter. On the eve of an online journalism confab:

Unfortunately, the major obstacle for online journalism is the people who practice it...

I, by the way, agree with him. He continues:

Journalists, whether they work in mass or new media, still tend to believe that traditional journalism and its packaging are as correct in a new medium as those once were in the mass medium. It is as an article of faith within their secular trade.

Yet, traditional journalism and its packaging have demonstrably failed in the mass medium, and there’s abundant evidence that that those are failing the new medium, too...

So, why is most online journalism shovelware from traditional print, traditional video, and traditional radio?

The answer, I think, is because the online is still an ancillary to the flagging, but profitable print behemoth. As long as that's the case, Vin's assessment stands.

That's why we think an upstart without the double-edged crutch of print is the answer.