There’s something vaguely familiar with the attitude in that comic; something I don’t quite understand — why do people continue to cling to the old ways and the dead trees?
Don’t get me wrong, change is scary. But what happens when people are afraid to try new stuff? We end up with ideas for broadsheet style electronic readers instead of recognizing that there are newer, faster, better platforms of distribution.
We shouldn’t be tied down to printing presses, smudged ink and ground up flora to get our news. We need news that happens now to be delivered now. Not everyone will get this, especially in the newsroom.
Some of the people that “get it” advocate trying to show the benefits of change to the graying audience and the curmudgeon news tribe. Others have decided enough is enough — it’s time to declare our independence.
We have to start working within the business of journalism. The age of pure idealism is wrong: the news business is a business. And what business shields itself behind barriers of traditon when there’s new technology to use and master to push their product (in journalism’s case, news) to the market? None.
Did newspapers whine and moan when they started printing photographs? Did they bemoan the death of the industry when presses were able to distribute more product to more people? Did management decide that staying with tradition was more important than switching to color? Take a look at the nearest daily metro to see that all my rhetoric was answered with an emphatic “No.”
Then why are we faced with the opposite when we’re moving online? We shouldn’t begrudge the Web, we need to embrace it. There’s a need to find a way to use the latest technology and make it profitable. Everything can’t work, some thing’s will. That’s the most exciting part.
People fear what they don’t understand
There’s something vaguely familiar with the attitude in that comic; something I don’t quite understand — why do people continue to cling to the old ways and the dead trees?
Don’t get me wrong, change is scary. But what happens when people are afraid to try new stuff? We end up with ideas for broadsheet style electronic readers instead of recognizing that there are newer, faster, better platforms of distribution.
We shouldn’t be tied down to printing presses, smudged ink and ground up flora to get our news. We need news that happens now to be delivered now. Not everyone will get this, especially in the newsroom.
Some of the people that “get it” advocate trying to show the benefits of change to the graying audience and the curmudgeon news tribe. Others have decided enough is enough — it’s time to declare our independence.
We have to start working within the business of journalism. The age of pure idealism is wrong: the news business is a business. And what business shields itself behind barriers of traditon when there’s new technology to use and master to push their product (in journalism’s case, news) to the market? None.
Did newspapers whine and moan when they started printing photographs? Did they bemoan the death of the industry when presses were able to distribute more product to more people? Did management decide that staying with tradition was more important than switching to color? Take a look at the nearest daily metro to see that all my rhetoric was answered with an emphatic “No.”
Then why are we faced with the opposite when we’re moving online? We shouldn’t begrudge the Web, we need to embrace it. There’s a need to find a way to use the latest technology and make it profitable. Everything can’t work, some thing’s will. That’s the most exciting part.
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