Tuesday, May 19, 2009

FABula Gives Her (not) Two Cents Worth On The New New Journalism

WhenBritneySpearsRules
IsContentNoLongerKingVille?


In case you missed it, the big media monopolists who bet the farm on 'convergence' a while back are, apparently, hemorraging money. Not surprisingly, they are, at least in part, blaming the latter problem on the fact that they've been forced to take down their subscription wailing walls and give away their high end stuff for free.

Lotusland's best blogger, media-connected or otherwise, Frances Bula wonders what's up with that:

....(O)ne issue I haven’t seen thrashed out is the argument I frequently read in (gasp - paper editions of ) journalism magazines or online is the one that says mainstream journalism did itself in by giving away its content for free on the Internet.

That’s an argument I don’t get, because newspapers and some magazines have been giving away their content for free, in paper form, for a very long time. Community newspapers, of course, and some magazines get delivered free to doorsteps all over this region. And the subscription fees that people pay for papers like the Vancouver Sun, the Globe or even the New York Times — even though they may seem hefty — do little more than cover the cost of paper and distribution.

The actual journalism has, for at least a century, been paid for by advertising. So what I find to be the mysterious question is whether that will continue....

It's all good stuff, and really worth reading in full as the issue really seems to come down to advertising and where it is all going (maybe to folks who post up Britney Spears pictures instead of looking for the next Watergate?...And I'm not really jocking as this is something I notice just about everytime I go to check my Yahoo mail).....

Regardless, one of the things that's interesting to me is that Ms. Bula herself seems to be an example of a new, new journalist. For example, not so long ago she ruled the roost writing full time for the established Lotuslandian media on all matters municipal, but suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, she chucked all that for a multi-level stratification strategy in which she teaches, freelances, and blogs. Me, I really dig the latter, and now, more than ever, that blog itself has become an advertisement for the stuff she gets published in the mainstream...Specifically, when she tells "all the facts that fit" version..... Then I run right back to her blog to get the POV version, both in the original post and the comments....It's really fun, interesting, and interactive.....And the fact that Frances actively solicits views from readers just enhances the experience all the more.

The new, new journalism....

That's what I want.

Heckfire, I'll even pay for it.


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