Gregor, “A new form of self-centred media” is a pretty hollow description I think. A lot of fantastic content creators out there are writing for love not money. Traditional media companies are about making money for their owners. Did the Fairfax sackings not prove this for you?
I’m not *wishing* established media away, just pointing out that the business models it’s been created on have come undone and if we value journalism – be that by journalists, bloggers, citizen journalists or any other term to describe what are essentially content creators – then we better learn how to operate in this new medium pronto and start embracing the alternatives. Online news creation is a new skill with many challenges but it opens up a lot of amazing opportunities for us to achieve a better media. We just need some people willing to forge ahead and take some risks – and yes, that can mean being exposed to defamation – but has that ever been a good reason NOT to run an important defensible news story?

Bill, really don’t have much to say to that one, except *sigh*

Nah, you’re just pissing on them from a great height.

Nasty.

It’s not like the journalists shouldn’t have seen this coming ages ago. For years people like yourself and myself, not to mention Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch, have been predicting that the economics of running a large traditional news org were changing and that journos should start thinking about their future.

Some of the local journos, like Mark Jones at the AFR, saw the writing on the wall and forged a career change. Okay, I’m not suggesting they all decide to become priests, but you get the idea.

Most just stuck their heads in the sand, told us we were full of shit, that “the brand” would save them and now they are whining about their situation like every other employee who doesn’t pay attention and thinks daddy is going to look after them.

You have to wonder how good they are as investigative journalists if they couldn’t even see what was happening under their noses.

Nick, I’m as big a fan of true investigative journalism as anyone. And I hope someone out there has the deep pockets to keep investing in it. But I don’t remember seeing many Australian journalists going out on strike over the last 20 years as the quality of journalism in this country reached ever-deeper lows. I don’t remember reading too many stories in the AGE or SMH about how tabloidy our news was becoming, either.

It’s too late to fight for an industry when you’ve let it decompose for 20 years around you.

Here’s the big news – this is just the beginning. If you think this situation is bad, wait five years.

And, for the USA, perhaps it is already too late. One gets the impression, from this distance, that balanced journalism has gone, that it is all opinion or channels pushing specific interests, mad shock jocks and ratings chasing tabloids; while the slow reasoned voice of NPR gently unwinds some long winded tale about nothing at all in some country backwater.

I wonder what evolve for journalism and new media. Is balanced journalism a thing of the past, or is it something that never existed anyway?

So we both believe in the value of a good and informed media, but the way I see it, there’s no looking back, like it or not, the horses have bolted and there’s no getting them back in the barn.

I think we have no alternative but to start looking at other options. One thing you can’t deny is that Fairfax as it exists will not survive in the future diversified market. Maybe a leaner new organisation that aims less for quantity and more for quality will evolve. I think it will give it the best chance of surviving. But, for reasons I’ve pointed out, I have some grave doubts about this happening and I’m not willing put my faith in it.

I believe that all the things you list: time, money, opportunity, logistical support, etc – can be made available outside of mainstream media. Crikey is an early example of a news type organisation which offers this to writers. Stephen Mayne is trying to do it again with The Mayne Report. Cameron Reilly’s TPN is trying to do it with podcasting. For myself you don’t need to convince me of how hard it is Nick – I’m well aware of it, but I think the risk is worth it if not essential! I’ll keep doing my bit to try and evolve a model that can support new media. Have I done it? Not by a long shot, but I intend to keep learning and evolving to try and find a way to offer an online alternative that incorporates the opportunities being hyper-connected offers us and which mainstream media largely ignores. Everyday I see a reason to keep going.

I have avoided making this a debate about the Norg and more about a broader challenge for mainstream journalist, so I’ll respond to that in another post. My vision for Norg is pretty broad and open, because it is essentially controlled by its audience.

On your last thought about the market taking care of journalism, yes I do think that will happen. We may see many niche publications that don’t make the millions that Fairfax does, but are still sustainable for their publishers.