Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired and author of the Long Tail concept spoke recently at a media forum at the University of Central Lancshire (UK). His takes on evolution of journalism are blunt, but rather difficult to argue with:
- As an alternative to “commodity news” that is pointless to pursue on the Internet, he suggests going after true journalism (original reporting, narrative pieces), and also Internet packaged stories.
- To him, there is an opportunity to make “something that still has value and which people will pay for, either directly or in terms of their attention which can be monetized through advertising”.
- As for news organization, Anderson said jobs will be lost. He even draws parallel with the damages caused to the classified sector by Craigslist and the likes. (He can’t be more right in the light of the latest figures of job cuts in the media sector. A recent report quoted in the Hollywood Reporter says that layoffs in the US media are up 57% for the first four month of the year compared to a year ago. Almost 8000 persons where fired since Jan 1. Last year, total number was 11,700 jobs lost.
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