Links you probably won’t find on Romenesko
By William M. Hartnett on May 30, 2007 in featured, newspapers
Neil Henry’s call “for corporations such as Google to accept more responsibility for the future of American journalism” was a popular link off Romenesko yesterday. Today we get a letter that says Henry didn’t go far enough.
I’m guessing Romenesko’s links are the sole source of journalism commentary, particularly that of the future of the industry variety, for many, maybe most, newspaper reporters and editors. Print journalists, on the whole, aren’t exactly a 622-RSS-feeds-a-day bunch, after all. Fair enough. But the lack of alternate viewpoints generally reflected in Romenesko’s links on the future of our industry is downright dangerous given his site’s reach in our newsrooms. This is a crucial moment for newspapers, and we all need to pay attention to a diverse range of ideas and opinions.
In that spirit, here are a few posts whose authors disagree with Henry, compiled for the benefit of my ink-stained colleagues who haven’t heard of Technorati.
- Shoot the Google
- Shooting red herring in a barrel
- Note to print media: Fire your sales team ASAP
- Cutbacks at the Chron are Not the Death of Investigative Journalism
- Berkeley’s Neil Henry Takes On New Journalism Reality
- The Trouble With “The Decline In News” Has Nothing To Do With Journalists
- The decline of rational argument
- Should Google Subsidize Journalism?
- Death of Journalism – Blame Google? No. Ask Google to Lead? Yes.
- Chronicle Says New Media Responsible for Sub Par News
- Mama Google’s nipples
EDIT: Good letter to Romenesko that went up after my original post.
Louis Gray | May 31, 2007 | Reply
In my sophomore year at Cal, I got into an e-mail dustup with Romenesko over a class project I had dubbed “The Media Encyclopedia”, which was aimed to be a portal for newspapers, professional and collegiate. Though the goal was noble, Romenesko ripped me for trying to usurp the efforts of Editor and Publisher, with whom I was not familiar at the time. It was unsettling.
In other news, thanks for the notes on Neil Henry. He was a great professor while I was at Cal from 95-99. I appreciated his efforts a great deal. That we don’t see eye to eye on this topic is fine, but he’s an intelligent guy for sure.
William M. Hartnett | May 31, 2007 | Reply
I don’t know Neil Henry, but he deserves credit for even thinking about the broader future of the business. Too many of the newspaper rank-and-file are still thinking in a traditionally moment-to-moment manner. That’s not going to cut it these days.