‘Journalist’ or ‘techie’? Or both?

If it wasn’t so ridiculous, it would be funny. But it remains a serious obstruction towards any progress for the benefit of all, when we resort to name calling in order to pass blaim on the media self-destruction going on out there.

As Kevin Anderson points out, journalists blaim management, senior journalists blaim younger tech-savvy journalists, and digital pioneers blaim the media establishment as such. And it isn’t leading us anywhere.

That this is the situation, we find ourselves in, is hardly surprising. Because to long serving journalists and management, it is a long, looong fall from power they’re experiencing. From a situation with virtual monopoly in distribution of information to a situation where basically anyone can - and a lot will - claim that they themselves can do a much better job as publishers.

On the other side you have the digital digerati who I suspect is sitting with a feeling of having won - but having won a heavy price. Naturally they will try to impose their belief systems and way of doing things on the habless loosers out there, and naturally they won’t succeed. Simple pride - and their own misbehaving - is standing in the way.

Add to this the frustrations of business models that don’t adapt too well to the online world, and you can probably understand, why the whole mediascape is on the verge of imploding.

So what can lead us out of here? First of all, I agree with Kevin that we should dispense with the name calling. We’re not journalists, techies, managers. We’re all people passionate about media. If there are people present not passionate about media, they should be leaving - pronto.

Second of all we need to understand that this is a life threatening crisis and adobt the model GM has with their new Volt project described by Scott Karp: Bet everything on beating this by defining radical new business models and new ways of doing media and providing value for all types of customers. And we should be transparent about it. Why the transparency? Because transparancy is the only thing that really ensures total commitment. Total commitment to get out of the loosers game and be part of the winning side once again.

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.