FIXING JOURNALISM -- A look inside might help

While walking my dog yesterday, the landscape on a clear Northern California late spring afternoon got me to thinking about the whole enterprise of reinventing journalism to make it more relevant to current times and technologies.

It's not just a matter of externalities.

I think American journalists have long taken an 'us vs. them' attitude toward the outside world -- meaning those outside the charmed circle of writers, editors and others who know or are exploring the true picture. Maybe us vs them is too strong, but certainly us and them -- us on the outside looking in, them as the other, the ones we interview, write about, dissect.

Some of that is necessary, of course. A certain degree of skeptical distance is needed to do journalism. Otherwise, it rapidly descends in marketing pure and simple, aka pr.

Nothing wrong with pr or marketing. But if journalism is just a confused branch of marketing, it ain't much, and certainly not what it strives to be. At best, it's a good, sometimes great, way of helping to explain our world and our lives to ourselves. What's really happening, not what we wish, hope or believe is happening, in politics, business, the arts, our community, etc.

The point, looking forward, is learning to use what others are trying to tell us journalists -- that we've been too insular, too sure of ourselves, too distant from the concerns, beliefs and needs of many of those in our audiences. I'm not talking about pandering, or watering down, or doing market research, before writing or publishing stories. But more communications -- real, thoughtful, honest, open communications -- between journalists and the people and institutions they cover would help immeasurably, I think.

Another move forward for writers and reporters, and others in the broad journalism biz, would be to recognize that wisdom isn't our special purview. Neither is the ability to write and express interesting thoughts in interesting and relevant ways. That probably sounds kind of silly, but I think many journalists and professional writers of many stripes have felt that they had the magic gift of researching and writing, and others just didn't.

The funny thing is that now that the world's mad about emails, blogs and Tweets, all the world's a writing lab, and all (or so it sometimes seems) its inhabitants experimenters in a vast psych experiment.

Lots of crap gets written, of course (I'm hoping not on Flocks), lots of self-serving fluff, plenty of inane observations, etc. etc. But lots of rough poetry, many interesting insights, personal observations, jokes and ideas -- a lot to learn from. It turns out that the gift of gab isn't just doled out to the Irish (I'm part Irish, and many other parts tossed in as well) or a special tribe of folks known as journalists.

There's wisdom in watching the wisdom of crowds as it begins to build and blossom, and learning from some of the best of what it has to teach. I hope journalism catches some of that magic, and wisdom, and doesn't just blindly assume that if it's not part of 'us' it doesn't count.

Because that route, I think, will lead to irrelevance. And death, because nothing is more useless than irrelevant journalism.

A bow to the Voice of San Diego

Making a living during this Great Recession doesn't leave much time for other things, like blogging. But, hey journalism needs lots of help, and I'm doing my small part.

Kudos to the Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit in Southern California that's getting a fair amount of praise in journalistic circles and winning fans in the San Diego community as well. It appears to be doing a fine job of experimenting and covering news that might not get covered by the shrinking, some would say shriveling, San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Union-Trib is under new and seemingly bone-headed management. Here, the Voice reports on U-T management's brilliant plan to drain every ounce of entrepreneurial spirit out of its reporters, editors and other staffers: http://voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/05/22/this_just_in/336confidentiality052209.txt

Ya gotta love it when the bean counters have no idea how to build a brand or inspire a beleaguered workforce, so they threaten people instead. In this case, forcing staffers to promise that if they escape they won't lure other inmates (I mean employees) to join them in new, more appealing workplaces.

About that last post

I certainly didn't and don't want to minimize the harm, angst, sorrow, etc., created by the current media meltdown. Like many in journalism and outside it, I will miss much of what's disappearing, and feel for the suffering of those who have been forced to leave jobs, and careers, they love.

But the creative destruction of capitalism, like that of evolution, is hard to avoid. You've got to adjust, got to evolve, or you're toast.

A possible benefactor

Late last week, I wrote a story for the San Francisco Business Times on an effort by S.F. financier Warren Hellman to help reinvent journalism in the Bay Area, and possibly beyond. He's still in the midst of investigating possible options. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/pur5y8

Interesting that even an ultra-successful financier has discovered that finding new financially sound paths for journalism is harder than it looks in the Internet era.

What I'm Trying To Do

Journalism is in trouble. Everyone who cares about journalism knows it. So do those who don't care, or who hope to undermine it. Big newspapers are folding, or shrinking. Classifieds have fled to Craigslist and other online sites. Display ads are disappearing too, due to the recession but also because newspapers are clearly no longer cool, and may no longer be a compelling way to reach consumers' pocketbooks. Magazines and traditional broadcast news are also under pressure.

And the people who create the "content" -- reporters, editors, photographers -- are in trouble too. Jobs are disappearing, pay shrinking, options narrowing. But most important of all, their calling is in jeopardy. The career, the profession, the craft they signed up for appears to be falling apart.

This blog is an attempt to find some solutions. Obviously, new ones are needed, especially on the business side of journalism, but on the editorial side as well. Consumers don't grow weary of your product if it's meeting their needs. Technology changes. Expectations change. We, as journalists, need to change too.

So, let's put our heads together and find some, with help from anyone who's willing to pitch in.

What we need now are crowds of innovations and innovators. Flocks of Gutenbergs. Let's give it a go.