Challenging traditional journalism

Updated on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 11:00 PM by Logan Molen

"Rebooting the News" is among the better-known podcasts devoted to the convergence of journalism, technology and the reshaping of communication.

I listen weekly, but it's a love-hate affair. Hosts Jay Rosen and Dave Winer can be variously intriguing and grating throughout a 45-minute podcast. Rosen is a journalism professor at NYU and Winer is a programmer best known as editor of Scripting News.

They're intriguing because they bring fresh thinking to journalism and communication. But they can be incredibly ignorant of basic business requirements to fund or maintain even bare-bones journalism efforts so the concept of "rebooting the news" sometimes comes across as a hollow promise. And for people highlighting new forms of communication, they've made absolutely no effort to figure out how to control audio levels after 66 episodes (I'm constantly adjusting the volume control because their levels are rarely in sync).

But to the good news:

Click to read more ...

Sage life and business lessons from Gary Vee

If you're not familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk (aka Gary Vee), you're in for a treat. He's raw, in an F-bomb kinda way, but the business and life messages he delivers through the web, books and speaking engagements are spot on.

His backstory is an immigrant who reshaped his family business, flipped the stuffy wine trade on its head by launching an "honest" wine channel online. (Sample quote from a recent webisode of Wine Library TV, a blind taste test of three wines: "These three wines are awful. All of these should be on your "Do Not Drink" list. Please never, never, ever put them in your mouth."). Vaynerchuk's success with Wine Library led to the world of business advice and consulting. In addition to Wine Libary, he has a popular Twitter feed, a best-selling book and what appears to be a successful consulting business.

He's energetic beyond belief and delivers sharp insight on things big and small. The core of his mission is to "do the right thing." For most people, that's a hackneyed, empty expression, but when GV says it and lays out all the benefits of being a good human, you want to fall in line (if you're not already).

Click to read more ...

Publish2's News Exchange offers great promise for journalists

I'm happy to be among the beta testers for Publish2's News Exchange, which was formally announced to the world today at TechCrunch Disrupt.

After using News Exchange for a few days -- and quite a bit today -- I can safely say it brings a whole new mindset to how media organizations can share, pursue and purchase content. I've worked with Associated Press content and tools since I was a college student in the 1980s and my first impressions of News Exchange last week were, "Wow, this is a game changer."

News Exchange is a simple but powerful rethinking of traditional content-sharing networks like The Associated PressThe Associated Press ought to be very worried because the News Exchange tools, while rough in spots, have the possibility of being a very powerful yet much less expensive alternative to more traditional services like AP. In short, Publish2 sees News Exchange as a better, livelier and cheaper middleman between media providers and customers.

Click to read more ...