Of the NTDaily and Me

So I have been thinking for a while about new media and old media and the slow death and change of newspapers.

It wasn't too far back that I was reading an article by some guy in the Washington post and how his piece got lifted by gawker.

I didn't read the article in question nor the gawker jack-er-ation. I did read his article about how he needs the Post to pay his mortgage etc. I get what he is saying. The paper pays his bills so if it dies, he *dies*.

I feel for the dude, no doubt. I do think that he is one of those people that will get left behind, however, if he keeps up that thinking. I am not so sure I won't be left behind, when I think about it. I am not so with new media that I am ahead of the curve. I mean I started blogging about a year or two after it was popular. I started tweeting a year and a half ago but I couldn't get any followers. Now even my mom has a Twitter account. I still barely have any followers. Maybe my problem is that I am not influential enough?*

*Or interesting.

That is beside the point. Fact is that newspapers are not the most effective way to deliver news anymore. They used to be the fastest, most hi tech option. They lost the speed battle to radio and then to TV. Now Twitter cut out a middle man (or ten) and made news real time.

Breaking news. I know. I started thinking about this as I was browsing the ntdaily, though, that is why I bring it up.*

*side note. I am writing this with little or no problems on my iPod touch. Ain’t technology awesome?

Ntdaily.com is vastly improved from whatever crap they were passing off as a website before. That is all well and good. I am happy for us (University speaking) I wonder however why the he'll they are emulating a dying medium. I mean they don't teach telegraph code here do they? No.

Let me pause there. I realize that the newspaper industry isn't dead yet and aspiring journalists will most likely have to do some newspaper work before we all get it beamed to our genius phones. Actually, the nytimes is pretty good online. This isn't about that though. This is about preparing for the future. Sure, that stuff will get you a job at the Denton Record-Chronicle now, but what about when it kicks the bucket?

My sophomore year here, after reading a particularly bad article, I thought about trying to get on with the Daily.* I read the requirements and weighed the potential demands on my time. That is when I started this blog. I figured I would get an outlet without all the crap. I wouldn't have an editor pushing me to write stories about new menu items at Jazzman's or 'people' stories about generic commuter-student-chick.  

*I am a little spoiled. I have read the newspaper since I was about ten. Twenty year-olds trying write like Jack McCallum come off as twenty year-olds trying to write like Jack McCallum.I also realize that Jack McCallum probably sounded like a hack when he was 20.

In my time on here, I think I have produced one or two decent things. I am by no means an aspiring journalist. I am all for journalism training and letting pros do what they do best and getting the wannabes off the stage. Those pros and aspiring pros need to quit dicking around with the megaphone and step up to the mic as it were.

I like what the athletic dept has done with the green gang blog and the live chat things. That is real news media stuff. If I were the daily's sports editor I would be going >J.Jonah Jamison on my staff. Cigar and everything. That's what theyshould be doing. I realize they are not the same department and are not necessarily supposed to work together and whatever. Details. The world is malleable. Someone needs to get off their ass and make the daily a must read with thought-provoking in-depth reporting.

For who? For what? Well isn't that what they are learning? Hell, the guy that can do that will have his choice of newspaper jobs. That is what the industry needs.*

*In reality the paper industry, like the recording industry made their bones selling once precious items. The RIAA provided distribution and equipment and papers provided speed and expansive coverage of news. Now? Slim Thug can go platinum without Sony BMG and Allen Iverson can break his own FA signing. They don't hold all the cards anymore that is the problem.

I read the Daily every day. It isn't great. It isn't terrible. It'smeh. For the creative, progressive thinking editor there will be no other option so inviting as the Daily. There aren't any real world pressures to deal with. The sports editor won't bitch about you moving him/her because they haven't been there for 20 years-- they have been there for like two. You don't have to compete with ESPN for local sports coverage. It is all practice.