thoughtsignals

Bloomberg may be the biggest, most important news organization you’ve never heard of. (Well, OK, maybe you have heard of it. Founder Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York, after all.)

Slate press critic Jack Shafer does a nice job explaining why Bloomberg has succeeded, and is growing its news operation fast, while daily newspapers are crumbling.

Daily newspapers didn’t see the lucrative news and information opportunity Bloomberg did for the same reason they didn’t enter the Web search business when it was green. As mature and graying industries, newspapers are mortified by the creative destruction of changing markets, so they take only tiny and confused steps—mostly backwards.

Some newspaper companies are showing signs of some innovation now, but the industry could use a strong dose of Bloomberg’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Bloomberg is also famous for paying above-average wages and for offering a great working environment and plenty of opportunities for advancement and training (though you are expected to work your butt off). Newspapers could use some of that, too.

Link.

(via Romenesko)

For anyone who hasn’t quite figured out why the traditional daily newspaper business model is disintegrating, there’s a nice piece in the Times of London that explains it quite well.

The trouble is the unbundling of the newspaper business model that was so foreseeable even 15 years ago. If you’re looking for a job, you might go to the newspaper, or you might go to Monster.com. If you’re looking for a house, you might go to the newspaper or you might go to Realtor.com. If you’re looking for the latest on Iraq, you might go to the newspaper or you might (even in America) go to bbcnews.com.

Link.

Interesting article in the Vermont Guardian about a “revolving door” for journalists who go into public relations. I don’t quite think this is the same as the “revolving door” that exists for public officials that go into lobbying. There just isn’t the potential for the same amount of personal gain that exists when a government official decides to become a lobbyist, even if PR jobs generally pay better than journalism.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I’ve been a journalism journalist, done public relations and marketing, and then returned to journalism. Not to sound polyannish, but I think as a journalist it’s given me a broader view of the world that I never would have had if I hadn’t left the newsroom for a few years.

Link.

(via Romenesko)

Steve Pavlina says news is addictive and harmful.

The need my news addiction filled was that it gave me a sense of groundedness by connecting me with what was going on in the world.  But the negative side effect was that it was conditioning me to become more negative and fear-based in my thinking.

Not surprisingly, since I make my living writing news, I disagree with his main point. But there’s some truth to some of what he says, particularly about the shallowness of a lot of news coverage.