Is Print Dead? That was the Twitter teaser for this week’s show. And we get to that in the second half of the show…
Betsy was joined by two guests this week – first up, she spoke with Barry Johnson, noted local arts critic and advocate, talking about both his life at the Oregonian & discussing his vision for the arts journalism non-profit start-up he’s currently helming to provide news and critical analysis to serve and inform the local arts community. In his ‘weirdly busy’ world (his words, not ours), he’s putting together his soft-launch early efforts at PDX Arts Watch, or read about his vision in this paper, written to spur discussion at the We Make the Media conference last year.
Barry’s also involved in work for The Right Brain Initiative (warning: auto-music behind link), writing grants to help support underserved communities, commenting about the recent hearings about the future of the Rose Quarter, and writing cogent 140-character bits of advice for fellow editors in his recent Twitter series, Dear Editors.
She next switched over to talk about how trained journalists can help provide context and reporting in this new age with both Barry and Abraham Hyatt (organizer of the Digital Journalism conference, among other things), and the conversation turned into a discussion about the viability of the print-only publication model. Is print dying? We opened the discussion by talking about Betsy’s failed attempt (again) to actually read the papers she guiltily subscribes to, and shared Aaron Hockley’s observation that ‘print is dead to him’ (as posted in a comment below) to kick off the conversation. Abraham reminds us that the dissatisfaction with print dates back to the Jeffersonian era (Thomas, not George) and some publications are still surviving financially, but yes – print newspapers are hobbled by space limitations and the desire to satisfy a general audience, among other concerns.
Their suggestions to get print publications more relevant? Listen to the show for the details, but they included dumping wire stories, focusing on what’s truly relevant to a local audience, and writing in ‘nuggets’ (Betsy coined that term, for better or worse…)
Thanks to both Barry and Abraham for a fascinating conversation, and stay tuned next week at 1:30 pm on Thursday, when Betsy will continue the ‘is print dead?’ conversation with a few other interested parties. (Might that be you? Email her at betsy@redoingmedia.com if you’re interested in participating, or leave a comment below…)
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