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Week Of February 5, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri
February 9, 2007
This Thing We Do…
Part 3I wish I could quote Arthur Sulzberger, who was noted in a story in Ha'aretz, particularly for saying that it was possible that in the future The New York Times could be a web-based, unprinted journalistic enterprise. But my interest was more in the current strategies. The story says (Sulzberger being "he")…
""We are curators," he explains: curators of news. People don't click onto the New York Times to read blogs: they want reliable news that they can trust."
I guess that translation leads to poor punctuation. Is that whole thing a quote or not? I have no idea.
Regardless, I agree with the sentiment. In part. I do think there is a large section of readers who want reliable news they can trust. And I think the world needs reliable news they can trust. Moreover, I think the world needs and many people want a level of news depth that few organizations offer as effectively as The New York Times, regardless of an undeniable liberal editorial bias.
Still, The New York Times clearly believes there is great value in their opinion-based writers, as they tried to build Times Select on their Op-Ed stars. And blogs are a kissing cousin to op-ed. Frequency and interactivity are the two most significant variables. Blogs also tend to inspire shorter pieces.
But the future of personality journalism is likely to be a major part of defining the journalistic playing field long after issues of delivery systems are a series of incarnations away. The thing about personality journalism is that strong, smart opinions with style can, indeed, come from anywhere. And the tools to market them are becoming more and more accessible. At the same time, the imprimatur of having a job at a major print newspaper is already becoming less of a guarantee of respect, though most will quake at the notion that The New York Times and others still hire the very best. What has become apparent is that they hire the best… within their perspective.
It is here that Traditional Media has a lot in common with the Academy as we work through the Oscar season. Winning an Oscar doesn't objectively make you the best. It makes you the best within the values exhibited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. And year by year, the Pulitzer becomes devalued by the dawning reality that it is not a fair contest. It is a contest for and by the powers of Traditional Journalism that are. Nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't answer the question of "best" anymore because the range of possibilities is simply too narrow.
But at the crux of a national paper, as The New York Times intends to be, is a need to be both the curator and the purveyor of news. We at Movie City News can purvey some news. But we don't have the budget to do it on the level of a major paper… or even a trade paper. Mostly, we curate.
These days, anyone can curate. But creating value in the curating is a matter of quality in that skill. Defamer is a curator of gossip. MCN is a curator of movie news. Drudge is a curator of national news. Blogs are, for all intents and purposes, content creators, not curators. Whether a single-voiced blog creates news, gossip, opinion, or something of some other aesthetic value, it may be based on an awareness of a range of topics and news. But it is not really curating.
Purvey. Curate. Create.
Separate activities that can be integrated to various degrees.
So someone like Manohla Dargis, whose opinions are purveyed by the NYT is also a creator. But so long as she works inside the context of the NYT, she is really purveyed content. Her purpose is to deliver work that feeds the machine she is, by employment if not spirit, a part of.
Someone like Matt Drudge is curating his single page website, occasionally putting his beak into the news gathering process, but really just gathering the work of others. His purpose is to curate the news for his audience, balancing between what they want to know, what they need to know, and what he wants them to know.
Someone like Nikki Finke is a creator. Her only purpose is to tell stories, of whatever level, that gather a crowd.
The question that vexes us is just what constitutes news. If something is in The New York Times, it is generally considered to be news, purveyed by the organization.
If something appears on The Drudge Report, it is generally considered to be of note. But the news value is still up for grabs until it is validated by other media outlets, primarily purveyors.
And if something appears in Deadline Hollywood, we know that Nikki sees it as important. But the question of the journalistic value is up for grabs, not because Nikki is inherently suspect, but because in the context of her blog, there is no natural pressure to force her to be accurate. Certainly, there is more pressure to be bold enough to draw attention. And so, the reader is free to determine the degree of trust they will put in her efforts.
The degree of trust necessary to be taken seriously, as you can see, increases the further away you get from the idea of an established precedent.
But here is the rub… familiarity with the establishment exposes the truth that while they are much more likely to be accurate than less established content creators, they are not always accurate. And every strike against the establishment sites is far more damaging to that establishment than they would be to the curator or the creator, since the expectations are so much higher. Additionally, showing a facility for competing with the establishment is a major tool used by both curators and content creators in building towards their own position in the establishment. As such, there is not only a natural conflict, but a necessity for conflict.
The thing is, the establishment needs to maintain its standards in order for blogs to rise. If the establishment continues to dip to try to solve the internet problem, as blogs rise, there will be a middle of mediocrity and both the fly and the spider will be stuck in the web forever.
What will be fascinating is when a mainstream media business with an interest in creating a print opportunity reaches beyond the traditions of syndicates and use all the different opportunities available to create a product that will curate first and not spend all the money needed to purvey.
Meanwhile, for those of us still building towards a New Establishment, we need to remember to celebrate what we can do, not worry about what we cannot, and seek to innovate in ways other than simply being louder or more obnoxious than the current establishment.
For the Traditional Media, leaner and meaner.
For new media, more restraint, clearer definition.
Things can only get better, right?
E Me.
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