Michael Rosenblum is a damn smart guy.
In the middle of listening to countless laid off journalists who have nothing better to do than complain that the big bad bossman cut their jobs, he’s using his Web site to dish out a reality check. And a harsh one it is:
…the singular reason that we as a smart and well educated professional class did not pay attention to key events like The Internet Revolution From Which We Should All Have Profited Mightily But Did Not.
Because we were ‘hands off”.
And, this nonsense continues to this day.
He’s saying same thing I was whispering in class today with my neighbor: Journalists don’t know crap about business. At least the ones whining don’t.
Why? We’re a bunch of liberal martyrs; self-obsessed, who think that we’re not really doing our jobs if we’re making a decent living off of it. After all, who needs a paycheck or stock options when we’re already god’s gift to democracy?
(This coming from a woman who makes nothing at her student publication.)
A mediocre “professor” told 70 of us last semester that journalists have too much baggage to reinvent the journalism industry. What I didn’t realize was that our baggage was journalism school–the thing invented because retired reporters didn’t qualify to be high school American history teachers.
They’re teaching us–well-meaning or not–that we’re victims of others’ tyranny when, in fact, we’re victimizing ourselves with our own naivety. Instead, we should be learning that we can best question authority by (1) learning why they do what they do, and (2) replacing them as authority figures and using the power for good.
So let’s open up our minds and settle on paid subscriptions or micropayments so we can go back to being our dinosaurs.
I think you make a really good point. I can’t think of many newspapers effectively utilizing the internet model. They keep trying to play catch-up with services like Digg and other various ideas but not doing anything particularly well.
I’m not sure paid subscriptions are the way to go either. Effectively utilize ads and create a simpler way to get organized (local, national, global) news and media for readers through online/mobile means, to really make it worth their while to pay some kind of a subscription.
Michael Rosenblum is a very smart guy. Im not going to lie, I didnt plan on really listening to him. I thought, what would this foolish man know? Now I know that I am the foolish one.
Before Rosenblum came to our class I was against journalism and bussines. But after hearing Rosenblum rant and rave, I see that I was wrong. After all he’s the rich one. Roenblum is now my hero.
I was the opposite. I read these great blogs by a great businessman, and saw him do nothing more than toot his own horn when he came to Stony Brook. Yes, people can learn a lot from him, but calling him a “hero” is giving him way too much credit.
Before he tried to light a fire under our asses, I already knew that I was a smart woman capable of acheiving whatever I set my mind to. When I need reassurance, I’ll call my mom; I won’t think back to the day Arrogance Incarnate came to pick on students for disagreeing with him.
I love smart people, but I prefer them with a dash of friendliness.