Len Downie, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, says journalism will thrive if its based on a non-profit model, discusses the Nieman Journalism Lab. (The video is a lecture he gave at Stanford University last year on the future of journalism.)
His belief in non-profit success stems partly from these organizations’ willingness to collaborate. Interestingly, the Associated Press reports that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will spend $10 million over the next two years to support local news. It’s plans include the creation of five regional journalism centers, with PBS and NPR collaborating on major topics that affect the nation, like health care and the economy.
iPad A Matter of Hype
On a similar topic, Scott Rosenberg has a funny post about how iPads are the new CD-ROMS, and will not “turn the clock” on the media industry’s current business model:
The Web triumphed over CD-ROM for a slew of reasons, not least its openness. But the central lesson of this most central media transition of our era, one whose implications we’re still digesting, is this: People like to interact with one another more than they like to engage with static information. Every step in the Web’s evolution demonstrates that connecting people with other people trumps giving them flashy, showy interfaces to flat data.
As another one of those “iPad skeptics,” and a believer in social media and public journalism, I think he’s spot-on.
