His headline, of course, is meant to draw attentention. And I’m sure his opening probably wouldn’t sit well with some:
Journalists like to think of their work in moral or even sacred terms. With each new layoff or paper closing, they tell themselves that no business model could adequately compensate the holy work of enriching democratic society, speaking truth to power, and comforting the afflicted.
Actually, journalists deserve low pay.
Wages are compensation for value creation. And journalists simply aren’t creating much value these days.
Until they come to grips with that issue, no amount of blogging, twittering, or micropayments is going to solve their failing business models.
The essence of the column, however, is in the summary: “The demise of the news business can be halted, but only if journalists commit to creating real value for consumers and become more involved in setting the course of their companies.”
It’s worth reading column, even if it doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before. What it does, I think, is put it together and state it more clearly than I’ve seen.
And for what it’s worth, here are a couple of my flounderings on the subject:
Note:
From the CSM: “Robert G. Picard is a professor of media economics at Sweden’s Jonkoping University, a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, and the author and editor of 23 books, including “The Economics and Financing of Media Companies.” This essay is adapted from a lecture Professor Picard gave at Oxford. He blogs at http://themediabusiness.blogspot.com/“
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