Resurrecting the Media

As the decade draws to a merciful close, one market that has been beaten down further than the Republicans and our retirement portfolios combined has been the media. I’ve opined over and over and over about the media’s continuing insignificance in the 21st century, but I may also see a way out for the Fourth Estate.

First, downsize staff and cut pages if you must, but by all means please stop cutting back on writers and foreign bureaus. Writers and foreign bureaus are the oil that keeps dailies and newsweeklies running. Many colleges are in financial trouble, but the last place they cut staff is in academia because then the quality of education suffers, followed by the quality of the institution. Same for professional sports teams; if they cut their best players the team will suffer and fans will desert. It’s no different when the media cuts back on writers and stories. Laying off journalists is killing professional journalism.

Twenty years ago when journalists and foreign bureaus existed we watched successful revolutions across Eastern Europe – many have said Western journalism helped get these stories out and fueled the protestors for democracy. We currently have a revolution beginning to bubble in Iran and the lack of Western media actually over there covering the story is shocking. If you only get your news from mainstream media you would have no idea what is happening there. Fortunately we have DIY journalism on YouTube, Flickr and Facebook to spread the word, and ironically I’ve seen pleas from mainstream media asking these brave Iranians to act as (unpaid) correspondents! Sorry guys, you reap what you sow.

But there have been some media success stories this decade. Just as the online audience has fragmented and narrowcasted, the successful media outlets have been ahead of the curve and provided terrific coverage and breaking commentary first. Specifically, I’m thinking of TMZ.com. TMZ was the first to break Michael Jackson’s death, Tiger Woods’ er, “mishaps” and is actually expanding into sports. Why has TMZ succeeded? Because it completely eschews the old-school media model in favor of non-printed breaking news – almost an AP for gossip. They also have the old media model of a small army pounding the pavement looking for news (or dirt).

Do they pay for tips, if not stories? Yes, sometimes they do. But TMZ has never pretended to be anything other than what it is. And with NBC now crossing the same lines TMZ ignores, it’s quite possible that checkbook journalism will become a stronger player within the mainstream media in the next decade, if only to keep up with its smaller, faster rivals. TMZ’s success and accuracy cannot be ignored any longer. There is a lesson here.

More info: Politico is another good example of the new Web media working. And they’re hiring. If you were a recent journalism grad, where would you go?