GeorgeHopkin.com

Via Publishing2.0, Scott Karp writes on the fundamental difference between print and web journalism:

I realized that the problem isn’t just a lack of understanding about blogging, or social networking…The problem is, framed more broadly, an inability to understand what I like to call “web-native publishing” — but let’s just call it web publishing, because complexity is the root cause problem here.

The fundamental [difference] between print publishing and web publishing is that print distribution is a linear process, while web-native publishing is dynamic and non-linear, particularly when publishing on a web-native CMS like a blog.

…it’s not about understanding one format, it’s about understanding the WEB. It’s about understanding that putting content on the web isn’t just putting content on a page, same as a printed page — it’s putting content on the NETWORK. It’s understanding that, unlike print publishing where subscriptions control distribution, on the web PEOPLE and LINKS control distribution.

Lots more: http://publishing2.com/2008/01/21/the-only-way-for-journalists-to-understand-the-web-is-to-use-it/

Via Mother Jones, citizen journalism gets a bad press:

…the newspaper industry’s embrace of “citizen journalism” has a downside. Reader-submitted content rarely gets vetted by editors. In the same month as Getz’s Wal-Mart post, the Democrat published a story by a retirement home’s development director about the complex’s great new golf course—without disclosing her job—and a woman wrote an article about a boy who’d organized a cancer charity event without noting that she’s his mom. This may sound like small-time stuff, but it exemplifies the self-defeating side effects of newspapers’ new strategy for survival.

More: http://www.motherjones.com/arts/feature/2008/01/stop-the-presses.html