Whenever I talk with journalists about my blogging I feel uncomfortable. I do not at all consider what I do as being "journalism" as I have known it all of my life. But, many of them tell me that by blogging for as long and consistently as I have been I have become part of an entrepreneurial movement that is transforming the industry of journalism.
I have written about this type of phenomenon before as it relates to the music industry and retailing. I also experienced it being an entrepreneur in the health care industry during the early days of its transformation in the 1980s and 1990s. Entrepreneurial activity in an established industry that is dominated by giant corporations is often referred to as being like "little mammals dancing under the feet of dinosaurs."
Saulo Hansell at the New York Times blog (imagine that -- the New York Times now has a blog!!) reflects on the entrepreneurial undercurrents in journalism today at this post.
Every now and then, I meet someone idealistic and perhaps foolish enough to want to embark on a career in journalism. Until recently, my advice was largely the same as anyone had given for many decades: Find a gig where you can write -- a small town paper, freelancing for an alternative weekly, a business trade publication (my route). If you're good, the story went, you would find you way to bigger publications and forge a career.Today, it's hard to give that advice, when the economic underpinnings of all those places you were supposed to be trying to work for are so shaky. Is there any good advice other than to learn how to trade mortgage-backed securities? I'm not sure that that opening an account on Blogger and hoping for the best will pay the rent.
Maybe not, but I don't think that taking an entry level job at a newspaper owned by a national holding company has a much brighter future....
(Thanks to Ben Cunningham for passing this idea along).
