Brian Fuller’s blog on the state of media and communications

Long tail’s take

Posted on | December 13, 2006 | No Comments

Chris “Long Tail” Anderson waxes on the future of media in a posting this week on his Long Tail site.

THEN: We control the site. Editors are gatekeepers.

NOW: We share control with readers. Editors catalyze and curate conversations that happen as much “out there” as on our own site.

My take? Yes and no. Some audiences will continue to be passionate and passive in their media consumption. A few will be passionate and active about it. And most won’t figure out what it means for some time.
Taken another way, a lot of people like to drink wine but don’t like to make it. I like meat, but I don’t own a steer. I love the Wall Street Journal but I don’t send them article ideas. I wake up every day, though, really wanting to see what they’re going to tell me. They’re the experts. Sure, they get tips from readers that turn into stories, but that’s not new. And the Internet really hasn’t advanced that dynamic much at all.
Would I like the opportunity on a Wall Street Journal site to say my two cents in front of a big audience and push forward my piece of intelligence on whatever topic? Sure. Do I want to do it every day? No. I have to earn a living.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Related posts:

  1. Objectivity reconsidered
  2. Wailing wall
  3. Why they’re different audiences
  4. The incredible shrinking newspaper-part 96
  5. The fight for the New York Times and Halberstam’s death

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

No Responses to “Long tail’s take”

  1. Jeff
    February 14th, 2007 @ 9:31 pm

    Seen this one?

    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-stein2jan02,0,3287162.column?coll=la-opinion-columnists

    From the L.A. Times’ Joel Stein:

    Here’s what my Internet-fearing editors have failed to understand: I don’t want to talk to you; I want to talk at you. A column is not my attempt to engage in a conversation with you. I have more than enough people to converse with. And I don’t listen to them either. That sound on the phone, Mom, is me typing.

    - Jeff
    http://www.mcbrublog.com

  2. Jeff
    February 14th, 2007 @ 9:35 pm

    Let’s try that again: Here’s the link to Joel Stein’s column.

    Jeff
    http://www.mcbrublog.com

Leave a Reply





Theme Tweaker by Unreal
Switch to our mobile site