Michael Libbie on The Future Of Journalism

Thanks Andy, for giving me this opportunity to voice an opinion on “The Future of Journalism” and you’re right. It is a passion of mine.

Much of what is wrong with “Journalism” today is the corporate takeover of the media. No longer are writers, photographers, editors and copy experts dedicated partners in disseminating “the news” they are simply pawns in the hands of corporate accountants. “Sales” runs the operation…not journalism. If you want proof just open any “news media” website. If, indeed, you can download it in decent time you’ll see that it is blazing with more ads than the classifieds. Monetizing news to this extent is simply making it a commodity and the public suffers.

The result of this bunker mentality is falling circulation/viewer-ship yet increased advertising costs to business. It is a recipe designed for failure.

So, what do we do?

• Look to independently owned media that is responsible to their local area. Perfect examples are small town newspapers and radio stations. Here the media professionals are tied to the community and not the corporate culture. They mix with the citizens and are responsible for what they write and read.
• Question existing media. Example: Last night on ABC-5 here in Des Moines they had an entire segment on “fluff news”. Four minutes of mindless drivel that belonged on Entertainment Tonight or C.O.P.S. Sorry but with all the activity in DSM they had to stoop to that junk?
• Push the envelope and get creative on our own. The technology available today allows us to do “Indy” news and get a readership/viewer ratio much larger than existing media. And, that’s not hard. Consider that there are 425,000 households in the DSM DMA. The Des Moines Register daily edition subs are 144,000 and falling. We can do better.
• Finally, do away with the political agenda. I don’t need local writers to “take a stand”. Give the data and the facts unless your agenda is an “agenda”.

Thanks for reading…

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