What's your contingency plan?

"I'd also advise everyone to pay off consumer debts and build up a 6-8 month emergency fund and stash it somewhere you can get to in a hurry when you need it."

One of my goals at the moment

 

I was going to say something like this, but Cadet did it much better.

An addendum: Media companies could use "citizen journalism" to deliver the final blow to the rest of us. It's news you can use, delivered by your neighbors! no more filtering the message through the Big Bad Reporter With An Agenda! Now you can deliver the message exactly as you intended!

Now more than ever, people just want to read people who parrot their thoughts. As Cadet noted, who gives a shit about a school budget deficit when Sally Sucksalot finished 19th in the fourth heat of the 800-meter run at the league JV meet? She tries as hard as the other kids! She deserves a mention too! Even if she finished in 12 minutes!

And who's to say this would be bad business for mass media? The local advertising market as we know it won't exist in 10 years. So why shouldn't Cablevision--whoes contempt of reporters dwarfs that of the JRC or anybody else--turn newsday.com into a virtual community for citizen journalists? Post your stories 24-7-365! Who knows what matters more on Long Island than your neighbors?

They'll still get a shitload of eyeballs to the website and they won't have to pay anyone.

Maybe I'm being Chicken Little. but I'll flip burgers before I instruct someone to go into this business.

 

WOW.

Well, I am just one little tiny reader. I like my media in print. PRINT. Period. Again, just one little person's opinion.

And just for the record. I don't need my local paper to tell my how Little Sally finished at the track meet. I was there. I know how she finished.

 

Well tell her to hurry up then!

 

We were having this discussion the other night in the newsroom. Is it irresponsible for high school advisors/college professors to keep trying to sell our business to students, as if everything is fine? I know the answer to that, but I'd be intrested to hear others' thoughts.

 

Some really do think this "reader submitted" stuff is the answer to staff cutbacks.

Losing a business copy editor? Get businesses to upload their events and briefs through the website! Same with a community sports calendar!

Cutting back on photographers? People will upload their own photos of events! Just like MySpace! And we won't have to pay for their fancy lenses.

The problem is, technology cannot replace people. It can make people's jobs easier and more efficient, but it can also give people more to do. You don't think you need someone to edit those reader-submitted briefs?

 

This is perhaps the most cynical, pessimistic thread I've ever seen here. And that's saying something.

If only I wasn't nodding my head in agreement with some of you....

 

Depends on whether you have standards.

 

Pandhandling or telemarketing scams.

 

You think you do? [/beancounter]

 

Of course, there are dumb/apathetic people. Always have been, always will be.

People may want all sunshine and roses from their school district, but they want the real stuff from the rival school district.

If happy horseshit sells, those "community" papers would have put us out of business long ago.

I submit that among the reading crowd, they're reading more than ever because of the Internet. Our fuck up is not figuring out a way to make that increased consumption pay. I don't see any signs that the market for what we do is diminishing.

And as soon as I see blogs that don't use mainstream media stories as a basis for 80 percent of their content, I'll start believing blogs can stand alone as a news or commentary source.

 

Then what are you doing here?