ON THE FUTURE OF MAGAZINES

NOT DONE YET

The head of Time magazine has some thoughts on the future of magazines in the digital age, as this MediaMemo piece describes:

"Ann Moore, who runs Time Warner’s (TWX) Time Inc. spent last fall overseeing a lengthy series of reorgs and layoffs. But she’s starting off this year on a better note: Yesterday she received a lifetime achievement award from the magazine industry’s trade group. Here’s an excerpt from the acceptance speech she delivered at the Magazine Publishers of America luncheon..."

"I’m grateful that the basic need for fact-based information will not go away. Good editors will be needed more–not less– in an age of too much information. The public will increasingly understand the need for fact-based reporting…because sketchy information can lead to trouble.

The fastest way to turn a college classroom on the subject is to remind them of the price they paid for the rumor of weapons of mass destruction. We have somehow failed to teach the millenials that trustworthy information is essential for the free markets to thrive…

This is not a new problem for society, by the way. Mark Twain complained, ‘a lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. ‘ Wouldn’t Twain be amazed that it can now travel almost at the speed of light?"

The whole interview is worth reading, if only for a good, contrarian view on today's conventional wisdom.

Comments

[Alex Tolley]

I think she is being somewhat self-serving. She is also hardly an unbiased observer. Arguably we can get more accurate fact based reporting by having a multitude of eyeballs scanning news and correcting misstatements and incorrect facts. This seems more likely to ensure that erroneous reports ultimately get weeded out. We know that editors have failed us in the major news organizations, so maybe having lots of "editors" checking stories would work better?

[Paramendra Bhagat]

http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2009/02/onto-digital-publishing.html