On Online Journalism: Why it’s the Place to Be

Jun 04 2007

I have been in online journalism for several years now, surely not that long compared to a lot of the veterans I know, but enough to realize a few observations about the industry. I love journalism, and can’t imagine doing much else anymore, and I solidly believe that the place to be is not in print, but online.

By no means am I saying that there isn’t a place in the future for print media, but I believe that its place in the world will change. No longer will print media be where people turn for news, instead I believe that more and more people will look to the internet – we are seeing this already, is isn’t a new thing. Print media will transform into a place for feature articles and longer pieces, mainly due to the major advantage that online journalism has over print: speed. Print media still has the advantage of portability currently, which is why it still has a place with feature articles and the like, but even that content is available online and will be made more accessible with the advent of e-readers, UMPCs, and other fun gadgets.

I can think of many times I have been up in the wee hours of the morning preparing an article on a piece of news that has just dropped. I can write a story and publish it online before most print media outlets are even aware of it. Take the announcement of the iPhone for example: I was preparing an article during Steve Jobs’ keynote, with the article live on MobileBurn not 30 seconds after the facts were revealed. Tech magazines would have had to wait until the following month at least to report on the news, and even newspapers would have had to have held off for an afternoon edition, if not the next day. It just makes sense for people to turn to the most recently updated news source, which will almost always be the internet.

Online media also has the ability to be very specialized. At MobileBurn, we do better reviews of handsets than almost any print publication out there. We know phones, it’s what we do. Most magazines have to cover a broader range of subject matter, and as such do not have the same depth of knowledge on all topics. The perfect publication would be made up of specialists reporting on what they know best, and this is far easier online. It does happen in print, but through RSS feeds and other syndication technology readers now have the ability to view exactly the content they like, rather than one publication choosing who is the best in a field.

I have no problem writing feature articles for print media, I quite enjoy it, but I really do believe in online media.

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View Comments

  • mdy
    I agree -- as long as we're dealing with time-sensitive information, online is the place to be.

    Not only is it faster to get the word out online, it's also much easier to communicate that information globally (hence my ability to comment on your blog even though I'm in another country). Printed material, in contrast, is constrained by the laws of matter and physics.

    Distribution costs also grow proportionately with the number of copies distributed for printed matter; that's not the case with online material.

    Another great advantage of the online medium -- the ability to link to a wealth of resources to add context to your piece, without infringing on anyone's copyright.

    Print does have its advantages, though. Aside from the portability, there's also the fact that, as an information consumer, I don't need to have internet access or electricity to benefit from print -- a fact I'm not likely to forget anytime soon after last year's experience of having no electricity for 6 straight days after a super typhoon. ;-P
  • Donna
    this article is very informal
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