I recently attended Webcom 2009 in Montreal and talked about blogging in the age of twitter.  More on that later.  This event attracts a large number of traditional media people and there was a lot of discuss about old versus new (or social media). I attended an excellent session on Who killed the Rocky Mountain News? from John Temple who was the last managing editor of one of the first big papers to fold.  While John admits that many mistakes were made that led to the paper demise, he has learned a lot from the experience and offered some excellent suggestions.

Among other things John said that, “if you want to compete in a medium, you have to understand it.” They built a great web site with no SEO considerations and no one could find it. Another lesson: measure, measure, measure. The Web allows you to measure, take advantage of this. Perhaps most important of all he said that traditional media needs to do R&D to find innovative new offerings that take advantage of the new Web and not just try to get more money for current offerings.  The “us” versus “them” mentality needs to be trashed.

I was reminded of a session that I attended at Harvard’s JFK School of Government in early 2005. On one end of the long table were managing editors of several large papers, including the New York Times. At the other end were some of the big time bloggers of the time such as Dave Winer, Dave Weinberger, and Jay Rosen.  The newspapers said that they spend millions putting reporters out in the field and fact check extensively while the bloggers attract big followings hanging out in their basement in their pajamas writing on their laptop. Dave Weinberger objected to the comparison. He said that the bloggers were just having conversations about what the news reported, among other things.  It was not the same thing. I would agree.

Blogging has opened up a new channel of communication. If the older ones wake up to this they can see how to effectively take advantage of the opportunities. The New York Times has done as good a job as anyone in this area since that 2005 event.

The recent Technorati 2009 survey of the blogosphere also touched on this topic.  It said that, “despite being perceived by some as enemies of the traditional media, bloggers actually carry a journalistic pedigree. 35 percent of all respondents (bloggers) have worked within the traditional media… and the true overlap reveals itself in the 27 percent of respondents who both blog and work in traditional media.”

I actually got started blogging by pitching an article on the topic to a print trade publication early in 2004. I have to confess that I had only heard about blogs the week before. When I sold the piece I started a blog as part of my research and started attending Dave Winer’s blog evenings at Harvard law School. I got hooked and write for many blogs now and still occasionally for traditional media, as well.

Thierry Hubert, who also attended Webcom 2009 wrote, about the discussions I alluded to at the start this post in Webcom 09 – The Misplaced Fear of the Mainstream Media.  He wrote that “The battle is not one of formal versus informal, but one where formal content providers need to listen and engage in the dialogue.”  He adds that at the same time traditional media need to hold on to their charter as “leaders and champions of valued and verified information.” They need to participate in the new social media without losing site of what made them valuable in the first place.

There can, and should, be a symbiotic relationship between traditional media and the new social media.  Traditional media has given me a lot to blog about over the past five years. I look forward to more and hope that it takes the steps to survive by better engaging in the new Web.