Excellent speech given by Kenneth Lerer, Co-Founder of the Huffington Post, at Columbia University about the condition and future of newspapers specifically and news media in general.
Interesting excerpt from the speech applies to local newspapers, and maybe even to the Columbus Grapevine.
. . . If I owned a newspaper, I would move to a robust hybrid model very quickly. I would aggressively build out my online business and I would start planning my future without the printing press. By responding to consumer demands for greater engagement, I would take advantage of the changes the Internet has brought. I would open the door to citizen journalism and to small, local investigative units like the ones that we are seeing in many cities. I don't mean to suggest that citizen reporters can replace the great work of journalists like Dexter Filkins or David Barstow, of the Times. But if newspapers pursue these new ways of newsgathering, it will help build their online community and that will, in turn, attract more users and that will make for a better business model.
Tags: HuffPost Columbia KennethLerer Journalism ColumbusGrapevi Ne
