The cock-eyed optimist

New Media Guru (!) Jeff Jarvis is a self confessed cockeyed optimist and he's tired of the bleating about the business in traditional newsrooms......

He takes up the story.....

Just last week, San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein reportedly told his staff that the newspaper business “is broken and no one knows how to fix it.... And if any other paper says they do, they’re lying.” What a frightening lack of imagination and optimism that betrays.

There are lots of ways to fix it and as soon as Bronstein’s bleat was published, suggestions began pouring in from blogs. And it’s not about fixing, anyway. It’s about growing, expanding, exploding. It’s about new opportunities.

So I’ll declare this a whine-free zone. No moaning, mewling, mourning. Let’s talk instead about our reasons for optimism.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t risks in this change. There are. But we already know most of the risks, dangers, and problems. We’ve been obsessing on them. Now it is time to turn our attention to the opportunities.

As an ex broadcast journo I really can empathise with how some in the industry are feeling. But it is all about growing, expanding and exploding. I have spent the last 14 months reinventing myself as a new media bod. I have been and am on, a VERY steep learning curve. Its sometimes hard to understand where all the pieces fit but I know the world of news especially is not going to be dominated by one or two editors in Canary Wharf or even at the BBC. Real people will decide what's important to them. As I have said in a previous post THE WEB CHANGES EVERYTHING. Please take a few minutes to read what Jeff has to say. Are you optimistic?