Saving journalism

There's a great post at a blog called howardowens.com about the 12 things journalists can do to save journalism.

The bottom line is that journalists have to become more techie. They need to know how to build web pages -- including dynamic web pages, how to use blogs, RSS feeds, wi-fi connections, etc.

These are all things that I've learned just in the last 5 years. One of the things they didn't mention is using databases and spreadsheets, which I would certainly add to the list.

Newsrooms have been notorious for being slow to change. The management doesn't force it and very few individuals take the initiative to make the changes themselves. There are always two or three in every newsroom who drive forward no matter what. Unfortunately, that's not enough to save us.

The list above also doesn't talk about what CONTENT we're going to publish with all these newfangled tools. We need to rise above the din and the boring stuff and come up with intriguing, useful, in-depth content.