(r)evolution

NYT API WTF?

The significance of the announcement last week that the New York Times plans to offer an open API by this summer probably passed most editors by like alphabet soup off a duck's back. But the message for journalism students is clear: learn the skills to collect, mix and match data to tell a story online. It's not a substitute for traditional investigative reporting, but it's the most important new opportunity the web has opened up.

The Tallest Dwarf Is Still a Dwarf

"Be the tallest dwarf." That was Chris Anderson's recommendation to anyone running a niche media site, cited in a TechCrunch blogpost that argued that old media companies should go even farther and recognize that the era of control is over, and that users are as interested in talking to each other as in reading journalism handed down from on high. This is completely true.

But it's also completely true, as Howard Kurtz writes in his latest Washington Post media column that "the economics of the Web, for now, won't support a staff that can hold public officials accountable across the region and still cover every Nationals game." So embrace the new reality, but do so without arrogance, because it comes at a price.

Don't Blame Craig

That's the title of a Dave Morgan blog post that takes aim at the idea that Craigslist is responsible for the troubles in the US newspaper industry. He blows that charge right out of the sky, by showing newspapers are just one of many industries to take a dive after a near-monopoly on distribution was exploded by the Internet. Steve Pearlstein's recent Washington Post column does a great job of describing the forces buffeting the industry, and why publishers just can't bring themselves to make the right business choices.