Well, it’s been a pretty awesome week.
I spent most of last Thursday through Sunday at the 2009 Online News Association conference in San Francisco, and if you follow me on Twitter or spotted a short post on my blog over the weekend, you know that Publish2, my current employer, was honored with a rather pleasant award on Saturday night at the Online Journalism Awards.
And earlier that day, I helped lead an unconference session on “Context and the Coming Link Economy,” which turned out to be one of my favorite conversations of the weekend, with help from Matt Thompson, Elaine Helm, Jay Rosen, and other journalists who turned out to talk through the ideas we had in mind.
Meanwhile, I caught a few excellent panels each day, including one about the Journalist as Entrepreneur moderated by Mark Briggs of Serra Media and Journalism 2.0.
Mark was one of many people I was excited about meeting for the first time in person at ONA, and we had a good time and a managed a solid conversation or two, but I think we both saw something had changed in the attitudes we saw from the journalists in the room, or at the very least, that there was something different about this conference.
He was using the word “swagger” to describe it. In this post, he outlines exactly what he means:
“Instead of simply feeling positive about the future, many people I talked to had confidence that their organization was on the right track. Even people who were looking for jobs didn’t seem to be scared.”
That’s a shift. A big shift.
The time of handwringing has past. Anyone still tearing their shirt over what comes next for the news business should take note: The news business is moving on. It’s time to get on the boat. Train’s leaving the station. Put up or shut up. Demos not memos. Your metaphor of choice, but the message is clear:
It’s time to get busy building a new ecosystem for news.
Some of us have a head start.
Hence, swagger.
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Comments
2 responses to “ONA09 debrief and the swagger”
What I found fascinating was the emphasis on doing it yourself. The whole conference was not “How we can save journalism” but more “How we can create new journalism” It was about following your passions, whether that takes you to starting a new site, or just moving jobs (although the majority of people are definitely looking at journalism startups).
It was very hopeful.
Sawubona (Zulu greeting meaning:I see you or We have seen the new day)
I am menzi, you might not know me, I am new here, but I congratulate you and you peers for the award. Those are always good and help you realise how relevant and meaningful your contribution is to others.As a writer,I am interested in Journalism too, that is why in our website, we work with student journalists and also have blog where people not used to internet can share ideas.I am from South Africa, I am in the UK until end of this week, wish to learn more. There’s more to life than a job, but Work is important…later
One
Naby