independent observers

Our authority and credibility used to come from our exclusivity and our control over the sources and distribution of information. In the future, it may come just as much from our transparency and our willingness to interact with our audiences. But as we adapt, we have to reassert the basic value, and the basic values, of journalism. We are the independent observers of the world, who go places where our audiences can’t go, dig where our audiences can’t dig, study and interpret what our audiences do not have time to study and interpret.

Our responsibility is to reinvent the media business, to assure that it can continue to sustain the quality journalism that is so vital. To do that, we must listen to the market and understand the message of change. But then we must combine that message with what we know inside ourselves to be the value of what we know how to do. From that synthesis of tradition and change will come a new future for journalism.

a final word

Elbert Hubbard had another observation that seems relevant to this discussion. That was his definition of a failure. A failure, Hubbard explained, is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience.

Michael Oreskes can be reached at moreskes@iht.com.

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