Sorry for the posting gap. I’ve been in Richmond, at the mother church, for a meeting of editors, TV news directors and Web content managers. Three days of carbs and hearing several futurists talk about either the exciting or terrifying prospects of our industries.
Quite often—the most interesting things you learn at these events—happen in the most serendipitous ways. One of the key points of this meeting was about how content—news, information and entertainment—moves and moves quickly, and that delivery mechanisms are as important as what’s being delivered. Sometimes they even effect the shape and scope of what’s delivered.
My Aha moment occurred 10 minutes into the three-day meeting, when I was reading the Richmond Times-Dispatch at lunch. The front page had a picture of Anthony Grant, the coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, cutting down the nets after his team beat George Mason U., last year’s NCAA Cinderella, to win the CAA championship. I’ve appended the picture.
What I find interesting about this photo, other than its imagery, is the number of “photographers” in the shot. Check out all those cell cameras in the bottom. This image—or at least one approximating it—will be sent and forwarded dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of time, published if you will, before the T-D hits the streets, the TV station goes live or the Web site story gets posted. The result, news is nearly instant. Just one more challenge for newspapers and television and, yes, even the Internet.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from 
Steve Rubel has a similar post on his site that’s worth reading:
Paparazzi Face Stiff Competition from Camera Phones.
RANT: You came to Richmond (again) and didn’t stop by my desk? Not cool Ken. Not cool.
As a Mason alum I find that a very depressing photo. On the other hand, great point about the camera phones. Remember the London tube bombings? I think that was the first big event that phone-cams were the primary video source in the news.
You’re right about the London bombings. Probably same thing with the tsunami. No middleman ‘cept the cellphone company.
You could turn this around to your advantage though.
How about a local version of Gawker Stalker?
Of course, as managing editor of the newspaper, you may have to deal with people taking photos of you while you’re at the grocery - but such is the life of celebrities.
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