Background on Missing the Link
Two years ago the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) hosted a panel (audio available here) with Steven Rattner, Jim Brady, Amanda Bennett, Jill Abramson, and Robert Kuttner (with Nicholas Lemann moderating). The purpose was to discuss an article the CJR had commissioned Robert Kuttner to write on the future of print media where he essentially argued that the then status quo of print-digital hybrids would ensure newspapers’ survival.
The CJR, interested in the perspective of bloggers, invited me to attend. Dave and I ended up collaborating and wrote Missing the Link: Why Old Media Doesn’t get the Internet.
Ultimately we ended up writing a much longer piece, one that was critical of Kuttner and the print-hybrid model. In addition to the CJR we got a couple of sniffs from some other print journals/magazines (Wired for example) but they eventually could not get it published.
Ironically, we were more concerned with getting published (in print or digitally) than simply releasing it on our blogs. Part of this had to do with the piece’s length, but, if we are really honest with ourselves, we got trapped in an institutional mindset and began thinking like priests, not entrepreneurs. Eventually we got busy with other exciting projects and forgot about it (except for this op-ed we wrote in the toronto star).
Two years later the piece could do with some updating but sadly it is just as salient, if not more so, today as it was then. So we are pulling it out of the C drive and sharing it. Better late than never.
Of course, we aren’t devoid of our desire for a better channel. If anyone out there (Slate? Huffington Post?) finds the piece interesting and knows a home for it - print or digital - we would be happy to update it. Mostly, we just want it read.
Here again is a link to the full version of Missing the Link: Why Old Media Still Doesn’t Get the Internet.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:58 am
dear taylor,
ive recently read your work on the US bombing of cambodia. i am a curator and have been working mainly from cambodia for seven years.
recently on a residency with a cambodian artist, vandy rattana, at the long march gallery in beijing we began investigating the ho chi min trail as another metaphor for shared histories in the lower mekong subregion.
vandy has been invited to have a solo show at the hessel art museum at the center for curatorial studies, bard college, in april 2010. the project title is BOMB PONDS.
we have formed a small production team to help him realise his vision to document the stories and landscapes of these water holes created from the crater of the B-52. your mapping is exactly what we need to begin our travel and interviews. our production timeline is now-november.
please contact me at your earliest convenience: erinmgleeson@gmail.com or skype: erin_gleeson or 855 12 507 917.
your work is important for us and i look forward to hearing from you.
once this email has been read, please delete it from your posts. i simply couldn’t find another way to contact you.
thank you.
best regards,
erin gleeson