DISQUS

Zac makes a great point. I argued in a recent post that newspapers need to start thinking like Pure Play businesses and make the appropriate investment in personnel. Can you imagine a serious online business seeking a volunteer from their own staff development work, instead of hiring a talented dedicated developer?

Couldn't agree with you more. As I wrote on my blog recently, if newspapers want to be taken seriously online, they need to take the same approach any other online business would and hire the best they can afford. And I believe dedicated developers are key to that effort. Out of the box and free solutions all too often have limitations that a developer can work around. If news organizations want to stand out from crowd and offer dynamic products they need to take hiring seriously, develop the right mindset and allocate the necessary resources.

Hey Megan - The problem I see is that virtual newsrooms would exacerbate the problems that we have in brick and mortar newsrooms such as not enough conversations between reporters and editors, not enough collaboration and not enough coaching. While I think a reporter could and should spend the bulk of their time in their beat, they need to have a base of operation and that really should be the newsroom.

great song!

I think the deal is as much about Digg as it is about the Journal. The traffic impact or Digg, especially if the Journal were to go free would be major. As I wrote on my blog today, access to an additional 15 million visitors would definitely change Digg's status.

thanks again.

Will trade Mister Wong for a Pownce! yonigre@gmail.com

an invite for yonigre@gmail.com would be much appreciated!

invite would be much appreciated!