Simon Waldman, Director of Digital Publishing for Guardian Newspapers, writes:
"Gizmodo gets handed an interview with Bill Gates. Good for them, I say - and a smart move by Microsoft. Now here’s a big challenge to traditional media: yes, anyone can run a blog and call themselves a reporter, but ‘access’ is operated almost on a cartel basis. The ability to bag the big names is one of the things that keeps big media big. If that moves, everything moves."
I don't call myself a reporter, yet I managed to get an interview with O'Reilly Media CEO Tim O'Reilly last year. And either Bill Gates or Steve Jobs is my next target! (I'm half kidding... actually I think I'll approach the Flickr founders for my next interview).
p.s. perhaps I should ask Simon for a job. :-)
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Another aspect to 'citizens journalism' besides the lack of access to big names for interviews is the distributed network. Many local news outlets simply do not have enough reporters to cover all the stories.
On a few occassions I have been at events that are 'newsworthy' but have not had any news coverage. I ended up writing my account in my blog. In one instance the local paper linked to my blog rather than writing their own story.
Posted by: Josh Hallett | January 9, 2005 7:40 AM
Yes, I want the Flickr founders on RWW!
Posted by: Seb | January 12, 2005 5:55 AM