New ideas are forever popping into my head to add to the Digital Journalism Manifesto and the other night I (sadly) woke up in the middle of the night and wrote "The Digital Journalist Is His Or Her Own Brand".
What was in my mind was that a DJ with his or her own blog is really a brand regardless of which newspaper, magazine or website pays his or her wages.
Combine this with the fact that it costs practically nothing to set up your own website and you have to wonder how difficult it will become for "traditional" media companies to retain their best people for any length of time in the future.
Take the case of Harry McCracken, editor in chief of US b2b title PC World (no relation I presume to the UK retailer of the same name). He has announced that he is leaving to set up his own technology site which he will build from scratch and launch this summer.
As Paul Conley notes "That's big news for the world of B2B journalism" and "Harry is now the best-known business-media journalist to enter the world of entrepreneurial journalism" but he also goes on to say:
Interesting times, interesting times.
... in the past few weeks I've begun consulting with and/or offering advice and support to four different B2B editors who are building new products as they make plans to quit their day jobs before the end of the year.
But most interesting to me is that I'm in talks now with an entity that is interested in offering tools, a platform, ad-sales services and a revenue share to B2B editors who opt to take the standalone route (when and if I reach a deal with that group, I'll publish the details here.)
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