(also posted on Twitter) I'm not too smart for my own good, just not sugar-coating reality where Public Media is concerned.
Steve Behrens just invited me and others to comment on the DirectCurrent forum about the NPR API proposal. Yeah, I probably sound annoying, but argue with me on the merits:
Finally, the important question. Yes, you have to start your own public media company.
From your current vantage point in the frozen north it may sound impossible, but trust me, move to DC and get together with the other frustrated NPR vets and web shop employees and you'll have plenty of energy to work with. Show those bureaucratic MFs how it's done.
If not now, when?
If not you (and the others), who?
:: SH
John Proffitt
· 1 year ago
Stephen,
I was wondering if you'd see this post and the reference to you. ;-)
As for heading to DC, I have to admit I don't have a bank account that would let me go paycheckless while developing a new company from scratch, even with energetic and hyper-intelligent partners from NPR or elsewhere.
Starting a blog is basically free (except for my time) and sustainable. But starting a whole new media company in one of the nation's most expensive cities is not something I think I could pull off. It's something I'd happily join, though (if it were funded).
I hate to get all generational, but I think the Boomer executives calling the shots at the CPB and NPR and PBS are square in the Innovator's Delimma situation. They can't change themselves without endangering their own paychecks and, let's face it, pretty comfortable lifestyles.
The "hippies" that really kicked off pubcasting in the 1970s are now long gone, either via retirement or co-option in the corporate system that grew out of the guerrilla movement they founded. Or they moved to Pacifica where the fight against corporate hegemony theoretically lives on.
Maybe the new movement should indeed start as a cheap web property?
All Comments
Steve Behrens just invited me and others to comment on the DirectCurrent forum about the NPR API proposal. Yeah, I probably sound annoying, but argue with me on the merits:
http://currentpublicmedia.ning.com/forum/topic/...
Finally, the important question. Yes, you have to start your own public media company.
From your current vantage point in the frozen north it may sound impossible, but trust me, move to DC and get together with the other frustrated NPR vets and web shop employees and you'll have plenty of energy to work with. Show those bureaucratic MFs how it's done.
If not now, when?
If not you (and the others), who?
:: SH
I was wondering if you'd see this post and the reference to you. ;-)
As for heading to DC, I have to admit I don't have a bank account that would let me go paycheckless while developing a new company from scratch, even with energetic and hyper-intelligent partners from NPR or elsewhere.
Starting a blog is basically free (except for my time) and sustainable. But starting a whole new media company in one of the nation's most expensive cities is not something I think I could pull off. It's something I'd happily join, though (if it were funded).
I hate to get all generational, but I think the Boomer executives calling the shots at the CPB and NPR and PBS are square in the Innovator's Delimma situation. They can't change themselves without endangering their own paychecks and, let's face it, pretty comfortable lifestyles.
The "hippies" that really kicked off pubcasting in the 1970s are now long gone, either via retirement or co-option in the corporate system that grew out of the guerrilla movement they founded. Or they moved to Pacifica where the fight against corporate hegemony theoretically lives on.
Maybe the new movement should indeed start as a cheap web property?