The problem with working in Internet news right now is that there aren't enough of us. Despite the fact that growth in Internet traffic has been exponentional ever since I started working for an Internet news company in 2000, the brass still seem skeptical about whether the business is going to "take off," -- whether they should make a significant investment in manpower.
Forget the phenomenal success of mega-sites such as MSNBC or CNN.com, there still seems to be reluctance to hire staffers in the same way that a magazine or TV news operation has traditionally staffed.
As a result, we're just not able to do more than keep our noses above water. Get the main stories of the day up, after a fashion, but no enterprise reporting, very little original content -- which is, of course, what viewers go to any particular site for.
I know things will change, I know they are changing, but not fast enough.
1 comment:
Old-school media providers (funny that that includes TV now) may still be trying to hedge their bets. Should they create entirely new departments to run their online presence in addition to their current product, or are they going to have to move entirely online? That concern may prevent them from fully committing one way or another, and those of us trying to put out the Web site are forced to constantly do more without any new resources.
It may be that way until there's a true tipping point, when the old media decide that they have no choice but to move fully over to the Web. And that will happen when it's clear that that's the only way they'll make money...
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