Sean Blanda

If you have a pulse and a feed reader, you probably have heard of (or subscribed to) Boing Boing. Recently they posted an LA Times article about how striking writers are exploring their own start ups.

This got me thinking, here are skilled workers who realize that they may be able to get along fine without their employers. In the past, the main reason a writer needed the studio was to help distribute their work. But now as Internet distribution evolves, there is more than one way to get art to the masses.

Flip this to journalism. In the past a reporter and writer needed the newspaper or magazine to distribute their work. They also needed a company to give them benefits and the occasional pension. Well, as pensions and health care become exceedingly rare (not exclusive to journalism), and with the ability to distribute the written word as easy as ever, why do we need large companies?

Why can’t we do it ourselves? Would a loose union of journalists posting stories online eliminate the need for cooperations such as Gannett?

I’m starting to think yes. Maybe the real future of media isn’t in the technologies we deliver news in, but the way news organizations are structured. We have already seen blogs run by a handful of people cover niches better than any magazine ever did. And sometimes those “handful” of people can be only one person. With several company’s automating advertising such as Google or Text Link Ads, do we really need hordes of advertising representatives? If distribution in online production is nothing but a webmaster how much money is saved?

Maybe the writers have something here. The Internet has allowed many industries such as film makers, musicians, and designers to avoid the middle man. Maybe it’s time media outlets became more streamlined.