Sometimes it's good to be new-fashioned

Now I often preach that newness simply for newness' sake is as bad as the Athenians of Paul's era.

But sometimes oldness for oldness' sake is just as bad.

Dana Franks (Twitter user @ariedana) shared a couple of items on her Google Reader feed. Sparkwood & 21's post is one of those items, and it links to a post at WKRN's "Volunteer Voters" blog:

What was initially a six month freelance gig to cover among other things a hard fought contested 2006 Senate Race became a full time mission to cover the political blogosphere here in Tennessee. Not only did we see that race to its conclusion we saw a new mayor elected in Nashville and we got darn near through the longest Presidential Primary season in history in here in 2008.

Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to see that last one to the end with you. Today, March 14, was my last day at WKRN here in Nashville. Like many cherished colleagues before me at the Deuce, I have fallen prey to those unfortunate media budget cuts you hear about all too often these days.

Scroll down to comment 9, and you'll find out that this is the end of the blog. Gwen Kinsey stated:

While WKRN will no longer host Volunteer Voters on our web site we wish him well.

Which brings us to comment 129:

news2 employee said,

on March 18th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Although, I always hate to see any one lose their job and I appreciate the work that Adam did here at WKRN. I have to say that if his departure saves the job of just one employee that actually does tv work then it was worth it to me. This is a tv station not a blog station. I saw a lot of tv employees lose their jobs while Internet people remained. Before Adam was let go we had 3 Internet people and only 4 directors. For a TV station that is just not smart. Blogs are a luxury for a tv station not a necessity and this station can’t afford any luxuries.

That elicited some response. See comments 130-132, as well as this comment in the Sparkwood & 21 post:

While I can totally see why this employee would feel this way, it is evident that they are completely unaware of how the internet is changing their profession in radical ways that cannot be ignored. People with this mentality will either catch on or get swept away in the new media tide.

Adapt or die.

In a separate post, Katie Allison Granju makes this comment:

[M]y observation is that everyone working in a newsroom these days - both TV and print - has to become a multi-tasker. People who see themselves as only TV producers or beat reporters have to consider branching out and doing more online.

And if you don't believe that, look at what David Allen's doing. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin columnist has a blog that supplements his column and allows for more interactivity with his readers (although, as my teeny weeny example illustrates, he could interact just fine in the newspaper alone). As it turns out, he's currently re-running stuff he previously published in the paper. Here's his column on the Kellogg connection to Pomona, California.

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