Panic on the Titanic: bloggers are just 'pipsqueaks'

Plain Dealer Reader rep calls bloggers "pipsqueaks"

Two Cleveland Plain Dealer journalists ask: "Is there news outside newspaper newsrooms? Would bloggers have nothing left to talk about if newspapers went away?" They're starting to panic on the deck of the Titanic. Listen to Cleveland Plain Dealer Reader Representative Ted Diadiun describe bloggers as "pipsqueaks." And this: "Were it not for the newspaper newsrooms there really wouldn't be a lot of original reporting. There's not a lot of original reporting that happens out of blogs." Ted is clearly a guy who's stuck in the past and can't see the writing on the wall. I'm not sure what he's reading, but he's not reading Random Pixels or a lot of other blogs that do "original reporting." Hey Ted: Here's a story I broke yesterday. I just got an email from a Miami Herald staffer that read in part: "Random Pixels" beats the Herald again!" And what about this story Ted? It took my hometown newspaper ten days to catch up. And here's a story I beat the Miami Herald on by a full 24 hours. Journalist Steve Outing says, "the Plain Dealer can’t afford to have too many people on staff with views similar to Diadiun’s. For newspapers to get through the transition to profiting in the digital world, they need to pull together as a team and figure out how best to play in the digital landscape. If there are too many folks in that newsroom with views like Diadiun’s that the newspaper is best and other media are inconsequential in comparison, the Plain Dealer doesn’t have a rosy future." Perhaps some people at newspapers - Ted included - would do well to remember the quote by cartoonist Walt Kelly: "We have met the enemy and he is us." The enemy is certainly not bloggers.