From the Editor's Desk

Your blog probably sucks.

I may be the last of the old-school journalists. Literally. When I graduated from journalism school in the mid-90s, the Web was still an IT oddity -- not "publishing's great equalizer," as it has been called today. Journalism schools did not account for self-publishing, blogging, or other one-man acts because the only ones that existed were vanity deals. Publishers owned the presses and thus the only means to reach the masses.

Journalism students were taught the editorial process -- from story concept and creation, to finding sources, to fact checking and editing. Not long after I graduated, the Internet was a mainstream technology, Netscape IPO'ed, the common man discovered Web surfing -- and Web publishing -- and the concept of journalism, and its associated value, began to change.

For an old-school guy, however, the value of the publishing process lies not in the ability to broadcast ideas; it lies in the editorial process described above. I inherently mistrust any information that has not gone through the editorial cycle, and the writers who have worked with me and this site know my editorial standards are high. Value develops when a second party examines the work of a first party and demands justification for each sentence, each word. Writing is more collaboration and less the solitary art people perceive.

The hard part about this collaboration is that it's usually painful - for writer and editor. So Americans, being the conflict-avoidance masters that we are, have leveraged technology to sidestep the editorial process and start spouting our ideas to anyone who will surf to them. The number of Web pages and blogs has grown exponentially in the past two years alone.

But a certain irony is playing out on the literary stage: while more and more people are writing, fewer and fewer people are reading. The recent numbers from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) indicate that leisure reading is down 10 percentage points since 1982. The FCC is allowing more consolidation in broadcast sectors (which has a trickle effect on print media properties), which means more content is syndicated and leveraged among like-owned entities. More people are writing, but they have fewer outlets to sell their work (and have it churned through the all-important editorial process).

We in the industry are at a crossroad. I am at a crossroad. For as I sit here and extol the virtues of the editorial process, I must debate whether to cross my own line and post a story that deserved the scrutiny of a good editor and the paycheck rewarded to good reporting and writing.

In the end, I lose the battle with myself. I believe the story, about a recent trip overseas and the new trials of being an American, raises some interesting issues that will hit home for the average person. (It provides a fair degree of entertainment, too - I hope.)

So read it here. Or download a more user-friendly PDF version here and e-mail it around if you want. I think you'll find it a good read, but I must confess in this column, I really don't know. I couldn't negotiate the process, so it's just my word against all those bloggers out there. I only hope I put my education to some use.

R A Miller

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