Comments on: Morning Roundup — Stories you may have missed http://www.teleread.com/news-roundup-2/morning-roundup-stories-you-may-have-missed-36/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 22 May 2013 08:11:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Dan Eldridge http://www.teleread.com/news-roundup-2/morning-roundup-stories-you-may-have-missed-36/comment-page-1/#comment-1222448 Dan Eldridge Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:33:12 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/?p=75326#comment-1222448 I totally agree, Frank. And yet I think we'll start seeing the population of "content-smiths" growing significantly in the coming years, partly because so many J-schools are now emphasizing to young journalists the importance of a multimedia approach. In other words, I think we'll eventually start seeing less 'print journalists' or 'broadcast journalists' emerging from universities, and instead we'll see very talented young people coming out of school who know their way around the entire Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro just as well as they know AP Style, HTML and CSS. What's not quite as clear is whether that sort of thing will eventually begin applying to programmers and coders as well. But I know if I were a college-aged kid studying journalism today, I'd jump at the chance to learn programming and coding languages as the same time, assuming my school made it easy and convenient enough to do so. Maybe that sort of thing is already happening in some schools? I totally agree, Frank. And yet I think we’ll start seeing the population of “content-smiths” growing significantly in the coming years, partly because so many J-schools are now emphasizing to young journalists the importance of a multimedia approach.

In other words, I think we’ll eventually start seeing less ‘print journalists’ or ‘broadcast journalists’ emerging from universities, and instead we’ll see very talented young people coming out of school who know their way around the entire Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro just as well as they know AP Style, HTML and CSS.

What’s not quite as clear is whether that sort of thing will eventually begin applying to programmers and coders as well. But I know if I were a college-aged kid studying journalism today, I’d jump at the chance to learn programming and coding languages as the same time, assuming my school made it easy and convenient enough to do so. Maybe that sort of thing is already happening in some schools?

]]> By: Frank Lowney http://www.teleread.com/news-roundup-2/morning-roundup-stories-you-may-have-missed-36/comment-page-1/#comment-1222428 Frank Lowney Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:46:48 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/?p=75326#comment-1222428 Regarding the piece about why magazines (native apps or web apps) suck, there's a good bit of wisdom there but it doesn't go nearly far enough. Sure, Gruber's advice is apt for a beginning but how do you build from that? As we all know, standing still is the best way to get run over. While we have a goodly supply of excellent wordsmiths, there is a significant dearth of content-smiths. A content-smith is someone who is as facile with images and both linear and interactive media as they are with words. Thus, its not a question of native app vs web app (HTML 5) but of being conversant with words, static images, linear media and interactive media. Like the wordsmiths of the print publishing world entering the world of the web, its a shocking challenge. The first response is to try to leverage what one is already comfortable with. That's natural and understandable but not a very good survival tactic. It didn't work for long on the web and it won't work for long in the ePublishing era. Regarding the piece about why magazines (native apps or web apps) suck, there’s a good bit of wisdom there but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Sure, Gruber’s advice is apt for a beginning but how do you build from that? As we all know, standing still is the best way to get run over.
While we have a goodly supply of excellent wordsmiths, there is a significant dearth of content-smiths. A content-smith is someone who is as facile with images and both linear and interactive media as they are with words.
Thus, its not a question of native app vs web app (HTML 5) but of being conversant with words, static images, linear media and interactive media.
Like the wordsmiths of the print publishing world entering the world of the web, its a shocking challenge. The first response is to try to leverage what one is already comfortable with. That’s natural and understandable but not a very good survival tactic. It didn’t work for long on the web and it won’t work for long in the ePublishing era.

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