The first article mentioning the phrase “open source journalism” was apparently published in Salon magazine in 1999, describing an experiment that had been run by Jane’s Intelligence Review, a U.K. military journal. The journal asked readers of Slashdot to provide feedback on an article about cyber-terrorism, and they responded so enthusiastically — “slicing and dicing” [...]

It’s not just newspapers struggling to find their way in the digital era. Many content companies — broadcasting, film, music, publishing, and gaming — are grappling with the same business model uncertainty.
In a recent survey (pdf), the consulting firm Accenture asked 102 content-industry leaders to pick the biggest hurdle they face. Overwhelmingly, executives pointed to [...]

Shortly after George W. Bush’s victory in 2004, liberal magazines The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and The Nation held a joint crisis meeting. They emerged from the Rockefellers’ old “coach barn” at Pocantico with the goal of collaborating more closely in order to master new technologies, increase the impact of independent media outlets — [...]

Three pages into his new book, Bill Wasik presents the first of several charts illustrating the “telltale spike” of viral culture on the Internet — that is, a dramatic burst of attention around one piece of content followed by interest that doesn’t so much taper as tumble. You know this spike well, even if you’ve [...]

David Talbot, the founder of Salon, presented his (rather depressing) vision of contemporary journalism at the Nieman Foundation a few weeks ago as part of a Nieman Narrative conference:
We’re entering what I like to call sort of the Road Warrior phase — of American life in general, but certainly of journalism. It’s an era of [...]