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 chaos and ruin, of dog-eat-dog survival.
His response: Journalists need to go “tribal” and find networks of support outside the traditional news organization. Below is an eight-minute highlight reel of his talk; below the fold is his full hour-long address.