(First of all, the 6th grade jazz band is pretty damn amazing. My son included.)
Moderator David Schnaider is fed up sloppy writing, big egos and people speaking without knowing about the topic. “And that’s why I’m not going to watch the Fox 10 O’Clock News any more.”

Now each of the panelists gets ten minutes to talk.

Jeff Jarvis: “Weblogs are the highest form of audience content” because: 1. We put our names on it; 2. Linking means the cream rises to the top; 3. The interactivity improves quality. Weblogs have advantages over traditional media: more tmely, more variety, highly voiced, great tools, and hugely interactive. Blogs are “the fastest, cheapest publishing tools with the widest distribution ever.” Marketers will figure this out and, if they’re smart, will treat bloggers as “influencers” without asking anyone to hide the relationship.

Elizabeth Spiers of Gawker says her blog gets covered by the media a lot in part because she writes about media and it’s a narcissistic industry. Some of the print gossip columns apparently routinely take stuff from her blog. So, not only is her site better than the print media, she is the source of the news.

Rafat Ali runs PaidContent.org. He is a journalist interest in new ways for e-content to make money. His premise is that weblogs will replace trade web sites: they’re timelier, leaner, and can provide saturation coverage. And, he stresses that the Open Source ethic gives trade weblogs a big advantage. Put together a blog + database + research rep[orts, and you do business, but a blog + nothing is a hobby. And, says Rafat, blogs have killed the newsletter business. [Hell, judging from how often I now bring out my newsletter, JOHO, it’s killed the free newsletter “business.” JOHO lives. But barely.]

Vin Crosbie says the traditional media are still dismissive of blogging. But keeping a journal isn’t a fad; it’s part of human nature, he says. Further, blogging is journalism so long as it’s honest and accurate. His advice to the media is: Let the people with expertise and enthusiasm blog. Do it because it’s a service to your readers and also so you won’t lose traffic to bloggers. It’ll take journalists a few years to figure it out, but they’ll come around.

Question: What will the media landscape be like in 5 years? And which money streams will have shifted?

Jeff says: We don’t know. The audience is spreading out, e.g., we’ve gone from three networks to hundreds. That makes it harder for people to make money. The ad industry will figure out that this is a great opportunity for “targeting.” [All hail Gonzo Marketing.]

Question: What about aggregation?

Jeff: People don’t have time to read everything. “The media need to learn that short isn’t dumb. Short is smart.”

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