Different churches

["Dave Winer" <dave@userland.com>]

Laird, we belong to different churches.

I like reading Reuters stories, for sure, but if the economics of the
Internet undermines their business model, I wouldn't shed a tear. The
Internet has reporters everywhere that Reuters does, and over time, the
Internet will reach many places Reuters doesn't go, and no matter how much
Reuters grows, they'll never be able to match it.

Further, the print-derived press has huge conflicts of interest that color
the stories they write. How many challenging Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison
pieces will Fortune write if it means they no longer have access to the
icons? Their only asset is their objectivity, and I've seen the insides of
the sausage factory, and I don't believe there is any objectivity. Even the
most highly reputed organizations behave with questionable ethics, imho. In
the end, I trust users as reporters much more than I trust the "pros".

I pretty much subscribe to the Forrester point of view, the print media is
in the process of being swamped by the Web. We're not fully there yet, so
there's still time for the print pubs to change their ways. But the process
is inexorable.

Dave