Robert G. Picard offers this thoughtful post on why journalism and online news start-ups may be one part of the industry’s future, but are not panacea to its problems.
“We need to be realistic about their potential (…) In the foreseeable future these start-ups will tend to supplement rather than to replace traditional news organizations. They may be part of the solution to the problem of news provision, but they alone are not the remedy,” he writes.
Paul Carr, never afraid to stir things up a little, is sounding the death knell for London internet start-ups in a piece for Guardian Tech.
(Incidentally, it looks like the last time he’ll provoke us via Guardian.co.uk – this morning Carr announced on Twitter that the site had ‘slashed its freelance budget’: “Result – no more column from me. Thought about writing it for free, but meh.”)
Anyway, back on Friday Carr said – in a piece which described his scallop and champagne fuelled ‘Traveling Geek’ event-crashing – that the sad but true fact was ‘that the London internet industry is increasingly, and terminally, screwed.’ An extract:
” I’ll be discreet with names so as not to make things worse but since I’ve been back in town, I’ve met no fewer than three once-successful entrepreneurs who admit they’re running out of money at a sickening rate (personally and professionally) with no prospect of raising more. I’ve seen two businesses close and one having its funding yanked suddenly because, basically, it was going nowhere fast. Everyone I speak to has the same story: investors aren’t investing, revenues aren’t coming, founders are being forced out – or leaving of their own accord – and no one seems to have the first idea what to do about it.”
Read in full here, and reaction here, including an interesting comment from Econsultancy’s Ashley Friedlein.