Editors! Beware Management Grubs Taking Over News: "the ever-more-strident rhetoric of journalism management gurus" now threatens the editorial integrity of America’s newspapers by seeking to break down the traditional separation of advertising and marketing from influence over editorial content. And yet the news pages of America’s newspapers, as far as I can see, have not done much to investigate the so-called "discipline" that is transforming them.
Will it ever happen, this investigation? [...]
It’s time for newspapers to investigate their own consultants the way they (finally) went after fakery in the rest of the corporate world. After all, newspapers have all these employees working for their "brand" whose job it is to investigate things. Find out stuff. Like whether institutions are effective or just slick-talking shams. These employees are called "reporters." Who is going to be the editor brave enough to sic some reporters on the corporate consultants who are jargonizing the integrity of newspaper culture away?
Lyne Disease: The affliction of journalists who want to be CEOs
Almost every journalist envies his sources sometimes. Most journalists find that the executives or celebrities or politicians they're covering have far more power and money than they do—even though they share similar educational credentials and backgrounds. Journalist envy is particularly acute in business, where even the dumbest source makes oodles more money than the smartest reporter. After interviewing mutual fund managers, investment bankers, and CEOs—especially folks who are underperforming—some journalists conclude they could do the job better. Sometimes they can. But mostly they don't.
