Are leader writers’ days numbered?
October 23rd, 2006 by Wendy McAuliffe
An opinion piece entitled “Isn’t it time we ditched the newspaper leader writers?” by Jeff Jarvis editor of BuzzMachine, has caught my eye in The Guardian today.
To quote straight from the article:
“The irony of leader writers is that they commit the sins usually attributed to bloggers: they rarely report and mostly just opine and pontificate - that is, they leech off the work of other journalists. And they work anonymously. Leaders speak as the voices of institutions, issuing opinions from the mountaintop, hidden by the cloak of distance. Yet today, in our connected society, we do not trust institutions. We demand transparency. We expect conversation.”
As a former journalist with friends still in the trade I feel a traitor supporting Jarvis’ opinion, but I have to admit I agree. Blogs in particular have raised the bar for quality comment and analysis, and as media becomes more and more ’social’ and discursive, leader writers in particular are going to have a tough job hanging on to their position of authority.
It would be great to have some leader writers commenting, but as Jarvis concludes:
“So perhaps leader writers should not lead, but instead should become moderators and enablers of the democratic discussion, no matter where it occurs: in newspapers, on blogs, on television, and now on internet talk-shows like the conservative network 18 Doughty Street.”
Update: Guy Kewney’s response on The Register is also worth a read.
October 24th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Thanks for the link, Wendy. Also see
http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2989 for the same version on my news site.
I started out doing that piece as a comment here, and it sort of got away from me!
Briefly: no, I don’t think the leader is dead. But I do think it will have to change. The Guardian’s new approach is the sort of change we’re going to see! - but at the same time, as long as we have “publications” they’ll need a way to help readers understand background.
Sometimes, a blog will be the way. Sometimes, it will have to be “We the paper say…” - an editorial comment.