Rolling Up My Sleeves

#1

Post by th0ma5 » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

Re: Rolling Up My Sleeves

#2

Post by danso » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 6:55 PM UTC

This has to be one of the most forward-thinking hires ever by a news organization. There are great tech people involved in journalism, but few are at a position of authority.

The news industry, sadly, has plenty of people with ideas but very few who have any idea how to implement them. They need someone who can understand and influence the logistics...I would not be surprised if a large part of why innovation is stifled by something as mundane as a poorly-implemented CMS.

I do see the potential for cmdrtaco to have minimal impact, through no fault of his own. Something as mundane as office politics (I'm assuming editor-at-large is a position outside of the chain of command) also stifles innovation.

Re: Rolling Up My Sleeves

#3

Post by staunch » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 7:14 PM UTC

Congrats. I hope it works out well. They're lucky to get him.

Re: Rolling Up My Sleeves

#4

Post by ChuckMcM » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 7:46 PM UTC

Awesome to hear! The post newspaper journalism world is just taking shape, wonderful to see such a strong voice riding that wave.

Re: Rolling Up My Sleeves

#5

Post by noobface » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 8:01 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #2

This has to be one of the most forward-thinking hires ever by a news organization. There are great tech people involved in journalism, but few are at a position of authority. The news industry, sadly, has plenty of people with ideas but very few who have any idea how to implement them. They need someone who can understand and influence the logistics...I would not be surprised if a large part of why innovation is stif…

Agreed.

But the fact that they've setup an internal division to explore the changes in technology and their impact on publishing is a solid positive indicator.

That said, large models are slow to shift, and there's plenty of examples of boneheaded executives within all media clinging helplessly to the titanic.

Hopefully the leaders at WaPo are genuinely interested in the lifeboat that cmdrtaco is sure to provide.

Re: Rolling Up My Sleeves

#6

Post by dtran » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 8:03 PM UTC

Congrats Rob! WaPo Labs is lucky to have you. Excited to see 14 years of slashdot learnings applied to Social Reader/Trove and to reinvigorate journalism-at-large.

Re: Rolling Up My Sleeves

#7

Post by DanBC » Mon, Mar 05, 2012, 8:22 PM UTC

Make it easy for me to pay for great articles. Make it easy for me to subscribe to online content (and maybe give online subscribers an ad-free Readability option). Consider a scheme for people to subscribe and donate the dead-tree paper to schools / colleges / prisons / hospitals / etc.