Surviving and Thriving

A ‘digital literacy guide for the information age’ has just been released by the US-based Knight Citizen News Network and is available for free download.

In his introduction, whose title borrows the English proverb ‘A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor,’ Mark Briggs writes: `As journalists, we need to change our practices to adapt, but not our values. ... No amount of wishing for a return to smooth seas will calm the water around us.’

He adds that it is now ‘time to tack,’ using best practices as a guide. `This product in all its forms - journalism - is worth saving. It creates community on so many levels. And it creates marketplaces that are essential to the continuing viability of entire companies. Newspapers had a virtual monopoly on their marketplaces for decades. That’s ending now so the trick is to create new marketplaces before old ones completely disappear. Not necessarily to replace them right away, but to complement and support them.’

There's much more here. Check out this excellent new resource at www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20.