Convergence legacy

I’ve left the building already, but it’s satisfying to read that ITJourno now understands what I was on about. You might recall I attacked ITJ for questioning the value of podcasting.

Here’s the latest (sub req for IT journos only) on media convergence from ITJ’s Epitome column:

Epitome very much believes that journalism, like seemingly everything in this world, is on the path of convergence.

Digital media will mean that journalists will produce print, audio and video editorial, leaving it up to the consumer to decide how he or she wishes to consume a story. Media sites designed to take advantage of broadband and eventually digital paper will obliterate the limitations of today’s familiar media formats.

Want to see the way the world is heading? Look to Computerworld. Epitome talked about the Computerworld Live podcasting launch a few weeks back and we’ve got to say that for a bunch of print guys, the CW crew are doing a great job of producing something truly unique. Personally, we reckon the podcast could be a bit snappier, some of the segments and interviews tend to drag on, and we personally like the program best when it gets into analysis mode rather than just re-hashing stories from the book.

Also at the time that we first referenced Computerworld Live, we questioned whether IT execs would bother investing their precious time listening to work-related audio programs when they could probably digest the same information more quickly in print. Which is not to say we were writing off the CW Live concept, just that we had thought the jury was still out as to whether, right now, B2B podcasting was a viable vehicle.

That said, we can’t applaud the CW Live effort loudly enough because we do believe it’s tracking the path that all media will follow as convergence becomes a reality. Regardless of whether it turns out to be a money spinner, the podcast has established Computerworld as an innovator and a leader.

And that’s a role the specialist trade press really needs to reclaim.

Last week, Epitome spoke to the program’s producer, Mark Jones, who is now leaving IDG to start at The Australian Financial Review. Jones told us he was quite amazed at how quickly the Computerworld team had embraced this latest extension to their work. In just a matter of weeks, Jones said, editorial planning meetings had simply evolved to take into account the weekly production of the podcast and it became a natural element of the paper’s workflow.