Media’s mobile future makes room for long-form journalism
The media landscape is rapidly changing. Long-running Print bastions, such as Newsweek, have gone completely digital. Up-starts Twitter, Buzzfeed, and Instagram are new media mainstays. And many of us are now relying our phones to stay informed.
All this week, we’ve been talking about the near-future of tech — not clones and robot servants, but what’s coming in the next decade. And when it comes to our own industry, media, the future means going mobile in every way.
“How it’s distributed, how it’s read, how it’s consumed, how it’s discovered,” says Kara Swisher, co-exectuive editor AllThingsD. “Twitter has played a big role in this recently and its a mobile app for the most part.”
Aside from Twitter, news aggregators and short-form “listicle-journalism” put out by sites like Buzzfeed are at the forefront of mobile right now. But Swisher says there is also a place for in-depth content in the years ahead.
“Mobile doesn’t just entail a smartphone, it’s also tablets,” Swisher says. “Tablets are perfect vehicles to read long-form journalism, so it’s not as if everything has to be short and stupid.”
The key for news outlets, Swisher adds, is remembering to market yourself, something she thinks journalists have fallen away from.
“Better headline writing, better entry into stories,” she says.
And, lastly, big staffs are and will continue to be out in favor of quick, nimble newsrooms.
To hear more about Facebook, Instagram, and other mobile apps, click on the audio player above to hear more.
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