Comments on: “There are some people who don’t wait.” Robert Krulwich on the future of journalism

By: Hayley

Hayley — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:54:23 +0000

This is a really inspirational piece. I’m struggling through a PhD where I feel really overwhelmed, but writing and science communication keep me sane and are often the only things that still excite the passion that got me here in the first place. I often think that I’m dreaming to even consider that I might make it away from data crunching and in to science communication work one day, but after reading this maybe it’s not that impossible after all

By: David Saltman

David Saltman — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:35:25 +0000

Beautiful, Robert! I’ve taken your advice and just started a blog called The Houdini File. Did you know Houdini’s father killed a prince in a duel, and it was all Harry’s fault? The story at houdinifile.com.

By: Brenda from Flatbush

Brenda from Flatbush — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:12:41 +0000

I wish I could have heard these words in 1979, when I graduated with a BA in journalism from NYU into an economy even crappier than this one. I stayed in journalism, although I allowed myself to drift into places far from those I’d dreamed about. Now, 30+ years later, the wonderful Mr. Krulwich inspires me in another enterprise that provokes much fatalism and scorn: a mid-life career transition. Just do it!

By: Politics Matters

Politics Matters — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:34:08 +0000

On the changing face of journalism and the newspaper business, Bob Gibson, Executive Director of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, recently said: “I think our journalism and our politics are changing at an ever-increasing rate. The rapid change in journalism is very unsettling to the business. They are finding new business models that can work for newspapers in the internet age. Radio and television are also cutting back as advertising has shifted. They have to find working business models. They’ve also started cooperating with non-profit groups…. I think new partnerships are going to change the way the media is covering the news and the way the platforms are for reporting the news…. Everyone is trying new business models because old print newspaper empires will die if they view themselves as old print newspaper empires. They are either in the news business or in the newspaper business, and if they are in the news business they will adapt a new business model and survive. If they are in the newspaper business, they’ll just go out of business.” (Gibson appeared on the Charlottesville, VA, interview program Politics Matters with host Jan Paynter discussing journalism http://bit.ly/pm-gibson)

By: Smee

Smee — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:24:52 +0000

And so he went from CBS to NPR and co-host on Radio Lab. Is this progress or a sign of the decline and crumbling of the field? Can we ask people to work for free or on spec? I think not.

By: David

David — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:50:35 +0000

Mr. Krulwich name-dropped everyone in his fun Golden Age anecdotes but failed to mention even one of the “five or six” journalists he knows carving their own path in New Media, whose examples serve greater purpose to his audience and identifications strengthen his thesis.

By: Laura Figueroa

Laura Figueroa — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:50:49 +0000

Thank You. Simply Inspiring.

By: Rosemary Willis Sullivan

Rosemary Willis Sullivan — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:07:05 +0000

My father John (Jack) VB Sullivan sat in the Fifth Avenue (NYC) office of WNEW for 3 decades. At his 25th anniversary we all danced and sang and hoped he and it would go on forever. When he left WNEW it went into it’s death throes.

Writing was my father’s first love and I know he would have loved this speech, this writing, as much as I do. I hope they heard and will remember and share this vision….that is the hope for our future. I hope it will be printed as well. Printed on beautiful paper, and distributed in bound books, preserved everywhere it can be as well as in cyberspace. I will hold it in my heart and frame it on the wall over my bed so my hit and miss 71 year old mind can remember to pass it on. Thank you.

One of Jack’s children who will always remember.

By: Harry Tuttle

Harry Tuttle — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:18:32 +0000

I’m not getting this. Sure it’s great to dream and have the entrepreneurial spirit, but we’re asking young people who have taken out loans and toiled for 4 years to do what? Write for free? Play at being journalists and hope that someone discovers you?

The current media environment has created two things: No one wants to pay for content, however good it may be, when they can get something that appears almost as good for free.

And, secondly, everyone with a cell phone and a computer and some idea that they know something now believes that they can write about topics that that it took seasoned journalists years to learn to understand and report on accurately.

No amount of turd-polishing can change these facts. Yes, there are some very good bloggers out there, and there are some very good journalists doing online work. But the vast majority of the jobs Mr. Krulwich are trying to promote are the journalistic equivalent of sweatshops. Stitching together piecemeal assignments and Waiting to Be Discovered is exciting and fun when you’re in your 20s and early 30s. It’s not sustainable when you’re a grown-up making mortgage payments and praying that your spouse doesn’t lose his/her really good health insurance.

By: Jeff Barlis

Jeff Barlis — Fri, 27 May 2011 04:53:39 +0000

Very inspiring and very true.

The job market might appear bleak for students and grads, but there may never have been a time of greater opportunity. I’m a sportswriter covering a major college program, and in the last couple of years a motivated young blogger has written more copy than anyone on the beat … all for his own website. He has built an audience and has more Twitter followers than anyone on the beat. And now he’s been hired to write for the local affiliate of a national online network. The best part is he is still devoted to his blog and the audience he built.

So not only is it possible for young people to build their own Trojan horses, they are undoubtedly better equipped to thrive in this new age of social multi-media.