Quick hits, good reads

The BBC's Kevin Marsh has an excellent and lengthy post of his notes from the UK's news:rewired conference. Among other things, Marsh makes the sensible, if sometimes forgotten point, that the pan-skilled journalist is probably not going to be the future model, just because everyone can't be that good at everything.

An excerpt:

I think I detect a hint of ‘return to the cottage industry’ in a lot of what is written about new media’s potential for journalists.
Don’t make the mistake, for example, of thinking that journalism’s future will be populated mainly by ‘news entrepreneurs’ – it won’t, as even that particular idea’s uberzealots will tell you.
Don’t make the mistake, either, of thinking that in future journalism will be entirely or even mainly about the kind of skills we’re talking about today.
Like it or not, much journalism is about process and organisation – and seems likely to remain that way.
Demand for people who can organise an outside broadcast or coverage of a court case for live and continuous news remains and will remain high.
Demand for people who can elbow their way to the front of a scrum – ditto. Or for people who can field produce, problem solve or persuade players to appear on screen or on the web.
And so one of the challenges of learning multimedia and social media skills is to understand them not just for what they are and what they can do, but how they fit with the other essential - arguably more endurable - skills of journalism.

While you are at it, spend a few moments with David Sullivan's latest on the High Church of Journalism and professionalism, and how it eventually promoted a fatal disconnect from readers.