Good morning, everybody.
So yesterday, the Bryant Park Project got canceled. I’m sure you heard about that. If you’re just joining us and are wanting to hurl a few pebbles at the NPR Goliath, go here.
Yesterday morning, I heard that BPP was canceled via their Twitter feed and fired off a rather spiteful post after having only been awake for 10 minutes or so. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the best idea. Matthew had to go and do some damage control and I didn’t feel any better.
As Matthew pointed out, I work in new media. Or, rather, current media. The internet hasn’t been new since 1997. It’s so hard for me not to take this personally and for me not to see the BPP’s cancellation as anything less than a blow to people who understand the marriage of traditional media and the internet. The BPP is great at this pairing - it’s possibly the best thing they do.
I’ve been reading a lot of listener responses today, and one of the recurring themes is how much of a very personal relationship that listeners have with this show. We get tweets from Laura in the morning, sometimes just seeing if anyone else is awake or asking for story tips, sometimes congratulating us on our new jobs, new houses, and new thoughts. We know the hosts by name and know that when we write them, not only do they read it but they often reply.
But if they can’t make it, what does that mean for the rest of us who are struggling to convince our traditional media outlets to embrace the internet?
If anyone has any ideas, I’ll hear you out.
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