Remember, when vcr’s first came out, many people said the movie theaters would die.

I think a magazine or any periodical doing the same is really trying to see what people really want to read and hear about. But these non-journalism writers or citizen writers won’t have the same privileges that press have. Having a title as a reporter or journalist, I think, is what gives one the edge in getting to see a CEO or higher level person.

I don’t think non-fiction writers are on the way out. It’s good there are more people wanting to write because generally people who write also read. We have to accept the fact that no country, state, or city is isolated anymore. Technology and information is so vast it’s difficult to keep out, unless you live in area ruled by a ruthless dictator – Kim Jong Il comes to mind.

What I do think is that readers are increasingly going to want to know the why and the how in different ways, perhaps in sorting through the issue themselves. Like, instead of hearing only about how a CEO makes a decision to run a green company, they’ll want to see the available options the CEO faced, make up their own minds about how they think the gal or guy should proceed –and then learn how the CEO decided, and what that might mean for their purchasing decision. (I saw a new game yesterday called Play The News, in which people predict what will happen in world events, and then also say what they think SHOULD happen. They get points on their correct predictions.) I think that readers are also going to be increasingly dissatisfied with only seeing the portions of an interview that we writers chose to include.

I do think we’ll always have a role in telling stories, telling true stories, and in marshaling information and arranging it, curating it, if you will. But I think that the era of the imperial third person journalist could be coming to a close.

I could be wrong of course, lol…these are just my first thoughts.