An oral history of the epic collision between journalism and digital technology, 1980 to the present

A project of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

An oral history of the epic collision between journalism and digital technology, from 1980 to the present

Did Free News Lead to the Riptide?

Volume 1:
CEOs, Coders, News Execs, Disrupters

We had a free service, but then there was a better service. That’s the way a lot of companies, particularly Yahoo, tried to introduce pay elements.
The only reason Prodigy had a billing system, this is really interesting, was that the original business model assumed…IBM, Sears, and CBS was originally Trintex. CBS got out early, to the point where Mel Karmizan, when we talked about him buying About.com, pre my IPO of About, I said, “You know you owned a piece of an online service once.” This was where corporations have no memory, so Mel is CEO of CBS. He goes, “We did?” I go, “Yeah, like you owned a third of it.” But they got out, and it was IBM and Sear.
It’s not like we weren’t thinking, “Well, can we monetize this content in other ways other than advertising?” We were always doing that.

Explore more topics Vol. 1 

Business Models for News?

Volume 2:
Tech Journalists

I have, for a long time, bought the idea that much of what has been journalism will be automated.
John Markoff
There was a golden moment when it could have happened. I think the news business, in particular, could really have turned it around.
Denise Caruso
Here’s why they’re going to hell, because we’ve had a race to the bottom because journalism needs money and because tech people need.
Deborah Branscum

Explore more topics Vol. 2 

The Big Picture

For most of the 20th century, any list of America’s wealthiest families would include quite a few publishers generally considered to be in the “news business”: the Hearsts, the Pulitzers, the Sulzbergers, the Grahams, the Chandlers, the Coxes, the Knights, the Ridders, the Luces, the Bancrofts — a tribute to the fabulous business model that once delivered the country its news. While many of those families remain wealthy today, their historic core businesses are in steep decline (or worse), and their position at the top of the wealth builders has long since been eclipsed by people with other names: Gates, Page and Brin and Schmidt, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Case, and Jobs — builders of digital platforms that, while not specifically targeted at the “news business,” have nonetheless severely disrupted it.

Keep reading Vol 1. 

The Tech Journalists

A transformative wave washed over the world economy this past quarter-century and technology journalists were its chroniclers and front-row witnesses. Many, among the twenty interviewed, say a catastrophic disruption of the news business was to be expected. But they feel their warnings went largely unheard within their workplaces, a contributing factor to the industry’s late and ineffectual counter-efforts. In contrast to pessimism about the future financial underpinnings of their business, they’re optimistic about the outlook for journalism as new tools, audiences and approaches emerge and evolve.

Keep reading Vol 2. 

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Volume
Vol 1: CEOs, Coders, News Execs, Disrupters
Vol 2: Tech Journalists

Four veterans of digital journalism and media — John Huey, Martin Nisenholtz, Paul Sagan, and later John Geddes — interviewed dozens of people who played important roles in the intersection of media and technology — from CEOs to coders, journalists to disruptors.

Riptide is the result: more than 50 hours of video interviews and two narrative essays that trace the evolution of digital news from early experiments to today. It’s what really happened to the news business.

Read Vol. 1  
See interviews