Extra Credit -Donna Nall

Today was part of mass comm week here at Texas State University. One of the many events that went on this week was a lecture and question and answer session with Jim McNabb a man who has had over 40 years worth of experience in journalism and TV in Austin. He is also a singer/songwriter and hosts a journalism, media criticism blog at http://newsmcnabb.blogspot.com/. Jim was part of a panel that also included John Bridges who is the current editor for state and local Austin news at the Austin American Statesman. Bridges is a graduate of UT Austin and has been working at the Statesman for 20 years. Michael Pearson was also set to be on this prestigious panel but he absent for the discussion.

Jim McNabb was lively, energetic and seemed to have a genuine enthusiasm for all aspects of news, including the business side of news. He took us through a guided tour of the past 50 years of the news industry in the Austin area and gave us a little insight into the national spectrum of news as well. He explained the business model of the past and how news worked 50 years ago and continued into the present by explaining the current model for business and the fact the news industry is lacking any new models for business. The business of news is in bad shape, according to McNabb, because of the lack of a good marketing and business model for the current news industry. McNabb was passionate and stood up whenever he felt the need to speak. He was the Yin to Bridges Yang. Bridges was more more calm in his approach to public speaking by choosing to stay seated at all times and he took his time on questions and answered them in a much calmer manner.

Bridges expounded upon these ideas by answering questions from the audience about ad space, the internet, twitter and other such new technologies and how the current media outlets are learning to deal with and interact with these new technologies, in a profitable way. Bridges explained that ads on the internet are just plain cheaper and that local papers such as the Statesman are not brining in much revenue from this source of ad space and on top of that they are no longer selling as much classified ad space due to the advent of craig's list, ebay and other such on-line sellers. "Local news is too vital to fail.", said Bridges. Although the industry is struggling it has a committment to the community to succeed. We need to find a balance between new technologies and business models and those of the past. We need to find a Yang for this current Yin that we are facing in the newsroom, marketing room and business room.