New media? I’ve worked 38 years in the newspaper business

People like to frame a conflict in simple terms: black vs. white, old vs. new, etc.

I recently noted some flaws in a study that generated some encouraging results for “old media” (if you ignored all the troubling results). I also faulted how old media covered the study. So to the people who like to simplify, I suddenly became “new media.”

At least two tweets identified me as “new media” pushing back on the study.  A post at PDA the Digital Content Blog reported on the study and said, “Unsurprisingly, new media folk began to protest, among them Steve Buttry …”

Well, let’s get the facts right: I have spent my entire career working for the newspaper industry. The major revenue streams for my current employer, Gazette Communications, come from a newspaper that’s 127 years old, a television station and printing contracts from other newspapers.

David Brauer, media critic for MinnPost, got it right: I’m “innovation-oriented newspaperfolk.” I am not a new-media person dumping on old media. I am an old-media person who wants to look at the present and the future through clear eyes, not through a lens of nostalgia.

Postscript: I direct-messaged a link to this post to Jen Wilder of Sydney, Australia, who wrote one of the tweets linked above, identifying me as “new media.” She reread my original post about the study and sent out a tweet praising it, along with a DM of encouragement. Thanks for the second look!