A Transition. I'll be leaving the San Jose Mercury Newsnext month to work on a citizen-journalism project.
I hope to pull together something useful that helps enable -- and demonstrates -- the emerging grassroots journalism that I wrote about in my recent book. Something powerful is happening, it's in the early stages and I have a chance to help figure this out.
I'm not ready to discuss the specifics yet, mainly because I have many more ideas than I could possibly try to put into practice at this point -- and we're early in the process of working out the venture's actual form.
A friend who knows about this asked the question I'm sure some others will ask: "Are you nuts?" I hope not. Of course, I *am* leaving one of the best gigs in journalism. The Merc has been incredibly good to me. There are so
many talented and good-hearted folks here.
I hate the idea of leaving. But I'd hate not trying this even more.
Obviously, more to come... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
When I was growing up, the San Jose Mercury News was the best newspaper in the bay area. In recent years, however, the Mercury News has degenerated from a source of news to a source of news approved by major Silicon Valley Manufacturers. Dan Gilmore was one of the few exceptions on the staff, continually providing news and comment for the rest of us.
With Dan's parting, my reasons for getting Mercury News daily have dropped substantially. I know that I can get the comics online and I am guessing that I can find Mark Purdy and Bud Geracie's writing online as well.
That leaves me with wanting some local news and my RSS feeds are getting better. I am not certain that I can give up the daily paper just yet. But it is far cry from what I grew up with, and with Dan Gilmore's departure I have to consider whether I really need the morning paper
9:29:12 PM 
|
