Samir Husni, Chair of the University of Mississippi's Department of Journalism and a consultant known as Mr. Magazine, had some interesting observations about the relationship of on-line writing and writing in magazines (I found this on Bo Sacks' "Heard on the Web" Media Intelligence newsletter):
"Two things we have to do [in magazines and newspapers]. We have to use more narrative and more pictures. If you look at the Financial Times that was completely redesigned last week, a lot of their stories are a full page. But you read that story and you'll get everything you need to know about that subject. More magazines are moving toward more narrative. I tell my magazine clients we have to deepen the story and chase the photographs. For the service part, send people to the web."
This goes counter to those who believe that people's attention span is shortening and the lesson is that, like the web, magazines should reduce their stories to bite-size bits. Husni goes on:
"The biggest mistake we are doing now, and I don't understand why, is we are duplicating magazine content and putting it online. Why would I have the exact same thing on the screen if it exists in print? If I wanted to have a magazine online I would do something like Monkey magazine that Dennis Publishing is doing that's designed specifically for the Internet."
Interesting observations, and if people pay attention to his advice, there should be a greater demand for in-depth articles by journalists and free-lance writers.
