I think a big difference today between journalists coming over to the “dark side” is that when they get here, they are no longer necessarily tied to their old world in terms of needing those who are still journalists to help them with placement of stories, etc.

It’s now much easier for us to create our own publications and our own stories, and that, to me, makes it feel more similar to actual journalism. And, of course, the direct interaction with the public also adds to that feeling.

Because we’re not attempting to address the audience of another publication, but rather our own audience, the opportunity to interact and forge relationships is that much greater.

But newspaper content is promotional, too. Just like blogs like ours are intended to help build our businesses, newspaper content is there to draw bigger audiences in order to charge more for advertising. So what makes it so much more pure?

I did a lot of work as a journliast over the last ten years but got fed up with great editors being laid off, budgets shrinking and a general dumbing down of some former bastions of news reporting. So I don’t really regret moving online.

I LOVE the newspaper industry and journalism, but nowadays it doesn’t simply pay the bills. I think the emergence of iPad-like tablets and apps gives newspapers a chance of creating great online content within a walled environment (I’m thinking the Guardian’s iPhone app here), but by the time the industry reinvents itself a lot of “traditional” journalists will be working in PR, online media or creative content creation.

PS: When I let my subscription go to Dagens Nyheter’s paper edition 2 years ago I knew my 25 love affair with print media was over. I still get pangs of guilt though.

The community aspect of blogging makes it extremely gratifying — much more than the usually more negative letters to the editor at my old newspaper!