Check out this amazing interview with Seth Godin outside of the TED conference. How does one guy touch on so many great ideas in such a short time frame?
One of the important points here for journalists I think is the possibilities the web presents to do “your thing” and be the best at it–basically for free. One of the things I’ve heard from journalists since we started NTZ is how newsrooms cuts have changed the game for many of them. Now everyone is covering everything instead of focusing on a specific area.
It seems reasonable to expect this “wandering generality” approach to produce a generally wandering product. You know, “average”.
Is “average” what advertisers want to be associated with? In some cases, maybe.
But is “average” what readers want to read? Is it something they would consider paying for? Is it something they want to continue to follow? Is it something you can build a tribe around? Probably not.
I really like what Seth says about being the best at what he does and not trying to be the best at what other people do.
So what are you interested in? What are you the best at writing about in your “world”? Are you writing about it now? Why not? The cost of entry to this market can’t get any lower.
If you haven’t checked out Seth’s latest book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
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