"However, you can't go around paralyzing the other kids on the block."
That's how Duane Swierczynski describes a Nerf gun fight with neighborhood kids, the kind of wacky perspective that only a crime novelist/reporter/blogger can show us.
I grabbed that piece from the Philadelphia City Paper where Swierczynski is the editor-and-chief. Today, we discuss journalism in this age of Nerf and blogs.
Welcome to the conclusion of my interview with Swierczynski, part of my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
You also work as editor and chief of Philadelphia City Paper. This has been a difficult year for independent papers in New York city--it's harder to keep a paper afloat as everybody goes digital. What's your advice for fledgling journalists looking to build careers in this new environment?
Duane Swierczynski:
Take two Advil and lay down. Wait for the feeling to pass...
Still interested?
Okay. Still interested?
I tell fledgling journalists to focus on honing their reporting and storytelling skills, and not to worry so much about the job market. No matter what form it takes -- print or digital -- we will always need reporters and storytellers. If all traditional print media were to suddenly disappear, what would bloggers link to?
Print may die (and I'm still not convinced about that; until you can roll up a laptop and shove it in your back pocket, we'll still need words on paper) but the form isn't what matters. It's the smart, curious people finding and then telling the stories.
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