There is no major posting today because the platform for this Blog [Squarespace] glitched, claimed to have saved an extensive posting and, when we followed its instructions to recover, managed to lose it.

This is a persistent problem with Squarespace which has been drawn to their attention but with little result. There is no auto-save unlike WordPress and the bug that is supposed to deal with the resubmit issue has not been resolved since it was first drawn to their attention in April.

Usually, we just pick ourselves up off the floor and rewrite but there are other things to do today, so the summary is:-

• We are all aware of a crisis in journalism that derives from the shift in its secure role within a national establishment to a less secure one within a competitive global economy;
• This crisis, to date, has affected the quality of news [the 'churnalism' debate] but not so much the status of journalists - the arrival of new technologies is now changing this state of affairs;
• Cost-cutting can support the cross-subsidy of heavyweight news but only in a growing economy - a low growth scenario and the demand for capital for investment online mean tough choices;
• Journalism is heading in the direction of other skill-based celebrity economies (arts, sport, even politics) in seeing high paid 'stars' competing with mid-level 'entrepreneurs';
• Ambitious journalists will increasingly see themselves as 'brands' operating on multiple platforms (books, blogs, columns, shows, and so on) with some appointing 'agents';
• 'Entrepreneurs' will also be seeking a presence on multiple platforms and blurring the historic professional distinction of writing independent narrative and writing commercial copy;
• A 'hack' class will be increasingly indistinguishable between jobbing journalism and PR - it will be worked harder and be more insecure, with too many people competing for the work available;
• Online media will stabilise into viable business models based on free front pages, paywalls and micro-payments - the younger generation will find growing opportunities in content production.
• There will be competition for space between activists writing for free, journalists under economic pressure and the commodity approach to content in the marketing services sector;
• Politically, this competition may create an angry unstable 'intellectual' element within society at local and regional level and on the margins of the metropolitan media;
• Ideologically, the professional old guard is heading into the sunset and the mass media is likely to tend to increasing conservatism (albeit libertarian);
• 'Stranded' grunt workers could become deracinated, unstable and radical (though of both right and left) - this group may create a powerful motive force for social change in Middle England.

Thank Squarespace's glitching for the lack of detailed argument and the references. Although we will try to be better at saving as we go (though we did on this occasion, but clearly not frequently enough), we cannot guarantee that this won't happen again. Our apologies to regular readers.