Jill Resigns

Jill Miller Zimon resigned today from working for the Plain Dealer on the Wide Open site. I can't even imagine how difficult it was for her. This was her vision.

Jean and several other people at the PD and in the blogosphere know that for almost two solid years, I’ve asked and written about and pushed issues related to integrating traditional journalism, new media, bloggers and citizen journalism - all in the name of providing better and more content for readers who consult more and different types of sources for reading news and information. Someone confirmed to me this afternoon, when I said to him, “I know there must be some folks saying, about how my efforts to integrate these groups were in vain, ‘I told her so,’” that, yes, some people are saying, “I told her so.”

She's right to see this as the future, and shouldn't let the bad planning and implementation of others dissuade her. It was a gutsy move. Unfortunately it all ended just when I thought it was really hitting its stride.

The post I had been working on concerning Wide Open was called Harmonic Convergence. You can see how we disseminate information is becoming more plastic and less bound by any single media. Print media has the most to lose from all this... thus their klutzy overreactions. Unfortunately, they have yet to realize that they also have to most to gain.

This all makes me sad. It was nice seeing people trying new ways to rise above the static.

The old rules are dead. At this point it's all about the old referees fighting to keep their jobs.