AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Tina Brown started off kindly enough, calling for a sort of hegemony online. But you knew her true colors were bound to show through, and they came after the formal keynote. She railed against non-professional Web content and the companies that use it. She called the "time we're in" a terrible period for reporting and journalism:

"There has to be pushback - so many media companies think that they can replace their journalists with lower paid kids, and this will lead to their fall. They will destrory their brands if they keep making their reporters put out far too much than they can do well. I think that will happen. It will be a very painful period in between.

"I think this period where people thought than any old person could write a reputable posting is over and it has been a terrible period for us... talent has been exploited by technology. There should be more vocal pushback on this... I don't want to be the union voice, but it's a pretty sad state of affairs."

Then there's this. Tina's starting her own site, the dailybeast.com and is "looking for editors who will put aside the wisdom of the crowd." Bold.

Once again, it's Us Vs. Them.

Jeff Jarvis got up to ask Tina about the business model of this new editor-driven site of hers. She refused to discuss it, apart from saying "people will see."