ONA Issues

In this week’s column Gene Weingarten criticizes ONA’s annual conference (ONA11) held last month in Boston, asserting that the main message of the conference was around attracting reader eyeballs, ridiculing journalists’ focus on branding, and chastising the selection of Ben Huh as a keynote. 

ONA’s executive director, Jane McDonnell responded in the comments by inviting Weingarten to a first-hand view of the organization with an offer of membership and an extension to be our guest at ONA12 scheduled for Sept 20-22 in San Francisco. She also provided clarification that there were, in fact, 4 keynote speakers while defending the choice of Ben Huh with the following:

Ben Huh was actually our Friday night networking speaker, providing some comic relief, yes, but also giving the crowd some painless lessons on how to build sites that actually make money – no LOLcats in sight.  

Another Post columnist, Alexandra Petri weighed in shortly after saying that Weingarten was wrong.

As did Ben Huh the next day with these important points:

For decades, newspapers have used their power to charge inflated advertising rates, fill the paper with commodity wire articles, and pretend to act in the best interest of the community while ignoring their needs. With that, the vibrance and competitiveness of journalism withered on the vine. “Objectivity” became the religion, not serving the readers. Change was bad, and the status quo filled the coffers.

Until the Internet came along.

When any company loses their competitive edge, they are wiped from the planet by those who better understand and better fit the needs of their customers. When an entire industry loses its competitive edge, cantankerous old fuds complain about the good old days using column inches.

The Atlantic Wire tosses the Weingarten vs. Huh debate around in SPATWATCH, touting Huh as the winner. While Jim Romenesko asks over at Poynter if Weingarten is resisting necessary, healthful change in journalism. 

And the Washington Post editors have asked readers, Gene Weingarten on ONA: Did he get it wrong?

Now it’s our turn. Where do you stand in this debate? Give us your thoughts in comments/reblogs or submit your own response for publication on ONA Issues here.