I wrote a post last week about how Forbes.com is a brand-building platform for reporters, topic experts, the audience and marketers, tooIt sparked a comment on another site, MediaPost, that is both a history lesson and a poignant reminder that personal brand-building in the news business is more than a century old.
For that matter, so is the ethos of bloggingAs the comment points out, each helped shape today's industrial media complex, which digital technology is fast returning to its roots
The period during which a limited number of publishers provided well-paid employment for a significant number of writers was fairly short, less than 100 years.
Before the 20th century, thousands of publisher-writers were responsible for most journalismThe only successful writers were those whose pieces were directly responsible for increases in circulationEdgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens are the first that come to mind.
In the 1900s, newspapers consolidated and monopolized marketsTheir vast wealth and power allowed them to establish standards for professional writingSuccessful journalists were blind to (or downplayed) the fact that their success and respectability had more to do with fitting a mold than their talent as writers.
In all other times, the news business was typified by demagoguery and competition was nothing more than a popularity contestThe media landscape today is much more similar to the middle of the 19th century when dozens of daily newspapers and hundreds of weeklies were published in New York.
Given the history, it's fascinating to watch traditional news organizations squirm over perceived "changes" to the craft -- particularly the idea that it's somehow unseemly to self-publish, then self-market your voice and knowledge to build an audience and profit from it.
That's not to say that the formation of "standards for professional writing" were misguidedSuch standards (ethics and quality, to name two) were critical to building a level of audience trustAnd they're just as important -- if not more so -- in a digital world that enables anyone to publish any time..