The industry is littered with self-styled purists who believe the business of media.. the requirement to make a profit.. somehow corrupts the craft.
We all have to expand our capabilities to encompass the changing world, its growing diversity and, indeed, its complexity.
I have been privileged to grow up retaining the love of good journalism, the craft, while learning its business: the dollars and cents. I have learnt that they are not mutually exclusive but integrally self-reliant. Each dependent on the other.
There is no room for dictating taste in the diverse and dynamic world of media. To limit taste only limits the role we play for people of all kinds.
Intelligent media companies strive to provide both intellectual and comedy programs, groundbreaking and reflective articles, art house and popular movies. Not to be open minded in providing a full range of quality media would be a failure to serve the breadth and depth of the communities we live in.
The self-anointed media elite among us believe, somewhat self-servingly, that not only the act, or process of making a profit is positively sinister, but also that the very desire to do so is.
Good journalism is good business practice; good business supports great journalism.
The profit motive is not only fundamental to our ability to reward shareholders and pay employees; it's fundamental to excellent journalism. Far from corrupting the craft, profits enhance it. Expansion drives diversity and diversity protects and strengthens our craft.
