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The soul of media: Curation and editing, all one in the same

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Aggregation vs. Curation. Journalism vs. "Churnalism." In the first tit-for-tat battle, Bill Keller of The New York Times takes on Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post (or is it AOL?) In the second, it's substance over page views (never mind they're not mutually exclusive).

Make no mistake there’s a battle raging for the soul of new media. Not the clichéd war between print and Web or between Silicon Valley and New York, but rather a series of internal battles being fought within nearly every publication. It’s the battle between  journalism and churnalism.

via Journalism vs Churnalism Battle Rages On.

Ah, the "soul" of media. How it reminds me of the 1980s with its now-quaint battle lines. On the one side, USA Today (with its snappy graphics and McNugget stories) and Entertainment Tonight (remember Mary Hart and the $2 million insurance policy on her shapely legs). On the other, the "real" journalists, fighting for stories long enough to say something and mighty issues over fleeting celebrity (wonder who won that one?).

I'll weigh in with a little twist -- Curation vs. Editing. More than aggregation, more than "churnalism," curation is in so many ways the next phase of edited journalism. Just as significant, curation-editing is fast transforming "who" the media is.

For nearly 100 years, Forbes, along with many traditional publishers, has been about editing -- words, sentences, paragraphs, stories, voice. We "edited" talent, too, carefully selecting the editors and reporters who wrote the words and filtered the stories that delivered our message and world view. What does all that add up to? You guessed it, curation.

The Forbes news experience, like so many others, is evolving, but we remain steadfast in our focus on editing, or curation. The thing is, our competitors look different. They don't so much resemble our fellow Big Media companies any more. They increasingly look like you and me -- that is, members of the news audience.

On the Web today, knowledgeable people can publish content for next to nothing. With the tools of social media, those same people can build followings for next to nothing. Both are what Forbes  and other traditional players do -- for significantly more than nothing. Bottom line: there are lots of new, talented editor-curators out there who are attracting an audience using different labor, distribution and economic models.

Forbes is adapting to this world while still adhering to what made us a trusted business news provider. In addition to our full-time staff of experienced editors and reporters, these very same talented journalists are recruiting hundreds of qualified contributors -- in effect, curators -- to create content that our audience wants. Forbes is "editing" these curators by carefully selecting them (just as we do our full-time reporters) based on their own knowledge and skill. Then we give them the tools and support to publish expert content and attract an audience under the larger Forbes umbrella. Many are part of an incentive plan. Others publish for free to have their knowledge disseminated and voice heard in a credible news environment. It's exciting to watch it all unfold: our experienced Forbes staff recruits knowledgeable contributors, who in turn find it so rewarding that they recruit contributors they respect.

All our staff editors, reporters and contributors are editor-curators who produce what we call authoritative social journalism. We are extending the Forbes brand to the new world of experienced, topic-specific content creators; to business news consumers who want to "follow" them and engage in conversation; and to marketers, who are now publishing content as experts both on Forbes.com and in Forbes magazine.  We call it "the content continuum," and in all cases the content creator is clearly identified and labeled.

The new world can be confusing. Demand Media has consolidated tens of thousands of people with widely different credentials to create non-news content. Its market capitalization is $2 billion. Associated Content has done much the same and was recently sold to Yahoo for $90 million. Each focuses on less-skilled user-generated content, and each is far from a curating-editing organization.

Forbes is at the forefront of the new editor-curator world. Yes, we dynamically aggregate content to help round out our digital experience. In fact, we've taken aggregation a step further. We've provided our staff members and contributors with an easy-to-use headline tool that enables them to both curate and aggregate the Web for their audiences. Human curation and human aggregation. I guess it's back to the future... fun.