This could be a debate worth following

The Village Voice's Foster Kamer uncovers some interesting dish and commentary on the state of the media in this Runnin’ Scared blog post. Former New York Observer EIC Peter Kaplan is asked for comment in an AdAge story on quasi-news site Examiner.com and he takes direct aim at well-known tech pundit Jeff Jarvis who serves as a consultant for AOL’s Examiner-like site Punch:

"One of the things that the Jeff Jarvises of the world undermine is the importance of the editorial structure. The relationship between the reporter and the editor is the one safeguard when it comes to the business of truth telling."

Kaplan is no Luddite (he’s currently consulting on Conde Nast Traveler’s IPad application) but he clearly values maintaining the pieces of the traditional media system that are clearly not broken, specifically the validity of the story told. For any good PR practitioner, this is a very good thing. Without it, quality of content risks being undermined by the quantity of content that is being pumped out there.

Mara Flynn