The previous model — print, radio, television — was also mostly shit. The majority of readers of even the most venerable papers were reading the sports sections and the funnies, most of what was on the radio was terrible pop music, and the three channels of TV were mostly awful. All of it paid for by obnoxious and obtrusive advertisement.

HOWEVER, that awful shit paid for some good shit.

We can’t find a similar model in our industry, because we can’t make the publishers of bad shit pay for good shit (to their credit some try, a little). However, having been in both the old and new media for a while, I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Here’s what I’ve noticed: Quality has legs. A shit “10 best” story may get a lot of hits up front, but a quality, detailed and nuanced piece will get steadily growing hits for years and years.

So, IF we are all smart enough to own our own and protect our work (!), we can be the ones who fund our own good shit with the bad shit, so that as we grow as artists and journalists, we continue to make more on the good shit, and don’t have to produce so much of the bad shit to pay for it. In other words we re-create the old media world on a personal, life-and-career-based level.

Problem is, nobody gets rich quick that way…