The New Media World

THE NEW MEDIA WORLD....Over at TPM, David Kurtz writes that until last week, "I had never met any of our staff in person, including Josh, even though I've worked at TPM in one capacity or another for approaching two years now, the last 10 months as managing editor." Andrew Sullivan calls this a telling example of how the new media world works.

But is it? Or is it really just a return to the really old media world — not to mention the really old business world in general, when business agents in far flung places like, say, California communicated with headquarters via letter or telegraph, and met in person with their bosses once or twice a decade. Or maybe never.

I've only visited Washington DC twice in the four years I've worked at the Washington Monthly. But when my grandfather ran a Los Angeles ad agency that handled West Coast advertising for Mobil Oil, I'll bet he didn't meet his bosses in New York more than a handful of times in 20 years. And he didn't have email or cheap long distance either. Maybe the new media world is more back-to-the-future than it really is new.