TAKEAWAY: There is something about the word newspaper that changes the mood of the conversation these days.
Meet the media thinker
That’s it. I have decided that I am not in the newspaper business anymore.
And I’ll tell you why!
It’s always the same. You meet a stranger sitting next to you on the plane, or at the airport lounge. The conversation leads to: what do you do?
“I am in the newspaper business,” has been my line for decades.
But not anymore. Starting today I will answer the question with:
“I am a media thinker.”
It is not that I am not, at heart, a newspaper person, in the newspaper business. Always was. Always will be, even though I am a digital man, too, and proud! It all leads back to the roots: you can’t separate the newspaper man from the rest of me.
However, it’s just the reaction you get from those strangers when you put newspaper business into the equation. Here is the usual answer:
“Oh, that’s a dying business. Hope you have a Plan B.”
Well, I do, as a matter of fact. My Plan B is to become a media thinker.
I tried it this past week—and with much success!—-with a stranger in Vienna at the Austrian Airlines lounge, who asked me about my profession.
“I am a media thinker,” I said, as I picked at the mixed nuts in my little plate, the glass of bubblies not too far from reach.
“Fascinating,” said the stranger, armed with a Mini iPad in front of him and waiting for his flight to Munich. “I am a media consumer 100%, from the time I get out of bed when I grab my iPhone, and I could not do without it. I appreciate the work you guys do.”
The smile on the stranger’s face, his approval for my type of work, convinced me that this is the way to go.
I am sure that this stranger felt very good knowing that there are “media thinkers” out there anticipating his every need.
It also feels good to have a newly found title.
Media thinker it is from now on, Mario.
Participating in the WAN IFRA World Publishing Expo 2013
I will be in Berlin this week to participate as a speaker in both the 6th Annual Tablet & App Summit as well as in the 12th International Newsroom Summit
My blog posts this week will most likely be from the WAN IFRA event.
An interview with Mario Garcia: What’s Cooking with Mobile?
http://epaper.wan-ifra.org/2013_expo_gazette/#/8/
For more information about the WAN IFRA World Publishing Expo 2013:
http://epaper.wan-ifra.org/2013_expo_gazette/#/1/
TheMarioBlog post # 1350