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The Online Journalism Review has published an open letter from an editor who calls for young journalists to look to the web for their careers. Although I am not involved in training young journalists this article struck a chord as I do work for the University Publications Office. Although I have been working with Web Services for the past two years my primary position is with the Pubs Office. We have been discussing the closer integration of print and online material and my work with the Media Office on News and Events has led to us looking at how the web can be used not just as somewhere to recreate what's already in print but to look at how we can really use the web to distribute content that is usually unavailable to more traditional forms of media.

I particularly liked:

It is true that at the major news organizations, much of the Web work to date has focused on repurposing content from the legacy newsroom for a digital audience. But that is changing. In the same way that early television struggled to develop from radio-on-TV to something different, so is Web journalism.

Some are striking out in exceptionally creative directions. A young broadcaster in Britain melds magazine-style presentation with grainy, cinema-vérité video to create investigative productions of amazing depth and presence. A Chicago journalist-programmer melds public police data with Google maps to present an on-demand visual map of crime in your neighborhood. A pair of newspaper veterans dubs themselves "Baristas" and serves up a mix of community-contributed news and their own wry sense of humor to suburban New Jersey.

If you're interested in the possibilities of content, go read it.