Media: GateHouse Web guru Owens flies the coop
Posted in On the Media with tags GateHouse Media, Howard Owens on February 21, 2009 by Billy DennisDan Kennedy’s Media Nation reports on an internal memo revealing that Howard Owens, GateHouse Media’s director of digital publishing, is no longer with the company. Nothing in the memo reveals if the leave was voluntary. On Twitter, Owens implies he has found employment elsewhere.
It’s not quite true that I’m out of a job. I’m just no longer employed by GHM. Details in a week or two.
Kennedy says the following of Owens:
Within journalism new-media circles, Owens is a highly respected thinker. Before joining GateHouse in September 2006, he helped launch pioneering new-media ventures at the Bakersfield Californian and, before that, the Ventura County Star, according to his LinkedIn profile.
At GateHouse, Owens pushed a strategy of Web-first journalism, exhorting reporters and editors to post breaking news stories on the company’s Wicked Local sites before running them in their print editions. He was also a strong advocate of quick-and-dirty video for the Wicked Local sites. In addition, he’s a co-founder of the Wired Journalists social network.
Owens’ blog, HowardOwens.com, appears to have gone dark, although a “whois” search reveals that he’s still the owner. Worth keeping an eye on, I’d say. He continues posting to Twitter.
Owens possesses one of the more interesting minds I know in new-media journalism, combining vision and practical experience. Yet his blunt, occasionally caustic manner has not played well with many of GateHouse’s reporters and editors, who work long hours for short money.
I’d agree with Kennedy’s assessment. I know Owns only electronically. We disagreed on the future viability of subscrition-based online news organizations. He thinks history shows the public won’t buy it. I think they won’t as long as the media keep offering up dead tree versions of the news.
