Geeks at the gate

Rupert Murdoch launched his company's long-awaited tablet based news app, called The Daily, yesterday at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The setting was indeed appropriate in that the Museum's mission is to build a collection of art with entirely new ways of looking at the world.

Mr. Murdoch's undertaking is the latest step by a media company to adapt to a radical development that could be traced back to September 26, 1960, the date of the first televised Presidential debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.  It was likely the first time that an electorate could see for themselves what the two candidates were like; in other words they could go right to the source, unfiltered by writers and editors, and draw their own conclusions.

Ever since then, news organizations in particular have been scrambling to react to this development; two in particular stand out.  In 1980, ted Turner launched CNN, filling the cables with video -- much of it live -- 24 hours a day.  Two years later, The Gannett Company created USA Today, a national newspaper designed to appeal to the shorter attention spans and video appetite of the so-called "TV generation."

In the meantime, information technology and the more recent emergence of digital media have turned things upside down.  Once the gatekeepers of news and information, news organizations and advertising agencies alike have had to make room for software engineers at the conference table. It turns out that the geeks are, in many ways, in a better position to understand how end-users (you and me) seek out and process news and information.  In other words, the power of the traditional "gatekeepers" and "agenda setters" such as The New York Times or the network news programs is greatly diminishing.

Whether Mr. Murdoch is successful in playing such a role in cyberspace, one that will be rewarded with advertising dollars,  is still very much in question.  The Daily certainly has all the bells and whistles of digital media, as the video above demonstrates.

Nevertheless,  in an age in which a computer algorithm could theoretically help each of us create our own up-to-the-minute"newspaper", the name itself  -- The Daily -- and the concept of "issue" may already be passe. We will see.

Those of us who have businesses to run are no less affected than Mr. Murdoch by these trends. People in leadership positions are no longer gatekeepers or agenda-setters in the traditional sense. Just ask the Tunisians or the Egyptians, or anyone else in public life. In many ways, leaders need to adopt some geek-like thinking and become facilitators, providing the tools and the right environment for their people to see and learn for themselves.