Facebook or facetime?(MASTHEAD SYMPOSIUM)

The genesis of this edition's Symposium started with a question about balancing our ever-dwindling time in our ever-dwindling shops, and a lively response from David Barnham:

"Limit meetings as much as possible," he said. "My bosses also liked to tell their bosses that we interviewed EVERYBODY who ran for statewide office. Including David Duke. Think about that."

Jane Nicholes came right back:" And yet, most of you spend more and more of your limited time worrying about your online presence, how many anonymous people are clicking on your Website, what people hiding behind screen names are saying in your forums, how to get more of them to click on you, debating the merits of reaching people through Facebook, and so on. But when real people want to come talk to you face-to-face, you don't have time? No wonder newspapers are in trouble."

As we move opinion journalism more and more online, these are the tradeoffs we must weigh. Each of us will have to find the balance of Facebook and face time.--Lois Kazakoff, Masthead editor

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