Fast Company, Slow Coverage

As you probably know by now, Rob Scoble (formerly of Channel 9, Scobleizer and PodTech fame) is joining the "traditional media" crowd with his move to Fast Company to start Fast Company TV. Michael Arrington wrote about it in December. Well, that time has come and Rob posted the details this week.

With print ad revenues are down, reporters are getting laid off left and right and are looking for just about any gig they can lay their hands on. And the old boys of print media are getting a new funky makeover for '08 (e.g. BusinessWeek's new formula) to try and stay above water.

I don't get this. If you work in a "fast industry," such as public relations that must always stay on top of what's going on in the industries we serve, reading hundreds of articles, blogs and press releases every day, on top of talking to reporters and counseling clients, do you have time to sit there and watch a 15-minute streamed video preceded by a 30-second ad? Probably not. The proliferation of RSS demonstrates our need to quickly scan a large amount of publications, blogs and headlines to get to the content that's important to us.

We don't have the time to watch video news at work — it just takes too long. So will Scoble be a success? We'll see, but I can't wait to see what Fake Steve Jobs says.