Mark Cuban made his fortune in the dot-com world and seems to expend his energy courtside watching his Dallas Mavericks strive unsuccessfully for the NBA crown. I think he must hold the world record for most fines to an owner jumping up and down.
But big money doesn't just fall off the tree, so Cuban's brain is often at work on matters that intersect with media, and a colleague this week passed on one of his latest Maverick blogs on how newspapers are failing with new media.
In particular, he says the blog format cheapens the paper, which should be studiously avoiding adopting the new tool as if it were a pox on its house.
Newspapers disagree with him in general, but there is something to say for his concern that the Wild West of the blogosphere takes down the disciplined confine of old media. Perhaps the blog needs to be enhanced or sanctioned or given the seal of approval so users can feel reassured that the new writing is still inside an organization that can be trusted.
