The Independent books section has a great interview with Malcolm Gladwell, he of Blink and The Tipping Point fame, in which Gladwell talks at length about any number of subjects, including the future of newspaper journalism. Gladwell's latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success, offers clues as to why certain people achieve such great success in their chosen field; while luck and circumstance have a lot to do with it, Gladwell also emphasizes the important of apprenticeship and of simply putting in the hours necessary to become an expert at one's trade.
The article by Marion Sauvebois is worth reading on its own merits, but also includes the following devastating observation from Gladwell which should warm the heart of anyone who has put in his or her 10,000 hours in a noisy newsroom, on a beat, or at a copydesk:
"You can't start blogging at 23 and call yourself a journalist."
Jim Keane, S.J.
