The problem with obsessing about scoops

Eric Jackson of Forbes.com writes Friday about how business journalists spend too much time chasing after scoops.

Jackson writes, “What also annoys me about journalists — and we’ve seen this in spades through this Yahoo! drama over the past 2 months — is that they seem obsessed with ‘scoops.’  There seems to be no higher honor in the journalistic profession than being recognized for getting a ‘scoop.’ And God save the other journalists who fails to recognize – and more importantly – credit a fellow journalist for his or her hard fought scoop.

“The problem with ‘scoops’ is that they show a basic problem with business journalism today.  ‘Scoops’ matter really only to other journalists – not to the readers (with rare exceptions – and Kara Swisher falls into this category often).  Most of the ‘scoops’ in this Yahoo! story have been meaningless 48 hours after they ‘break.’  Yet, they get played up as so important at the time they’re released.

“Journalists care about ‘scoops’ but readers don’t.

“If the New York Times or Wall Street Journal want me to pay them for their business ‘scoops’ — forget it. I’ll stick with my free Twitter stream and the 1,400 other free websites that will publish your scoop within 2 minutes.”

Read more here.