It’s so true, it hurts.

I’m trying to gauge interest in a new media meet up in the D.C. area.

To be eligible for this meet up you must meet two criteria:

1. Work in new media/online media
2. Work for a company that is either journalism related or creates non-fiction content

Now, you can work for a traditional media company (a newspaper for instance) and actually be an online journalist. That’s fine. But this is a meet up for people who make non-fiction content for the Web. Students who specialize in online media will also be welcome.

This is not a meet up, however, for people who want to learn about new media. It’s for people who actively are engaged in it.

The purpose of this meet up isn’t just to get drunk and exchange business cards. No the real purpose is to exchange ideas. This is a meet up for people interested in talking about the future of journalism and non-fiction content.

This is for people who want to push the envelope of what is possible.

If this sounds like something that appeals to you, please send me an e-mail at connect (at) patthorntonfiles (dot) com. Let me know what days of the week/times are good for you.

And feel free to toss around ideas in the comments section of what we should talk about.

This post is adapted from a comment I left responding to a comment by Andy Dickinson on my last post:

First, I didn’t say that there aren’t talented old, white guys. The world is filled with them. I’m arguing that at least some management should not fit into that demographic.

To be sure, the core demographic for newspapers is older, white men. Newspapers would be foolish to abandon this demographic, but newspapers also need to expand outside of that demographic. Logically, it makes sense to have decisions makers outside of that demographic.

Rob Curley was a Vice President at The Washington Post at age 35, and a manager many years prior to that at other papers. Most newspaper management are overwhelming in the 40-70 crowd. The Post, especially WPNI, is a great example of having younger people making decisions. They have a lot of people making decisions with digital products who are actually big consumers of digital products.

When I say young, I don’t really mean my age group. Although, I do think it makes sense to actively consult people in my age group on decisions that involve digital products (and it might make sense to have some in project management positions, like some newspapers do). That doesn’t happen at many newspapers. however.

I’ve been to a lot of smaller publications, and often the people in charge are older. Ironically, many of the larger publications include younger people in the decision making process. That should be noted.

The point is not that older people can’t be great managers, they can (many of the top CEOs in American are above 40, but these people know how to surround themselves with great talent, too). The point is that if they were really great managers they would include younger people in their discussions about products and initiatives largely aimed at younger people.

I think it’s no mistake, however, that most of the Web titans are younger. Brin and Page are 34 and 35, respectively, and they founded Google in their mid-20s. Zuckerberg is 23. Bezos founded Amazon.com at 30. The list could go on and on.

Even programmer-as-journalist pioneer Adrian Holovaty was only 26 when he received his $1.1 million grant from the Knight Foundation to start Everyblock. I’m willing to bet there are other Holovaty’s out there who were never given the chance to shine by their bosses. Holovaty got to innovate at the most-innovative journalism company around, the Lawrence Journal-World.

The Lawrence Journal-World and their online arm, Mediaphormedia, have a culture of innovation that is sorely lacking at most newspaper. It’s a culture more akin to a Web company than a newspaper company.

But many newspapers wouldn’t know what to do if they had a young Brin or Zuckerberg or even Holovaty working for them. They most likely wouldn’t allow either to be included in important Web decisions. That’s a catastrophic mistake.

Let’s say you have 10 top editors. At least one should be a digital native (or enthusiastic adopter). How many newspapers can honestly say that?

I’m not even arguing that the majority of management should be in the under-40 set (this will vary form publication to publication), but it makes sense to have some employees in their 20s and 30s making decisions. At the bare minimum, I would actively consult younger employees about Web products.

Maybe it’s not even about having younger people in management. Maybe it’s really just about consulting them on important Web decisions. And maybe it’s about allowing younger employees the opportunities to innovate and giving them the freedom necessary to build desirable Web products.

Is this too much to ask?

I’ve noticed lately that several legitimate comments have ended up in my spam filter.

If that happens, I apologize. I believe I fished out all the legitimate comments, but if you posted a comment and it didn’t show up, it probably got caught by my spam filter. If that is the case, e-mail me at connect (at) patthorntonfiles (dot) com, and I’ll fish the comment out myself.

I almost never delete comments. I’m a very light editor of comments. Spam is the No. 1 way to get a comment deleted.

This trend seemed to start when I upgraded to WordPress 2.5, and seems to have cooled down lately. I was thrown off a little bit when some of my regular commenters were showing up in my spam queue.

On a more positive note, the JI has officially stopped more than 20,000 spam comments.