Up until now, folks who wrote for the Acme Times were "thought leaders" in their respective fields. They were experts, we listened to them, because information didn't spread (in a given field) without passing through them. Publishers – big "P" – controlled the spread of information.

They don't anymore, and I think it's about time we stopped holding Professional Pundits on a pedestal.

I want to hear analysis from people who have first-hand experience and battle scars, even if it's via an ugly personal blog.

Publishers (big "P"), keep your fancy CMS, pretty branding, and comments sections. I don't want to hear what your Tech Writer thinks about what that company just did, he/she is a twenty-something yr old being paid to drive traffic.

· We agree that the Big-P Publishers are becoming a thing of the past.

· We agree that there is no value in hearing what "a twenty-something yr old being paid to drive traffic" has to say.

· We disagree about what comes next.

Here's what I think comes next:

While people may not care about what "a twenty-something yr old being paid to drive traffic" has to say, they still care — and will always care! — about what people who they respect or consider to be smart, trustworthy, etc. have to say about issues or topics they care about.

There are a lot of these smart, trustworthy people. You only know about a tiny fraction of them because they are nodes within your network — fly fishermen, librarians, VCs, media people.

The Internet seeks out these smart, trustworthy people, and follows them. Big-P Publishers seek out these smart, trustworthy people and employ them. Before Brian Stelter was a Professional Pundit, he was just some guy with a smart take from Towson. Before I was Libby who works for Branch, I was just some girl with a smart take from Columbia.

Same goods, different label.

The magic of the internet is that THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE. The best publishers understand that, and are making smart, trustworthy people (not their Big-B Brand) the focus of their company.

Why are you talking about them like they're different?

I see both sides of this. There definitely is an echo chamber of pundits that can end up churning out the same median opinion.

This is just as true among non-professional writers. Communities of praxis flock together. Original thought is just as hard to find among the battled-scarred as among the pros (to say nothing of the substantially large overlap).

I think that the bigger problem is that there are very few places where individuals can write, be edited and published outside of either a publishing house or a tight community. Outside of institutional fiat, outside of strict reputational requirements.

That's why I like talking here. You're just another name, beholden to the quality of your ideas, not the weight of your back catalog.