Elizabeth Spiers, a web luminary who has served as a blog editor, publisher and journalist, isn't terribly impressed with the online efforts of the establishment media.

She explains in a Marketwatch interview with Jon Friedman:

Old media have suffered self-inflicted wounds, Spiers contends, because they prefer to jump on a trend instead of trying to come up with something wholly original. Their mentality seems to be to throw money at a problem, rather than daring to be different.

"Their idea of doing experimental launches isn't experimental," she said. "The establishment media interest me if they're doing innovative things."

Her thoughts about specific outlets are interesting as well:

• "What would she do if she ran Time Inc.? 'I'd start an R&D department for experimental media projects that don't fit into the usual categories,' she said."
• How about the newsweeklies? "'Time and Newsweek still have a lot of mileage left,' she commented. 'They have to do what the magazine format does best -- long-form, narrative journalism. Otherwise, they'll get scooped on everything.'"
• "Spiers blasted Portfolio's debut issue. She dismissed it as 'the Paris Hilton of business magazines: pretty but vapid and unlikely to produce anything resembling a second thought.'"

Interesting stuff from a woman who has done a great deal in the blogosphere. The whole interview is worth a read.

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