Dooley’s Theory of Journalistic Evolution

Pat Dooley, columnist for The Gainesville Sun in Gainesville, Fla.

Have you heard of Dooley? No, it’s not a new social media term or web site, but it is the last name of Pat Dooley, featured sports columnist of The Gainesville Sun in Gainesville, Fla, and author of Game of My Life Florida: Memorable Stories of Gator Football. Having an extensive journalistic background in the history of the University of Florida’s Gators, Dooley is the go-to guy for Gator sports.

But during his visit with the Gainesville Advertising Federation in September, Dooley’s usual playful banter took a more sobering turn as he discussed his struggles with adapting to the fluctuating climate of today’s marketing media.

Many of Dooley’s colleagues have shown resistance to today’s continuously morphing communications market. They refuse to blog and get upset when they have to do a podcast after the game. But Dooley recognized the need for change and simply said to himself, “I want to keep my job and that’s the way it is.”

“You have to be involved,” Dooley added. “You have to do so many things,” because the idealistic view of writing for the sake of writing is quickly falling by the wayside. It used to be that you would write a column and be done, “but now there is so much other stuff to go along with it…I have to do TV, radio, tweet, blog, and occasionally I write a column,” Dooley said.

“Every once in a while I’ll squeeze [a column] in there,” a column “that used to be [my] whole life,” said Dooley with gravity, “Now it’s just a part of it.”

The newspapers wasted a lot of time in jumping on the Internet wagon, firm in their beliefs that the art of newspaper journalism would hold strong. But because of their delayed response, they are now struggling to compete with an online medium that can deliver on a faster, more entertaining and interactive platform.

It’s not Dooley’s goal to disparage anyone from pursuing their dream, but he still feels the need to warn, “You can sit down and write the greatest story ever written…but they’ll say, ‘Yeah that’s great…but did you do a podcast on it? Did you do a video? Did you blog it? Did you tweet it? That’s all that matters any more.” If you are willing to go the distance, be prepared to do the extra advertising legwork to get noticed.

It’s a new ball game, folks. Writers, advertisers, sales people, business owners—you name it—have to be prepared to play. And as Dooley stated, the message is hard-hitting but clear, “You all have to evolve or be left behind.”