What is newsworthy?

I had an interesting discussion with a leading Australian technology journalist the other day and the subject of news-worthy-ness came up.

He made an interesting statement that people don’t want to know what will be coming tomorrow but rather what they can try out, or get today.

The subject came up when I quizzed him about how baked a new technology has to be before it can get a decent headline. His answer basically said, if your not ready to sell it then don’t go for publicity… well I for one think there is something wrong with that and yet I find it completely understandable.

I think it’s wrong in that newspapers are full of stuff about the future… government tax strategies, market movement, economic predictions and the environment… all about the future. So what is wrong with discussing a technology coming down the pipes for the next 3-5 years?

But then again newspapers would be filled if they felt responsible to report every new idea or concept being spouted by the hundreds of new entrepreneurs and businessmen wanting publicity for their new product idea or concept.

I suppose it takes a big reputation like Thomas Edison to get the big publicity. A reputation that says “if I show you a prototype today, you can bet your bottom dollar a full scale product is going to be coming out within a year”.