Sasha Frere-Jones, who is not a black French woman, has accepted a job with annotation start-up and ephemeral website Genius (formerly known as Rap Genius), leaving his comfortable perch as pop music critic at analog paper magazine the New Yorker. Presumably, Genius offered Frere-Jones the promise of an intellectually stimulating experience, a chance to mold editorial content in his image, and a trough of cash and stock options.

Perhaps you, the media observer, haven't noticed, but Frere-Jones is only the latest in a long conga line of writers and editors leaving "legacy" or "old guard" or "broadsheet" publications for "start ups" or "web-based media" or "mobile apps," and often for luminous 3-G salaries. That's great! Websites rule, and truly are our future. I can't wait to see these pioneers produce wonderful things.

Ah, but there's the catch: the actual production of things at these new "properties," (which aren't always run by "media folk"), seems... to be cloudy... it sometimes... doesn't happen... where is the stuff? We all know what you're getting paid, but what are you... doing? Exactly? Hello?

Location: Glass-walled conference room. One suit and one former legacy journalist with feet on table. Stumptown in the French press. They're there to talk ideas, and their discussion goes as follows. Journalist: "I got some big ideas. I'm thinking Hong Kong. Yeah, Hong Kong is hot. So are teens. Let's do a travel guide for teens in Hong Kong. We can make it interactive so they don't even have to go! Let's make it an app. Oh, we don't have the tech? Ok, we can do a listicle. Assign it to the intern. Great. High five." Repeat for two years until start-up runs out of money and crashes into the East River. Legacy journalist goes to work at the Huffington Post.

The newspaper industry, which had all but been reduced to shreds eight years ago, knows suffering well. And it is still suffering; the New York Times just bought out/laid off 105 souls. Newsmen (a group which includes women, and dogs) are traditionally one of the least respected classes of Americans, along with one of the lowest paid. This is correct. Journalists read and write and learn things and talk to people all day. The job is a beautiful luxury. In fact, journalists should not make money. They should work for free. They should pay the government for the privilege to do their job, which is mostly gossiping. But at most, they should not earn more than $90,000. Any more is an insult to certain public servants and municipal workers (but especially teachers, public defenders, and bus drivers) and the entirety of the service industry.

This is not a capitalist argument. Really, people who make money are useless. If you would like to read more about this, please visit the writings of my colleague, Hamilton Nolan (though he's gotten a bit softer in his advancing age). Earnings of all Americans should be capped. What will these newly rich "journalists" do with their wads of cash? They will buy fancy sneakers and send their children to private school. They will buy country homes. They will become (bigger) assholes. Because that's what money does to people. Therefore everyone should earn the same amount of money. If this is how the government functioned in the first place, there would be no mega buildings ruining the shadow cover over Central Park.

Anyway. With all these new "media properties" hiring bold-faced-and normal-faced-named writers for inflated salaries, we are surely in a new media bubble. Much like nice weather in January, the bubble cannot last long. Who will reabsorb these writerly souls when it pops?

[image via Wikipedia]