The bosses tend to be young themselves, the work less tradition-bound. They haven't had that chance since TV came along a generation ago. We have the opportunity to define how an entire new medium will look. That, and to make a lot of money, too. Few newspapers, if any, offer stock options to attract journalists.
Internet companies do.
Mike Mills, a former telecommunications reporter for the Washington Post, knows about that firsthand. He left the newspaper last April to start a new career as a business-development executive for a tiny wireless communications company called Aether Systems, headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland. A few months after his arrival, Mills helped take Aether's stock public. The shares tripled in price in their first day of trading, and have kept on rising since. Other journalists have cashed in, too.