Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?

Back in December, this article investigating Noka chocolates appeared on a blog. Read it; it's a cracking yarn. The author is remarkably dogged. He's a great reporter. And chocolate is obviously one of the more crucial subjects facing our society today.

And it depressed the hell out of me, as someone who works for a major newspaper. That insistent tapping sound you hear is another nail in the coffin of the dailies. Here's a guy who's not only willing to do a ton of work presumably for free, but who can put together an article -- without an editor, fact-checker, copyeditor, proofreader, printing press, or distribution system -- that any newspaper in the world would be lucky to run. Oh, and he's made it available for free, too.

Imagine you've had a very profitable business making widgets on your WidgetTron1800 for 200 years. Suddenly, in 1992, widgets just start falling out of everyone's ass. There you are, walking down the street, and the sidewalk is completely covered with widgets, just there for the taking. People are interested in the new widgets -- after all, they just fell out of their own asses! These new free widgets are constantly available and ever-changing. (You can use them surreptitiously at work, for example, and waste countless hours.)

You doggedly keep running the WidgetTron1800. You claim your widgets are of a higher quality. You advertise relentlessly and try to shore up your widget brand. You cut prices. You try to make your widgets more appealing to youngsters, who spend about six hours of their day doing nothing but gather free widgets.

But it doesn't matter what you do. You are screwed. People only wanted your widgets while the WidgetTron1800 controlled the means of widget production. If people like Scott can drop perfect chocolate widgets out of his ass that are better than yours, at absolutely minimal overhead and give them away for free, you are royally fucked in your widget-maker.

And that's the name of that tune. I'm going to retrain as a plastic surgeon -- I fancy there is a future in it.