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The real problem is the way that we as journalists manage information, because that determines so much else: the kinds of stories we’re able to envision and construct, the amount of context we’re able to bring to bear in a short amount of time and our ability to connect the dots. In general, and this is my scientific conclusion, we suck at managing information.
links for 2009-06-27
Thornburg - fertile failure
Ryan Thornburg makes the case that universities can be the “fertile failure” ground for news organizations. I’m not so sure on some levels. Here’s the college media-specific quote:
Campus news organizations should also be a natural place for professional news organizations to test crazy ideas that run the risk of damaging their brand. Not that campus news organizations are all dying to damage their brands, but their transitory audience makes small failures much less costly over the long run — failure artifacts don’t aggregate at campus news organizations the way they aggregate at professional news organizations.
Now, campus news organizations don’t always operate under the same profit-driven motives as their “professional” counterparts, but there’s more to the story here.
Campus news operations *do* operate under some profit motives. They aren’t *exactly* the same as the professional industry, but there are a lot of college news media advisers who are sweating the same advertising problems as their professional counterparts.
A couple of questions:
What is a “small” failure? Thornburg posits the “transitory” audience as a justification for letting college media take these hits while the professional media don’t. I don’t see that as a positive. College media do not have the same operating margins. They operate with volunteer staff. They fight all the time with campus people who would cut their funding, deny them access to necessary information, and the like. Why should they be the people stepping up to the plate for failure?
A necessary correlate: Why won’t the people who are going to *make the money* put up the money? 99 percent of college newspapers are non-profit. Their mission is both to inform and to educate future journalists. Why should these organizations, who must straddle a very difficult fence, be the people who bear the burden of failure? To prove that it can be done?
I’m not getting it. Where is the benefit for the college news org?
Granted, if something goes right, then the college news org can crow about its success, but are professional news orgs going to give back to the college news orgs who blazed the trail? Somehow, I’m doubting that.
Finally, I doubt the ability of most college news organizations to generate the manpower to go into these types of “fertile failure” experiments. I’ve been following college media online for over three years, and see a distressing lack of such experimentation to engender the type of confidence Ryan seems to have. There are a few great web editors, and some really awesome multimedia journalists, but the sad fact is that college media still hasn’t figured out the key anymore than their professional counterparts - precisely because so many college journalists are still living in the 20th century.
Maybe I’m wrong. I wrote a long time ago that I thought college journalism programs could be the engines of innovation. Now, I’m not so sure. I’d love for someone to prove me wrong.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
links for 2009-06-24
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I have attempted to be discreet on the decline and fall of the media empire, mostly because I am still in it. With layoffs and furloughs announced every quarter, the consequences of being brutally honest could be dire. But I…
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Here we are three years later with our Fourth Annual installment of one of our most popular features.
links for 2009-06-23
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I have attempted to be discreet on the decline and fall of the media empire, mostly because I am still in it. With layoffs and furloughs announced every quarter, the consequences of being brutally honest could be dire. But I…
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Here we are three years later with our Fourth Annual installment of one of our most popular features.
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This is the blueprint for a Complete Community Connection, a vision for a new and prosperous business model for today's media companies. media journalism Innovation newspapers c3
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Design patterns were first described in the 1960s by Christopher Alexander, a civil engineer who noticed that many things in our lives happen according to
Still questions about revenue, online presence
As I mentioned earlier this summer, I was in Iowa this week speaking (along with Steve Buttry) to a group of 8 newspaper journalists (editors and publishers) at the Iowa Newspaper Foundation’s Leadership Seminar series.
The topic was “Leadership in a Changing Media Environment.” My part was to talk about how the Internet changes the news equation, and what kind of free tools are available to enhance the news organization’s Web presence.
It was a fascinating three hours (even though my luggage was lost and I ended up in a t-shirt and shorts for the discussion), and one that brought me back to my roots in small-town journalism (I was the editor of a weekly in Texas for four years before heading off to graduate school).
The main takeaway for me was that many small newspapers are still struggling to figure out how to use their web presence, with the constant idea that it’s taking away from the print product (cannibalizing).
It took quite a while for me to argue for putting breaking news out (football updates, city council updates, etc.) via Twitter or other online means.
“Why would people then read the print product?” asked one participant. Because there’s *more* there than in a 140-word tweet, was part of my answer.
But the main answer, my main ideal that I’ve been talking about for over three years in this blog, is that “news” is more important than just the bottom line. If you’re in the “news” business, then your job is to report the news, to be the “watercooler” for your community - the place where people go to get the information they need to navigate an incredibly complex world. If you’re locking all that news up behind a paid wall, you’re not fulfilling your community service aspirations. You’re no more than the local Wal-Mart.
I honestly don’t see the Internet and the printed product as competing in these smaller communities (yet). I see them as complementary. The online presence can add depth to the printed product. It can add to the advertising side as well if used properly. But that will ultimately require seeing both Internet and print as parts of the process.
I hope the editors and publishers who left the conference went away with some ideas to inspire them to change their online strategies and be more proactive in the online space. Only time will tell.
At several points during the conversation, I said emphatically that I wished I had tools like Twitter and YouTube and WordPress and other free online tools when I was editing that small-town newspaper in Texas. My journalism would have been stronger, and the connections to the community would be deeper. That’s what every small-town newspaper publisher should aim toward.
I’d say the same for my college newspaper, where I was editor. As a journalist, I want to be in the conversation. I want to be the place people go for information. As more people do that online, I can’t help but feel we need to follow that movement and use all the tools at our disposal to make that happen.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tags: newspapers, iowa, future, thoughts
links for 2009-06-13
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Slideshare is a fantastic resource for sharing presentations, so you can enjoy and learn from smart people even if you cannot attend the conferences and events they often speak at.
links for 2009-06-12
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Pt. 2 of Rosen's chat about teaching blogging.
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"Whenever I talk with news organizations of any size about linking to sources, resources and journalism that originated outside the walls of their newsroom, two questions come up: How and Why." - Ryan Sholin rounds up reasons to contribute to the link economy.
links for 2009-06-11
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The Difference Between Hard and Hard Work | Altitude Branding | Brand Elevation through Social Media"We demand far too many shortcuts. We want just-add-water strategies that don’t require us to do much work but rather roll out some kit of parts we can just plug into place. We’re busy, overtasked, under supported, and the idea of having to dig deep into something in excruciating detail with painstaking effort makes our skin crawl. But it’s reality."
links for 2009-06-10
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"There is an opportunity here for a Win-Win for newspapers and online entities. Yes, we will have to pay for content, but in the same way that we pay for Google and Gmail. We pay by bartering our attention in exchange for the use of their software. We trade our personal information, search queries, and demography in exchange for better search results. We are the currency." - a followup on the previous link. "We are the currency" has always been the case, it's just been hidden better.
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"I think I'll remember last week as the moment when I finally knew, with a certainty approaching fatigue, that the newspaper industry – the business and passion that both shaped and warped me over the past 20 years – had chosen ritual suicide. The choice appears grimly reached and irrevocable." - Ouch. But worth a read.
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"Leadership is influence not control. It took me a while to really appreciate the implications of this philosophy but now I weave it into just about everything I do in product ideation and strategy." - influence. not control. College media advisers should appreciate this idea.
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"The other day I wrote about the need for newsrooms to encourage experimentation rather than innovation. OK, but how? Here’s one tool you can download right now and use in your newsroom — the Failure Form, to be used by reporters and editors who want to pursue a crazy idea." - you can download a PDF at the link. what a great idea.
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"In a recessionary environment that has hit other media sectors with greater force, Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. were at $5.5 billion for the first quarter of 2009, according to the numbers released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). The figure represents a 5% decline over the same period in 2008."
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Just a link to a blog about upcoming WordPress-related items, for those who are interested in that type of stuff.
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"A cadre of newly minted media whiz kids, who mix high-tech savvy with hard-nosed reporting skills, are taking a closer look at ways in which 21st century code-crunching and old-fashioned reporting can not only coexist but also thrive." - To answer the question in the headline - "No." No one group of journalists/computer geeks are going to "save" journalism.
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"At the end of May, I was enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon reading my paper, trying not to think about work, when I came across Tim Rutten’s column, “How the Obama administration can save newspapers.” And I sighed, because apparently newspapers need a license to collude to solve their “search engine” problem. If they can’t all agree to block Google & Gang unless paid a pre-determined price, we’re going to lose them." - Danny Sullivan off ranting again about search engines and newspapers. worth a read.
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"No one thing will "save" journalism, @TimOBrienNYT and @jayrosen_nyu. But journalism doesn't need a period of messy experimentation." - Seems a lack of "messy experimentation" was what got media into the mess they're in now (that and corporate greed and overleveraged consolidation). <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/pontin/23489/>Here's the whole manifesto</a> - via Jay Rosen
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"A local blog as a coral reef, or many different types of data sets for information to hangout around, would offer a vibrant, growing, and evolving habitat for a community’s collective knowledge." - read the rest for some other ideas about data and story formats. Part theory/part reaching for the practical.
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"I still encourage perspective students and recent grads to continue in the field of journalism. To provide evidence as to why and to help spread hope in the journalism field, I write this letter:" - Hint: none of them involve pay or a steady job.
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Dear May 2009 Graduate,
Here are 40 reasons to still study journalism:
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Read for yourself. Another prescription for what ails the media.
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Social networking policies from the Roanoke Times. FWIW.
20/20 on graphic design
via Doug Fisher, this:
