There has been a lot of talk lately about who is going to “save journalism.” There is a clear consensus developing that it will be saved (i.e. transformed) by journalists, not news aggregators or legacy publishing company print-centric executives.
I was in the front row, almost literally, two weeks ago today when I heard speaker after speaker make the argument for front-line journalists and allied executives as saviors of the profession. I attended a smallish, but significant, publishing industry event in Las Vegas put on by Editor & Publisher dubbed the “Interactive Media Conference.” Prior quick blog post here.
The two keynotes for the conference were delivered by John Paton, CEO of the Journal Register Company, and Josh Cohen of Google News. They each delivered key messages with a common theme about the future of journalism and how it might be “saved.” Both said that journalism can be preserved by its practitioners (and their bosses) transforming how it is done.
Paton’s presentation was titled “Digital First, Print Last.” He made a compelling argument that a fundamental mindset shift hasn’t occurred in the industry that will be key to its survival. Paton said the “print people” have been in charge of the industry for the last 100 years and in charge of digital news for the last 10 years. It isn’t working, he said, and the time has come to “put the digital people in charge.” It is what he has done in his company as he transforms it into a multiplatform entity.
Cohen’s speech was anticipated because there has been a perception that Google News is the nemesis of the online news industry. It has been the target of various campaigns by publishers to stop Google’s bots from crawling its news sites. Cohen pointed out that every publisher has the option to stop their sites from being indexed. However, Google and the publishers have found mutual benefits to the traffic Google aggregates, then directs back to news sites. He said it is the job of the industry, not companies such as Google, to “save journalism.” Journalism doesn’t need to be “saved” just “transformed,” said Cohen.
In listening to the rest of the conference’s other panels, it is clear that working journalists will be the ones to do the transforming. There were examples of hyperlocal efforts not yet tackled, social media strategies for news organizations, and collaborative online investigative journalism projects. The message was made clearer the following day at the Editor & Publisher online awards, known as the EPpy’s. The best in online journalism was honored, from sites such as NPR.org and LasVegasSun.com. As one of the judges, I was blown away by the work being done.
NPR sent one of its top reporters to accept; she was clearly humbled by the industry’s recognition of its outstanding (nonprofit) pursuit of journalism. LasVegasSun’s Rob Curley was emotional in collecting one of his team’s awards in honor of the laid-off multimedia producers who did the work. Afterward, his publisher spoke of the struggle to monetize award-winning journalism.
Saving the publishing industry or saving journalism?
Coincidental to the E&P Interactive Media Conference was the publication – and follow-up discussions – of The Atlantic’s article, “How to Save the News.” Article author James Fallows tried to put his piece in further perspective in a post on colleague Andrew Sullivan’s blog on the magazine’s site titled, “Will Google Help Save Journalism? Ctd:”
“If there is a point that, above all the others, I wanted most to convey in this article, it is not “everything is going to be OK” or “Google is our friend” or even “here comes a torrent of new advertising money!” Rather it is a cultural/attitudinal argument about the press and everyone who cares about it. Far from being autumnal and despairing and mournful about a supposed golden age that has passed and fatalistic about the doomed state of public information and the resulting lapsed state of society, people who care about the media should (according to me) recognize that technological upheaval, and the resulting business shifts and forced individual innovations, have been the norm rather than the exception in our enterprise. Clever and ambitious people, especially but not only young people, will find new ways to do the work a society needs of them — and to make a living while doing so. …” http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/05/will-google-help-save-journalism-c.html
There are many former journalists who are making a living as one-person Web publishing entities or smaller start-ups with teams of journalists who took buyouts or were laid off from more traditional legacy publishing companies. They are tackling the “news” in more energetic, brighter ways. One shining example is Nozzl Media of Portland, Ore., where a group of former old-school journalists are re-inventing themselves by creating real-time news stream Web applications.
Innovation is the key at start-ups such as TBD.com
It will be interesting to watch how much of the current cutting-edge thinking comes together at TBD.com, a start-up venture in Washington, D.C., funded by the people who started Politico.com. TBD has brought some of the brightest and most innovative journalists and journalism executives to their site, which was featured recently on Techcocktail.com and described in this way:
“By aggregating heavily, utilizing geocoding for personalization and applying “the Politico mentality” (an urgency and willingness to publish incrementally) to local news, TBD intends to be a one-stop news shop for the District, Maryland, and Virginia…
While they plan to be a news hub for the area, the folks at TBD.com don’t plan to do it alone and are enlisting the help of partners who will supplement and enhance their news coverage…
For TBD.com, transparency is a big priority. Recognizing they may not have all the answers and details about the news stories users care about, they say they’ll be counting on readers to fill in the blanks and help construct the most complete history of the news happening in our region. Stories at TBD will always be developing, and TBD will “belong to everyone.” http://techcocktail.com/home/2010/06/12/tbd-com-aiming-to-be-dc%E2%80%99s-one-stop-news-shop/
There are some key concepts that stand out about the site’s approach: aggregation, geocoding, personalization, urgency, incremental publishing, partnership, transparency. These are trademarks of many innovative organizations, including Google. Half of the work one must do in being “saved” is admitting things aren’t working and then changing things up. Publishing companies which do that will likely continue to publish; those which don’t may perish. Journalists and journalism will survive.
Related links
John Paton’s Ben Franklin Project: http://jrcbenfranklinproject.wordpress.com/
Google News official blog: http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/
Nozzl Media site: http://nozzlmedia.com/
TBD.com: http://tbd.com/
TBD’s Steve Buttry: http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/
I definitely agree with your post, and thanks for noting the things TBD is doing in this space (I’m the senior community host here).
Journalism is going to be transformed by people who understand the Internet as a thing, and as a medium, and launch new ventures that are native to that ecosystem. Some of the larger print institutions that are willing to follow their path aggressively, and risk or even cannibalize their legacy business, may survive in new forms. Unfortunately I see few institutions willing to do so.
I appreciate your perspective Jeff and think that TBD.com’s embracing of the greater community will be key to its success. There are a lot of publishing companies that speak of community outreach but it takes the type of sincere, concerted effort your organization is making to succeed. We have to understand the ecosystem before jumping into the space. As Eric Moore of Razorfish said at the E&P event, “Act like a digital native, not a print tourist.”
During the conference, my colleague and I were monitoring the Tweetstream out of D.C. Week, especially on Media 2.0 day. Also, this follow-up post to the “Techdirt Saves* Journalism” event held June 16 at Google headquarters looks like it generated more great ideas about how to help transform media companies. It seems like there isn’t a shortage of ideas, just a hesitation to fully embrace them by some companies.
Hi Jeff,
I think this is a great recap of the information that was presented in Vegas. I was most impressed with Paton’s perspective. I agree that newspapers need to think like digital companies to succeed. I also posted this on my LinkedIn feed.
One of the most basic online concepts I’m an advocate of is hyperlocal. I believe that newspapers are struggling in thier respecitve markets to offer hyperlocal coverage. It’s in part b/c they are short-staffed and cannot cover a city in the depth that it needs to be covered online. But the newspaper is the credible source to provide this geographical information, and it should be doing so.
For example, I live in a certain pocket of Kansas City, Mo. However, I can’t go online and find a site with information about news, food, crime, events or local stores and businesses. I’m sure I could google individual data to get what I’m looking for, but I’d love to see it in one collective online space.
The newspaper just isn’t covering my neighborhood in that depth. I also believe that advertisers would come if they felt the audience they were reaching was targeted enough to be worth their dollar. To me, that’s a basic concept that I know some newspapers are embracing, but more should.
Excited to see the TBD project.
Thank you so much, Stephanie, for your thoughtful comments. My colleague, John Hill, also created slides from our key learnings at the conference (especially from Mr. Paton’s speech).
USA Today (Gannett Co.), one of the smartest groups in the business, had already announced centralized print production operations and just announced the latest of its digital-first moves:
“USA Today launched a major restructuring of The Nation’s Newspaper Friday as it broke apart its newsroom management and staff with the goal of becoming a mobile-first organization.
The 28-year-old structure of reporters and managing editors working in its four sections — News, Sports, Money and Life – is being replaced by “content rings” with editors led by Susan Weiss, who had overseen the Life section and takes the title of executive editor of content.
USA Today Publisher David Hunke told The Associated Press that the changes later this fall would include about 130 more layoffs, or about 9% of the staff of 1,500.
“This is pretty radical,” Hunke told the AP. “This gets us ready for our next quarter century.”….
Full article by Mark FItzgerald of Editor & Publisher, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/%E2%80%98radical%E2%80%99-shakeup-at-%E2%80%98usa-today%E2%80%99-as-print-takes-back-seat-to-mobile-130-more-layoffs-seen-62428-.aspx