23 Nov
No one-size-fits-all for new journalism model(s)
This is a post without all the answers about how to “save journalism.” There are no right ones. There are lots of relative truths.
Legacy media executives would tell you journalism-for-profit needs to be saved for people like them to continue to employ the teams of journalists who fill an important role in our society.
Independent and freelance journalists, many of them former newspaper standouts, would tell you there is a need to create a network of content producers which can distribute their work.
Entrepreneurial journalists, who run the gamut in age and experience, would tell you there is a need for scalable solutions (and revenue streams) for their new-idea products.
Citizen journalists, who seem to embrace or shun the title “blogger,” would tell you they want an outlet for the unique set of skills they possess and to be acknowledged for those qualities.
In my home media market of the Portland, Oregon DMA, cooperative groups of these stakeholders are discussing ways to save (or not) “journalism,” either as a business, a noble calling, a civic institution, or all of the foregoing. They are looking for the answer(s) for the problem: journalism-as-we-knew-it is dead due to societal changes which have fractured markets.
All true. All false. It’s not that simple; neither the problem nor the solution(s). There is no one-size-fits-all for a new journalism model. Each of the above groups of “journalists” are answering to the same calling, but are dependent on different outcomes for their situations. Publishers have payrolls to meet; journalists (independent or not) have mortgages to pay; entrepreneurs need to show a return on investment; citizen journalists have day jobs to hold down.
Where is all this headed for each of these diverse stakeholders? Who knows? But we do know it won’t be down one path. My friend, Nozzl Media CEO Steve Woodward, calls it “The Futures – Plural – of Journalism.” My colleague, Carol Doane, points out “Building a new model may require listening.” There have been dozens of insightful blog posts and tweets in the wake of a gathering called We Make the Media (twitter #wmtm).” It follows in the footsteps of Digital Journalism Camp Portland, and dozens of other gatherings around the nation. Other ideas are the droning buzz of recovering journalists throughout the Internet.
We are all talking about it, but it just needs to get done (step-by-step over a course which isn’t marked and may take some turns). Action is the aim of the Portland group and of some less visible (but just as important) industry revenue initiatives. All the while, technology empowers new waves of “publishers” who will also be part of the new and multifaceted state of journalism.
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