Building the future newsroom

1
Building the future newsroom

• (As if there were only one future!)

2
The situation

• Newspapers used to define themselves in relation
  to broadcast
• That definition Broader, deeper, more
  intelligent
• Web journalism changes the competition
• Newspapers have failed to redefine their role in
  the news media market

3
Strengths of media forms

• Radio Immediacy, companionship, limited
  interactivity
• TV Combines immediacy and videos unrivaled
  emotional power restricted interactivity
• Web Immediacy, but also unrivaled depth, scope,
  granularity, diversity, interactivity and user
  customization

4
And newspapers?

• Unrivaled burst-rate communication

5
In other words

• In an era when people say they dont have time to
  read a newspaper, a newspaper is the fastest way
  to receive the most amount of news information
  but only if its edited with that goal in mind

6
TIME OUT!

• Our consultant says our future is
• LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL!

7
Hyper-local isnt for metros

• Community-level news coverage of multiple
  communities reverses the metro business model
  (less return on higher investment)
• Emphasizing local on Metro 1A pages confuses
  readers and trivializes real news
• Hyper-local is a Web, not print, strength

8
Which is to say

• Newspapers have better local reporting
  infrastructure than TV or radio, but loses to Web
  as a local news medium.

9
And so, the ah-ha moment

• Apply those local reporting resources where they
  will do the most good. Edit your newspaper as a
  smart daily briefing.

10
No. 1 Stop feeding the beast

• Move all your reporters and assigning editors to
  the Web site staff (and send some copy editors
  with them) and break your production cycle
• Train copy editors to do brilliant summary
  editing and rewrite of your Web content and wire
  stories.

11
Your goal serve the reader

• Get to the point
• Brief, dont hedge
• Youre not first, your pictures dont move, you
  cant match depth or scope SO YOU HAVE TO BE
  SMARTER
• The new metro daily wins by orienting its clients
  to the daily onslaught of information and
  grounding them with insight.

12
Not covered

• Inventing online, multimedia copy editing
• Creating online accuracy and ethics standards
  (the old values still apply, but the Old
  Verities are bullshit)
• Placeblogging in local coverage
• New business models for online media (hint
  multiple revenue streams, not just two)

13
For more, go to the Web (duh!)

• Conover on Media (conovermedia.blogspot.com)
  Longer essays on new media.
• Xark! (xark.typepad.com)
  Eclectic topics, but media comes up frequently.