Clyde H. Bentley, Ph.D.

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Opening the DoorMaking Citizen Journalism Work

• Clyde H. Bentley, Ph.D.
• Associate Professor, Missouri School of Journalism

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The Missouri School of Journalism

• Established in 1908 as worlds first school of
  journalism.
• Missouri Method Real experience.

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Cowboy Journalism 101
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A revised script
The Good
The Hey, This Might Work
The Bad
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The Newspaper Story
The Bad

• The only game in town
• But we go to every house!
• We raise rates whenever we want
• Just TRY to find our complaint department

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Then someone had a new idea
The Bad

• Cheaper delivery
• Niche customers
• Fast - fast - faster
• Extensive marketing effort

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And now they want our presses
The Bad

• No printing costs
• Fastest yet
• Attractive to youth
• Direct delivery
• User controlled

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People still read newspapers
The Good

• 53 weekday
• 61 Sunday
• Web style --
• 72 Weekday
• 75 Sunday
• (monthly average)

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30 more years of Boomer Times
The Good
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Web Use is Soaring
The Hey, This Might Work
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Online newspapers are read
The Hey, This Might Work

• A third Internet users (55 million) visit a
  newspaper Web site over the course of a month.
• Unique visitors to newspaper Web sites increased
  21 percent from January 2005 to December 2005.
• Newspaper Web sites increased the total newspaper
  audience, particularly among younger readers.
  Combination of Web and print is greater than
  either alone.
• Source ADbase --
  Newspaper Association of America

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But competition is fierce
Source

• May 2006 81,565,877 Web Sites

And every site competes for attention with them
all
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And the money isnt there -- yet
First three quarters, 2005
First three quarters, 2005
33,934,000
4.38
1,373,000
Print
Online
Source NAA Quarterly Newspaper Advertising
Expenditures
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The Citizen Connection

• Blogging Easy way to post text. 28 million
  blogs online, doubling every 5 months
• MoBlogs Blogs driven by photographs. Can be
  filed from a cell phone.
• Social Networking MySpace, Facebook, etc.
• Open Source Journalism Journalists mediate
  between the writer and the reader.

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So what might work?

• The Hybrid

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Combining assets at Mizzou

• Web and Print
• Users with Journalists
• Paid with Free
• News with fun

The sum is far greater than the whole
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The other side of journalismInformation from
non-professional communicators

• Bulletin boards
• Civic club presentations
• News releases
• Coffee klatches
• Chat rooms
• Gossip
• Blogs

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18 months with citizens
http//mymissourian.com launched Oct. 1, 2004

• A participatory project under The Missouri
  Method.
• Real-world challenges, real-world solutions
• Empowered students who developed management
  skills

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Inspired by others

• OhMyNews was well known to professors and popular
  with our Korean students
• Launch of Northwest Voice generated a faculty
  discussion.

• Dean Mills recognized the potential and asked us
  to move quickly.
• Proposed in late May 2004, launched Oct. 1.

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A challenge to tradition

• Missouri is the home of traditional newspaper
  journalism education
• Some faculty questioned the ability to maintain
  credibility
• Could we teach a journalism where we were not
  in control?

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So why do it?

• To give voice to those traditionally excluded
  from the media
• To allow non-journalists to help set the
  community agenda
• To test our knowledge of audience values
• To train students in a new form of journalism

And to make money
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Online alone is not enough
The revenue lines dont cross for more than a
decade
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A hybrid strategy

• Gather content via an online citizen journalism
  product
• Use that content to fill a printed TMC product
• Use revenue gains in TMC to underwrite the online
  product

Which led to one more BIG goal
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End Driveway Rot!
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TMC The Money Cow

• Total Market Coverage products often produce a
  substantial portion of a newspapers budget.
• At the Missourian, our TMC is budgeted at about
  25 of our revenue but actually brings in 33.
• Depending how you count it

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It more than adds up
Whats deceptive is that much of the daily
revenue comes from the TMC agreements in a forced
buy, so even more of our revenue is the result of
our TMCs.
Dan Potter Missourian GM

• Also, we will do about 230,000 with the Real
  Estate This Week magazine this year. That would
  not be possible if we did not have the Saturday
  TMC for distribution purposes.

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Back to print

• Print edition launched Oct. 1, 2005
• Allows use of the efficient advertising pattern
  of print
• Increases readership by 23,000 households
• Reverses the print-to-Web paradigm

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Compelling content is the key

• TMCs are often filled with old, trivial or
  syndicated material
• Lack of reader interest can cause pickup
  failure
• Citizen-generated material is unduplicated,
  compelling and does not compete with our own
  daily product

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Readers reach readers
Citizen journalism succeeds where others have
failed.

• I have seen newspaper companies spend thousand
  of dollars annually to determine what readers
  expect. Few of their findings, however, are ever
  implemented.

Hans K. Meyer graduate student
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Is there a future for journalists?

• YES -- both professional and citizen journalists
• Blogs pose both a threat and an opportunity
• The power relationship in information is being
  re-negotiated
• Journalists provide continuity and quality
  control
• Story tellers become story guides

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New journalism skills

• Covering stories and collecting, cultivating,
  sharing stories are very different things.
  Helping others to share their lives is still
  journalism, and it needs to be taught.

Brian Hamman graduate student
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Inviting the public to our table

• Many editors are concerned about errors,
  credibility and libel
• Some fear that citizen writing quality is low
• How do we know if those untrained people are
  lying?
• WILL WE LOSE CONTROL?

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Mix logic with understanding

• Most participants in citizen journalism have
  little reason to cheat or lie.
• The WBC category is primarily the realm of
  blogs.
• By and large, most Americans will conform to
  rules that are both simple and logical.
• Focus on broad concerns keep rules simple.

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The arguments

• Decency - How do we treat profanity and adult
  topics?
• Commercialism - What about the promotion of a
  business, organization, religion, etc.?
• Literacy - How much editing and rewriting
  should we do?
• Banalism Is anything just too stupid to appear
  on the site? If so, how dumb is dumb?

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Logical solutions

• Decency No profanity, no nudity - use normal
  newspaper standards of propriety
• Commercialism Dont ban businesses that
  self-promote -work with them
• Literacy Keep editing to a minimum, focusing
  on readability rather than style.
• Banalism Journalists are poor judges of what or
  who is stupid.

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And Just Four Simple Rules

• No profanity
• No nudity
• No personal attacks
• No attacks on race, religion, national origin,
  gender or sexual orientation

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The end of NO

• I worked in newspapers for seven years, and as
  an editor most of my dealings with the public
  were about telling people no due to limited
  space.
• NO, we can't cover your event.
• NO, we can't run your youth baseball photo in the
  newspaper.
• NO, your story idea isn't good enough for
  publication.

Jeremy Littau graduate student
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So let them write . . .
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(No Transcript)
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Enlist senior photogs
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Give them disposable cameras
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Gut-level journalism
Everyone has a recipe
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Let them express their faith
Religion is one of the most popular topics
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Earth Day Natural news

• Annual festival celebrates environmental
  awareness
• Provided wireless laptops so citizens could
  comment on the spot

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Earth Day Photos
Digital cameras loaned to participants produced
100 photos
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And the bottom line?
Less than 1,000 new costs in a year and a half
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Unexpected reader issues

• Political issues are much less popular than we
  predicted.
• Religion is far, far more popular than we
  predicted.
• Pictures of dogs, cats and even rats trump most
  other copy.

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Unexpected teaching issues

• Traditional journalism students want to write,
  not guide.
• Many were at a loss at how to cover non news
  topics like Little League.
• Few students are well prepared to work with the
  public.

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The hybrid lessons

• Use Citizen Journalism to supplement traditional
  journalism, not replace it.
• User-generated copy isnt free.
• Online attracts the eager, but print serves the
  masses.
• Give people what they want, when they want it,
  how they want it.
• Americans are better journalists than you
  think.

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And next?

• Integrate blogs with print
• Multiple Web sites using databases
• Mashups like Chicagocrime.org
• Citizen advertising
• (Clydes list?)

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Or a hybrid print / Web daily
Thursday Hispanic focus
Monday Business focus
Friday Entertainment tab
Sunday Traditional paper
Tuesday School focus
Saturday Auto focus
Wednesday Citizen edition
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The Computer Reaction

• Blogging Easy way to post text. 1.8 million
  blogs online
• MoBlogs Blogs driven by photographs. Can be
  filed from a cell phone.
• Open Source Journalism Journalists mediate
  between the writer and the reader.