Submitted by eangelotti on Tue, 03/10/2009 – 8:01am
Session Convenor: Howard Finberg and Ellyn Angelotti
Session Reporter: Ellyn Angelotti
Discussion Participants: Jim Kennedy, Tom Honig, Bill Densmore
What should the print/web product look like?
Print- more reflective
Web- constant info
We need to be teaching journalists how to:
* curate conversations online.
* transfer storytelling from text to visuals
* Edit video
* aggregate blogs
* find people and info online
* ask people to contribute content
Copy desk needs to learn how to post to the web, post multimedia
Used to send journos to learn something specific, now they need training for skills.
Platforms to master:
* mobile
* blogging
* community- conversations, etc.
Should Poynter follow the trends (train around what people are doing), or lead the way (give a sense of direction, more prescriptive)?
Reality-based conventions like platform judgment.
Values of journalism in a new context. You need certain skills but you still need the principles of journalism.
Pick five or six things we know we should teach.
Who do we want to train? Who is the audience?(i.e. journalists serving local sites or niche communities) How do we reach them?
We need a new point of view on the print portfolio.
There’s a repositioned business model and cost structure that we need to understand
Speak publishers’ language
How do we monetize content, lower costs?
Should we leapfrog over the current problems and solve the anticipated ones we see coming?
How are we serving independent media organizations? Do we need to save the legacy media orgs? Or save journalism?
Survival of the fittest: Who will be the survivors in the legacy and new media?
Define the paths and build the bridges
Construct a vision with specifics
seed a program that brings together the winners
Nurture those who want to survive. Those who aren’t excited– how can we get them excited to learn new skills? Give them an alternative to complaining and reject cynicism.
Identify beats that people care about…those that change lives
“I have 25 people in my newsroom. How should i best use them?”
Ideas:
If you want to be a winner, you need to do these five things…
These are five things community sites should be doing.
We need to learn how to survive in a different form
Regional model? (Like National Writers Workshop?)
entrepreneurer modules for journos.
How can the three elements of making money– ad, subscriptions, one-off — be revived with new package of products.
How can we get a different lens on who our audience is? From the “right-sizers” of small online weeklies to the “24/7 Titans” like CNN/NYT
