Submitted by DavidArdia on Thu, 02/26/2009 – 10:11amin
Conversationalists: David Ardia and Neil Budde
What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?
Neil Budde: Neil joined DailyMe after more than 30 years working for newspapers and online publishers. He most recently was vice president and editor in chief of Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Sports. At Daily Me, he is working to create a “comprehensive news experience for the individual.” This involves more than merely helping people discover relevant and interesting news; it’s an effort to help people find information they didn’t know they were looking for, replicating the serendipity that used to come from browsing. Neil is interested in this gathering because he has been deeply involved in the economics of news. He is interested in the challenges facing journalism and is generally optimistic about where things are headed.
David Ardia: David directs the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He’s a media and intellectual property lawyer who formerly served as in-house counsel at The Washington Post. He is primarily focused on providing legal training, assistance, and support for online publishers, and hopes that his work serves as a catalyst for creative thinking about the intersection of law and journalism on the Internet. David is interested in this gathering because he knows that many online publishers face legal threats and other challenges. He is eager to help publishers understand the law and to lower the legal barriers for journalists and journalism organizations that seek to embrace new media.
What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core?
Neil: Finding truth and providing information to people that is actionable.
David: Providing information to people that allows them to make informed decisions about their lives and government.
The year is 2014 and the new news ecology is a vibrant media landscape. What is journalism bringing to communities and democracy that matters most? What steps did we take back in 2009 to begin to bring this about?
Neil: More precise targeting of content and advertising, including targeting based on geography, topic, and expertise. Journalists can use their expertise to provide more than just daily stories. That expertise can be applied to aggregation and organization of information that is largely lacking in current forms of journalism.
David: News and information will break free from existing structures and forms. New technologies will allow journalists to focus on providing perspective, context, and wisdom. Government can help subsidize this by providing information in a structured and open format. By making public availability the default, state and federal governments can significantly reduce the cost of covering government activities.
