Journalism in the New News Ecology

Submitted by montgomeryl on Tue, 03/03/2009 – 10:28amin

Session Convenor: Leigh Montgomery

Session Reporter: Leigh Montgomery

Discussion Participants: Anne Anderson Barbara Iverson Barbara Kantrowitz Tom Stites John Hamer

A short presentation was shown on MONITOR content, that has been digitized by the first 1908 edition, finding new readers, opportunities for storytelling, and traffic.  It has also resulted in more sales of historic content from a vendor partner.  This was after the launch of Google News Search, which indexes premium content.

As the MONITOR proceeds to go to a web-first model, there is concern about what should be prioritized to be archived.  Currently, blog content is not archived in a DAM, neither is multimedia.  There is no formal policy for archiving this content nor is there metadata added to it.

All attendees emphatically felt that every effort should be made to capture this content, as it will be of interest a century later, and it could added another revenue stream.

Submitted by jvanderclute on Tue, 03/03/2009 – 10:17amin

Session Convenor: Jim Kennedy

Session Reporter: Jeff Vander Clute

Discussion Participants: List unavailable. Jim Kennedy Bill Mitchell Chris Peck Jeff Vander Clute et al.

Convenor: Jim Kennedy, AP

Disruptions:

• 30 hours of media consumption per week. Broadband shifts those hours online.
• Post 9/11, Google began scraping news sites. The news sites were overloaded, so Google served the content. Out of this came Google News. People began to search for news instead of browsing for it.
• Devices
• Concurrently, the generational shift makes these disruptions permanent.

Ethnography had been used for consumer products. We studied normal, connected people.

Findings:

1. News is connected to e-mail. We underestimate the power of e-mail.
2. News is multitasked. Consuming news as part of other activities. Goal orientation -> ø
3. Constant checking is linked to boredom. News is no linked to boredom! Troubling situation. Passive vs. active.
4. Consumers are experiencing news fatigue.
5. Consumers want depth but aren’t getting it.

Constant updating partly a function of the devices and the short formats.

Non-linear consumption broke the inverted-pyramid molecule into atoms.

Each story concept could have 4 categories attached.

Newspaper revenue of off-line compressed to 1/10th when moved to the web.

[ACAP?] is a new protocol that adds functionality to the exclusion protocol. (E.g. index but don’t aggregate?)

The goal is to monetize the atomized model.

Atomized model: “Right content to the right people at the right time.”
“The best consumption is goal-oriented.”
New engagement models as opposed to interruption models.

New process: 1-2-3 Filing  (encompasses the old story model)
1. A set of structured headlines. Short & long.
2. A present tense short story. About 200 words.
3. Longer treatment whether web or print.

Maybe draw the pay line between 2 and 3.

1-2-3 Filing 4-5-6
4. Might be text that’s written to be pulled out of video.  (Write to the graphic itself.)
5. Might be text written to connected the various atomized pieces.

Metadata: Standardized system of tagging content. Photos tagged.

“Packaging in free space.” Connecting stories in terms of the 4 atoms.

Mobile News Network is a top AppStore download. Free. About 1 million downloads.

Local news orgs share in revenue.

CPM is $25 due to targeted audience: smart people, smart phones

AP could do what Pubsub is doing with RSS feeds.

You might see an agreement on an overall system for delivering news. Either we will or we won’t in 2009. The stars are aligned for a critical mass to come together. “Pay once and go everywhere.”

“Audience on news sites continues to grow but time spent (minutes per month) hasn’t moved at all.”

NYT: 11-12 million uniques. Time spent is in the teens per minute. Avg in the business is 12 minutes per month.

107 million people – out of 200 million US Internet population – are on news sites. If we could organize that world, we would be 3rd behind Yahoo and Google. We’re relying on Google to drive user engagement. Users come and go as quickly. We have to get back in control of the mechanics of driving user engagement.

Don’t abandon print and broadcast. But can’t repurpose one product for all media. “The death of repurposing.” What product fits the different access points and fits the particular environment the user is in at that moment?

Bill Mitchell: NCN example. How to resolve fundamental conflicts between parties?
JK: The need to control and limit participation collapsed the effort. I have hope because the Mobile News Network has worked. Has 1200 partners in the MNN. The Washington Post just got on board.

Working with Google in 2009 to improve search results for member AP organizations.

AP has ~12 people working on the metadata. Writing rules. Maintaining the metadata. Changes every day.

Extending the platform to work with blogs, etc.
Concentric circles: AP report (3000 journalists), membership (3600 entities), other content creators, audience

AP customer base has 8 segments. Rightsizers to digital distributors like Yahoo. Big titans like CNN, NYT. Emerging market expansion.

A second ethnography related to advertising is in the works. When is it a good time to talk/connect for news and advertising?

Session Convenor: Anne Anderson, Knight Fellow in Community Journalism & Freelance Writer

Discussion Participants: Neil Budde, Bill Densmore

Just as we don’t wait until children are adults to hand them a toothbrush, we should not wait until children are adults to train them to read and use news.

Bill Kovach and Ted Rosenstiel in their book The Elements of Journalism wrote, “In the name of efficiency and profit margins, we did nothing to make a new generation that wanted news.”

Many people agree that reaching younger audiences is a business imperative. But how young is young?

Anne Anderson researched this question and found that the newspaper industry generally defines young audiences as being between 18-34 — yet, according to an NAA study, at least half of 18-34 year-old regular newspaper readers began reading newspapers before age 14, many before age 10.

How newspapers cover (or don’t cover) children affects the newspaper’s credibility as a mapmaker for the community, its level of civic responsibility in helping readers navigate their community, and its ultimate financial stability.

Anne’s content analysis, conducted this past summer as part of her graduate work, found very little coverage about children and even less targeted to children. Much of what was targeted to children was written at a grade level much higher than most children would be able to read and comprehend.

Neil and Bill paged through yesterday’s Tampa Tribune and also found some coverage, but not much, about children. Bill commented that a sports section front page article seemed written at a simple reading level, but that it presumed a great deal of background knowledge about sports.

Anne shared several articles she had written using normal “journalese,” all of which were written at a 10th grade reading level or above — including one article about an event for children. She then rewrote the articles at grade levels ranging from 2nd to 5th grade and used other techniques, including breakout boxes, images, etc., to convey the information.

Submitted by eangelotti on Mon, 03/02/2009 – 1:48pm

Session Convenor: Ellyn Angelotti and David Ardia

Session Reporter: Ellyn Angelotti

Discussion Participants: Jacob Kaplan Moss, Kat Powers, Julie Moos

Digital Media Law issues

Opinion is protected?
Opinions can’t be verified. Some opinions are based on verifiable facts. Is it on the news pages or the opinion pages? Blogs are the types of platform support statement of opinion. The question to ask: Can it be proven false?

The broken window theory if you see a lot of comments that are bad then you’re going to encourage bad conversations

Legal Questions- legal needs survey… things to think about, like hiring an accountant.
Creating a business:
Have you thought about creating a formal business? Need legal help doing so?
Rights and responsibilities for people who work together? (like co-bloggers)
Do you have media liability insurance?
Naming your business and trademarking these names/logo?
Getting online
Terms/conditions for site?
Privacy policy?
Questions about copyright infringement?
Written agreement for contractors IP
Third party sites
If you’re going to use other peoples’ photos/content doesn’t mean you can do anything with it.
LInk for questions?
Creative commons licenses– it’s either copyright or lot but there is a lot of middle ground
Do you publish UGC? moderating, copyright, etc.
How do you handle content from other sources?

Volunteer lawyers for the arts
Three categories of assistance: Pro bono, reduced fee journalists neg. with lawyer, full fees for those who can support it.

Basic Knowledge for journalists who want to start their own companies: defamation, copyright and libel
A process approach– before you need a lawyer.

Should I extract and excerpt from another site? it depends but stick to less than 200 characters.

Submitted by John Hamer on Mon, 03/02/2009 – 12:42pmi

Session Convenor: John Hamer, Washington News Council

Session Reporter: John Hamer, WNC

Discussion Participants: Robin Miller, Tom Stites, Michelle Ferrier, Peter Block

John Hamer, Session Convenor, explained how the Washington News Council has worked for 10 years to try to encourage Transparency, Accountability and Openness (TAO) in the news media in Washington State. He explained the WNC’s complaint process, and described the latest case – a complaint by Washington’s Secretary of State, Sam Reed, against KIRO7 TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. He noted that all of the documents on the complaint, plus the KIRO stories, were just  posted on the WNC’s website (www.wanewscouncil.org). He said we have invited the public to weigh in as a kind of “Citizens Online News Council,” but it was just posted last Friday and we don’t have much reaction yet.

TOM STITES –

Your health is under threat, with the financial problems in the media.

How does journalism achieve trust of the reader/viewer/user/participants? We live in this culture of comprehensive distrust of institution, with the media taking up the rear.

PETER BLOCK –

What’s the truth of this (i.e., mistrust)? Why aren’t we trusted? What do we do to earn this trust?

TOM –

If you actually had TAO in the media, you might start to earn it.

PETER –

Who could you find that would be committed to restoring and rebuilding trust in the media?

Crank up the retribution on those who have sinned. Do public declarations.

Who is your constituency? Who cares about whether you exist or not?

If you’re not sure, let it go.

TOM –

How can you put your energy and that of your backers, to pursue your goals?

If the tool you have is no longer sharp enough, you need new tools.

PETER –

Change your tagline to: An Independent Forum for Rebuilding Trust in the Media.

That’s interesting, because the issue of trust is a huge issue in the media. It’s an important factor.

You should change that phrase, because there would be a lot of interest in that.

Do journalists have to differentiate themselves from bloggers?

Do they have to? Michele thinks they should be part of those communities.

Some newspaper blogs are tired excuses. But other journalists do it well. The education reporter at the Dallas Morning News uses it as a reporting tool – sends out questions and gets information from readers.

Tanja is a print journalist and she blogs. She doesn’t see that big of a difference. Blogging doesn’t have to be about opinions – it’s creating a new journalistic product.

Check out beatblogging.org  — a site for journalist bloggers

howardweaver.com

placeblogger.com – aggregates blogs by community

How do you publicize and drive blog traffic?

Start a conversation with bloggers you like – link and be linked.

Comment on other blogs and refer them back to yours.

What is a journalist’s blog supposed to be?

Material that didn’t make the cut. Peeks behind the scenes.

Reporting on personal experience rather than opinion.

“Sometimes people think they have to be a ranter to have a blog,” Michelle said. “I disagree with that. I think you have to be a conversationalist.”

Jeremy: The rules are looser. You can write a lot more freely, conversational.

Michele: You’re giving a quick, focused thought in real time.  Another thing blogs do really well is just providing links to what’s out there: “There are linkers and there are thinkers.”

Jeremy is interested in ways journalists can connect with outside bloggers and social networkers –to engage neighborhood bloggers, etc.

Crowdsource – ask your community questions – use it as a listening device.

Lou Ureneck suggests: Serialize the blog with cliffhangers. Tell a story.

Michele thinks a key strategy is to go to other blogs and comment on them, so they know you’re aware of them. Then you can link to you.

Be smart about your keywords

Use Twitter to drive people back to the site

Twitter:

Jennifer’s paper uses it for a lot — including traffic updates and accidents

To build your clientele on Twitter, re-tweet something that a major Twitterer has said.

Social networks and blogs can help you build audience and it can improve your content.

“I think all a newsroom can do right now is build the audience,” Michele said.

Carol Zuegner thinks it’s important, too, because that’s where people are. At least if you’re there, you’re reaching an audience you have no other way of getting.

Think of different ways of delivering content.

There’s no single answer, just a bunch of tools

Can news organizations become the trusted referrers – where you’re not only producing content, you’re a curator for content.

Michelle Ferrier says you should take different approaches for geographical and topical communities. To promote her geographical site: “I ran it like a political campaign – I was walking the streets, I was shaking hands, I was pressing the flesh.”

Sources would see the stories on the blog and they got invested. She established “pool rules” after which readers could post their own content. Tend to your comments, so people know you’re hearing them and also to model a certain tone.

It’s important to get out of the one-way mindset.

Michelle Ferrier: How do you get and give value? You have to value people and relationships, as opposed to putting out a product and expecting people to follow you because it’s credible, or because it’s trustworthy.

Session Convenor: Bill Moushey

Session Reporter: Elise AckermanDiscussion

Participants: Nick Penniman,Bill Moushey, Kelly McBride, Laura Kessel, Karen Duffy, Ron Menchaca, Lou Ureneck,Sara Justicia Foll, Porter Bayne, Amy Woo

ENTERPRISE AND INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Nick Penniman, started American News Project, let’s take the Web seriously as a venue for broadcast journalism. Hired guys from CNN and Frontline, did long form investigative and quick hit muckraking stuff. He is now heading investigative work on the Huffington Post. The American News Project received money from The Schumann Center for Media and Democracy (SCMD).
Bill Moushey, Point Park, put city council president in prison (as well as lots of other people) now balancing the scales by getting people out. Said his students found DNA evidence in a horrible murder case, guy had done 20 years. DNA did not match. Guy thanked the students, “you are my heroes.”
Kelly McBride
Laura Kessel
Karen Duffy (Daytona Beach News Journal)
Ron Menchaca
Lou Ureneck, head of New England Investigative Center,
Sara Justicia Foll,
Porter Bayne
Amy Woo

Bill Moushey: Refers to AP study that people are not getting the in-depth news they are looking for, is there a place for long-form investigative reporting online?
Nick Penniman: talks about how Talking Points Memo broke about the Justice Department. Says the daily interaction shook out a lot of sources.
Kelly McBride: In the new environment for news, stories will break piece by piece.
Elise Ackerman, I don’t think the issue is whether stories are long or short but whether the information is well organized.
Karen Duffy: talks about a long murder story that was one of the best-read stories at the Daytona Beach News Journal.
Bill Moushey: Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, West Virginia University Scandal. They did not wait until they had the whole story. They had one story about discrepancies on one degree. and then took it from there. Is that the way it has to be done?
Ron Mechaca:  Investigation into state-owned school buses, decrepit, falling apart. Said that was done using the traditional approach. He compares that to a story about a project about superstore catching on fire and collapsing. We basically uncovered that the fire department was operating under procedures that led to death of nine fire fighters. The department didn’t have the equipment and expertise to fight a modern fire. Both was approaches were successful, but he thinks that the latter (breaking a story piece by piece) will be more successful going forward.
Bill Moushey: Big bang project versus serialized over time (how should investigative stories be presented)?
Nick Penniman: room for both. Engaging the audience is really important from a business perspective.
Bill Moushey: How do you think the information from a U.S. Attorney that got discriminated against made it to TPM?
Nick Penniman: “They were e-mailing him it was kind of a drip, drip, drip process.”
Bll Moushey: “In other words,  you see what is going on, and then you can feed the beast.”
Kelly McBride: “It starts with the presumption that the audience knows more than you do.”
Nick Penniman: “I was at the Washington Monthly and someone sent us all of Bill Bennett’s gambling receipts from Vegas.
Kelly McBride: Did Josh of TPM check the informaiton he got. …talking about how Mark Foley story broke. Lane Hudson’s post on the Huffington Post. And Brian Ross of ABC confirmed e-mail / IM had been written by Foley and put it on the blog.

We talk about risks and benefits of crowd sourcing. Lou Ureneck, head of New England Investigative Center, talks about putting in a system for checks and balances for the crowd.

Jay Young: Need for Triple AAA hotel for newspapers/new information sources.
Kelly McBride: “I think there is also the issue of getting to the right audience.”
Lori Rosolowsky: If none of the places you work for has the interest or resources to cover these issues the way we do. How do we get information we uncover covered by the mainstream media, example, elections official in bed with official who sold the equipment to the county.
Elise Ackerman: You don’t need the mainstream media.
Bill Moushey, I get calls everyday (with story tips). I’m going to want to know what the catch is. What you have to do is build street cred as a balanced organization.
Nick Penniman: Someone sent us conference call with JPMorgan, going to give out bonuses but call them retention awards.
Nick Penniman: should journalist organizations become more activist about their own content? To what extent do you mobilize your audience to create action around your journalism? For example, FISA vote.
Laura Kessel: Are you saying that we should do this? Example, young boy got shocked while waiting on line for bumper ride at County Fair and died a month later. It was a massive issue that came out. They had an 80 year old electrician who was responsible for wiring the rides. And we realized the inspection process for rides out our state was horrifying. Legislature created Gracen’s Law. It was pointless. We presented the issue. We polled. We waited a week to have the editorial come out. The comments on the Web site were astounding.
Jay Young: City of Altoona, Penn had a horrible blight problem. City boarding up homes. Altoona a city of 60,000 he mapped all the blighted homes. What is going on. He found another law antiblight ordinance in Wilmington, DE.
Ron Mechaca: Good investigative journalism proposes solutions. It shows how other communities are dealing with the same issues. A good investigative piece really is doing.
Linda Jue: Issue is a touchy one for mainstream journalists. How do you do it that doesn’t create a partisan tilt that becomes a barrier for people to be involved.
Nick Penniman: Is journalism a one-way street where we feed information to people or does journalism engage in reform.
Linda Jue: That is what Jay Rosen struggled with when he tried to do civic journalism.
Kelly McBride: If we were still making profits, I don’t think we would consider the issue.

Idea of community site that does fight for issues. If they have victories, then you have a true hub.

Nick Penniman: Investigative reporters have always been axe grinders. I just think we have to be open and honest about it.  If we are going to do a five-part series on mountain top mining it’s not because we want to encourage mountain top mining.
Bill Mouchey: Are you biased because the Open Society gives you money.
Linda Jue: There is a problem with foundations because they want you to support their agenda.
Kelly McBride: I think the audience is getting to the place where they pretty much presume that everyone has a bias.
Porter Bayne: I’ve got two competing statistics in my brain. Most people choose news sources on perception of convenience and objectivity.  One stat tells me people want to see their bias reflected in the news and the other says they want objectivity.
Kelly McBride, It’s possible that both are true. If I get information from you (Lori) that we are going to get new voting machines that suck. (If I know you have an agenda I might be skeptical of the information.
Linda Jue: There is a big issue, Where can people find credible information?
Nick Penniman: Joe Pulitzer had an agenda. Fight against plutocracy. ….etc. What the newspapers have failed to do is fight vociferously in favor of the public good. I picked up the Tampa Tribune (very little about the community, it was just death and meth) If there was more of an agenda within the newsrooms that people may pay more attention to local news organizations.

Submitted by jhatcher on Mon, 03/02/2009 – 11:10am

Session Convenor: Jeremy Iggers

Session Reporter: John HatcherDiscussion

Participants: We forgot to do this. Roughly seven people attended.

We discussed the work done at the Daily Planet in Minneapolis, http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/, and learned how this web site has a unique combination of content from various grassroots, ethnc and community media in the Minneapolis area.

The project runs articles with the permission of these publications and its founder said that the publications are pleased to have more people read their news articles.

The discussion also included talk of the challenge of making money or even sustaining such endeavors. We explored the adverstising model, the non-profit model and other options.

The Web site receives about 76,000 unique visitors a month. Part of the mission of the site is to train and work with citizen journalists. The Web site also works in partnership with community education.