Journalism in the New News Ecology

Submitted by jhai on Sat, 02/28/2009 – 8:54pm

Conversationalist 1: Jeremy Iggers

Conversationalist 2: Jackie Hai

JEREMY IGGERS is Executive Director of the Twin Cities Media Alliance and founder of the Twin Cities Daily Planet in Minneapolis, a collective of citizen and professional journalists.

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?

Jeremy: “I worked for over 23 years for a daily newspaper and just became increasingly frustrated with the difficulty of doing the kind of journalism I wanted to do. One day I heard about a citizen journalism newspaper in South Korea (Ohmynews) and started thinking about creating one in Minneapolis. That led to me founding the Twin Cities Daily Planet and Media Alliance. We’re doing OK so far but I realize that for an experiment like ours to survive we need to evolve. So I’m coming to this conference hoping to get ideas — how to evolve, how to find audiences, what financial models are out there.”

Jackie: My experience in college media has been like a microcosm for the world at large, as our school paper has been experiencing many of the same problems as newspapers across the country in the transition to the web. I’m interesting in meeting more people in the field and learning from them, plus sharing what I know as a “digital native.”

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you’ve had with these new realities – roles, tools, relationships, economics – in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

Jeremy: When the Republican National Convention was in the Twin Cities last summer, Jeremy’s editor and several citizen journalists got arrested during coverage of the protests. The experience “showed how much more we were able to keep track of what was happening. Speed and versatility, the ability to get media up on the site very fast… that was a real eye opener.”

Jackie: Back when the financial crisis was first coming to a head in October last year, we noticed that too many students had no idea what was going on. We decided to address the problem by producing a video package called Market Meltdown 101, featuring in-depth interviews with economics professors presented in an extremely browsable fashion tailored for web audiences. The experience showed that we could achieve one of the traditional goals of journalism — to inform a community — through new platforms and methods.

3. Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?

Jeremy: “On my homeground, my biggest strength is that I’m a connector. I’m a pretty good networker, I’m good at bringing people together and make them collaborate.”

Jackie: Similarly, I’ve been called a “coalition-builder.” In January I organized a student media summit at UMass that brought together for the first time our school’s four major news outlets — the print newspaper, television station, radio station and online magazine — to open channels of communication and work on collaborative projects together.

4. What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

Jeremy: “I may be ready to let go of journalism if the essential core of journalism is the news report, the reporter gathering information and packaging it for an audience. I think there are ways in which the ideas of journalism are holding us back. The digital revolution has made it possible for people to share information in a lot of ways. There’s a struggle between how traditional and innovative we should be. I got into journalism by being a restaurant critic; I got acknolwedged as an expert on Twin Cities restauruants. One of the things I see emerging now is tools, like the Zagat guide, that aggregate the experience of many individuals. When you create a platform that lets people inform each other directly, it’s a self-correcting thing… so there’s the tension that I’m wrestling with.”

Jackie: I see the essential core of journalism as a service that helps people make sense of the world, something that will become even more vital and necessary in this new digital age. The Internet is a sea of noise and information, most of it chaotic and unordered. It will take a new breed of journalists trained to even higher standards for journalism to stay relevant in these times. I’m ready to let go of the old rigid models and platforms that no longer work.

5. 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?

Jeremy: “1) We figured out how to pay the bills. 2) We figured out how to open up the process while maintaining credibility and quality control, respect for accuracy and fairness. 3) We figured out how to involve many more people in the process of contributing to newsmaking while maintaining accuracy and relevancy and fairness.”

Jackie: Local news organizations are a hub of information for the communities they serve, the place people go to for information about what’s going on in the place they live and how to connect with their neighbors. As for paying the bills, we began thinking outside the box and started finding ways to deliver information in packages that people find valuable, beyond subscription models and per-article micropayments. One example is something that bloggers outside of journalism (primarily in the self-help industry) have already begun embracing as a successful revenue stream: e-books. I think given our resources and skills, there’s plenty of room for innovation in all directions.

Submitted by markbriggs on Sat, 02/28/2009 – 7:07pm

Conversationalist 1: Liz Monteiro

Conversationalist 2: Mark Briggs

Liz Monteiro has spent 17 years at the  Waterloo Region Record. She is now a full-time master’s student, too, focusing on journalists and how they negotiate their identities in this time of change. “Canadian news organizations have been slower to change than those in the U.S.,” she says.

She is looking forward to refreshing her point of view on journalism. She is currently working amidst a “sea of negativity” since the newspaper just went through a round of painful layoffs. Her hope for the workshop is two–tiered: “invigorate myself, and reinvent myself. I don’t think Record will exist as it is right now so I’m preparing for what’s next.”

She is invigorated by other examples, especially those found on American journalist’s blogs. “We’re not the only expert and the readers can help us.”

Liz say her ability to talk to people and get them to tell her stories has long been her strength, but now she wonders if that makes her special compared to anyone else who tries to do that. She feels her experience as a journalist has to count for something, though, especially her ability to put a story into a larger context. “I want to be collaborative and learn from others,” she says.

Newspapers are the cornerstone of democracy, they hold government accountable, according to Liz. She feels like that it’s slipping away. She wants to help find new ways we can still have “some of that core stuff.”

Liz doesn’t think we’ll have a printed product like we have today. She does think journalism can sustain itself somehow, though. “I truly do believe they will be reincarnated in another way,” LIz said.

Session Reporter: Ron Menchaca

Conversationalist 1: Peter Rinearson

Conversationalist 2: Ron Menchaca

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?

Ron: I work at The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier newspaper, where I started my journalism career in 1998. I have covered several beats over the years, including county government and the Port of Charleston. I am currently assigned to my newspaper’s Watchdog team, which attempts to involve readers in investigative reporting in print and on the web. But we have struggled to
market the concept inside and outside our newsroom. I said “yes” to the conference in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how other newspapers and media outlets solicit reader involvement and gain buy-in for new concepts from reporters and editors. I also hope to share some of our experiences launching our Watchdog team and tackling projects that empower residents.

Peter: I’ve been interested in the role of community created content since I was in college at the University of Washington, and interested in electronic delivery of news since my first years in the Seattle Times newsroom. In college, David Horsey (who later would win two Pulitzer Prizes for his cartooning) and I drove the country interviewing managing editors on the topic of public access to the media, and discovered that by and large these editors — from major papers in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Detroit,
Chicago, Louisville, St. Louis, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — believed that letters to the editor and ombudsmen were sufficient mechanisms for direct expression of public views. At the Seattle Times, I was the first reporter to use a computer terminal exclusively to write, and this lead to an interest in word processing and my eventual departure from daily journalism to the worlds of software and the Web. I remain captivated by the question of how the public should be served by journalists, and the role of mediated versus unmediated participation by the public. I’ve attended Poynter gatherings in the past, both as a former member of its National Advisory Board and as a faculty member of a somewhat similar seminar three years ago.  I always find the interaction stimulating, and welcome the opportunity to hear from so many people with interesting and sometimes-diverging perspectives.

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you’ve had with these new realities — roles, tools, relationships, economics — in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

Ron: In the wake of the June 18, 2007, Sofa Super Store fire that killed nine Charleston firefighters, my newspaper set out to learn what went wrong. We eventually uncovered numerous failings in the Charleston Fire Department that directly contributed to the firefighters’ deaths. Our reporting helped prompt a sweeping overhaul of the department’s training, tactics and equipment. At the time of the fire, my newspaper was in the process of putting more breaking news stories on the web and encouraging reporters to file web updates throughout the day. The sofa store fire — the worst firefighting tragedy since 9/11 and a major national news story — accelerated the newspaper’s plans to focus more on our website’s news coverage. We published mountains of stories, photos and video to a special web page in the first few days and weeks after the fire. Our website crashed at least once because of the extraordinary interest in the story from around the world. Tips and sources also streamed in through the web. Almost immediately, firefighters and fire service experts from around the world began raising concerns about the firefighting tactics they saw depicted in the published photos and videos and described in stories on our website. Similar discussions unfolded on blogs and in the comment sections below the web stories. These early tips and sources proved invaluable in our subsequent investigation. Many of the local and state firefighting sources we might ordinarily have relied on in the wake of the fire were too close to the tragedy and couldn’t or wouldn’t say anything critical, even though many were deeply troubled by the disregard for safety they saw or heard about at the sofa store fire scene. Instead, our website drew in potential sources and possible story angles from the larger fire service profession around the world. The type of investigative reporting we were able to do would have been nearly impossible without the reach and two-way conduit afforded by new media.

Peter: I am no longer a working journalist, so my engagement in the practice of journalism is somewhat academic. As a consumer of news, I often find the reader comments, especially in the New York Times, to be fascinating.

3. Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?

Ron: I’m tenacious and self-motivated — qualities that have helped immensely in my role as an investigative reporter. I know what it’s like to work in a smaller newsroom and how difficult it is to pursue a breed of journalism that drains time and resources with no guarantee that the final product will attract the slightest notice. I’d like to raise the flag for investigative reporting as part of the larger discussion about the future of our craft. I believe that the recent resurgence in local watchdog reporting at many daily newspapers is not a coincidence: In a time of uncertainty and dropping circulation, many newspapers are returning to the muckraking roots they know best.

Peter: My career has been one of deliberate change. Every few years I do something new, where I can be a beginner again. I started as a newspaper reporter. I wrote the leading books of their time on how to use Microsoft Word. I did foundational work for Word’s built-in document designs. I started the first software company devoted to enhancing Microsoft Word, and among other things designed and developed the toolbar that Microsoft eventually licensed for use in Microsoft Word for the Mac. For a decade, we manufactured the “Foreign Proofing Tools” that people use to work with Microsoft Office in various languages. I wrote a book (“The Road Ahead”) with Bill Gates, and collaborated with him for four years on a newspaper column carried by the New York Times Syndicate. I ran a design studio that did projects as varied as special effects for a television series (Bill Nye the Science Guy), logo design for Real Networks, and an 85-foot mural for Disney’s Epcot Center. In the second half of the 1990’s I built an Internet company that tried to interest the newspaper industry in Web technology that allowed a blend of professional and community content. When I got no traction with newspapers I sold it to a cable television network (Oxygen) that ultimately didn’t understand community content either. I was a vice president at Microsoft, where I ran a product incubator, developed products intended to drive enterprise adoption of Microsoft Office, and oversaw the company’s internal intranet, electronic and physical libraries, and archives. Now I’ve started a new business, which will launch a service at Intersect.com later this year. Unless I stay with Intersect indefinitely, in a few years I’ll probably try something entirely different, my most radical departure from my newspaper roots. So if I have a value at this meeting, it may be as somebody who has seen change as opportunity more than threat. I’ve had successes and failures, and have appreciated both. Change fosters anxiety in me too, but I embrace it when it isn’t for its own sake.

4. What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

Ron: Enterprise, original reporting and context.  I’m OK if the print product ultimately disappears. We can still do what we do without staining readers’ fingers.

Peter: Putting the interests of the consumer first. I can let go of paper, and have.

5. 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?

Ron: Journalism will continue to hold governments and powerful institutions accountable. But newspapers can’t ignore their communities. Newspapers have become arrogant — we’ll tell you what’s important — and must do a better job of listening to readers, their tips and concerns. Investigative reporters at medium and smaller newspapers, in particular, must not focus exclusively on long-range projects. Many quick-hit and short-range investigative stories are worthwhile and relatively easy for an experienced investigative reporter to peel off. These efforts can often be done in collaboration with beat reporters, which helps assuage gripes that project reporters don’t contribute to the daily newspaper. Pairing project and beat reporters also helps infuse a more aggressive reporting mentality across the newsroom because beat reporters can and do become so entrenched in their day-to-day rounds that they start sounding like their sources and lose sight of accountability stories. Investigative reporting is part of the solution to journalism’s challenges, and it must be part of any discussion about the future of the profession.

Peter: I don’t know how optimistic to be, in the five-year timeframe, on this very important issue. Newspapers have played an enormously importantrole in keeping our society healthy. I don’t look forward to a day without a well-funded New York Times.

Conversationalist 1: Bill Mitchell, who writes the NewsPay blog for Poynter, among other things.

Conversationalist 2: Susan Moeller

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?

Bill’s new job at Poynter is focused on the transformation of news, especially emerging economic models. He’s now writing a blog called NewsPay and working with colleagues at Poynter on new economic models. How did that lead him to this conference? “I went to the Journalism That Matters conference two years ago in Washington and it was clear in that session that it was raising many issues that were relevant.”

What’s the difference between that conference and this one? “A crisper focus on economic models.”

Bill likes to approach a conference through a particular “prism” – in this case, economics. “Somebody might be talking about how to cover a school board when your education reporter has just been laid off but then I can make the extension that clearly this is journalism that matters, and how can we sustain that?

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you’ve had with these new realities – roles, tools, relationships, economics – in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

“We just did a new book, a collection of front pages from the election. And we updated with pages from the inauguration. … It made me think about the first collection of front pages we did, which was following 9/11. It grew out of something we did online – taking jpegs of front pages and posting them to the site – but it was only because a user of the site asked when the book was coming out that we did a book. So it was a user-generated idea that … set the stage for us doing the book on Obama.”

3. Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?

“I think maybe integrity and honesty. I think I’m a fundamentally honest person and curious to a fault, not knowing when … to stop the reporting and start the writing. What I bring to this meeting, is maybe the curiosity and maybe the focus on economic models, which seems to be important for many people in this group.

4. What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

“I would draw the distinction between principles and standards.  I think there are core principles that can’t change and have it still be called journalism. The key ones would be independence, accuracy, fairness, transparency. But I think what I’m willing to let go of is the idea of uniform standards – that the same standard has to be applied to all the journalism we do. … A breaking news blog could have a different standard of accuracy rather than what you would choose to publish in a book, or even the print edition of a newspaper.”

A reporter would not be knowingly careless, he says, but might be posting with an editor reading behind him, without vetting ahead of time by a news- or copydesk.

5. The year is 2014 and the new news ecology is a vibrant media landscape. What is journalism bringing to communities and democracies that matters most? What steps did we take back in 2009 to being to bring this about?

Bill believes journalism and journalism organizations will be smaller and distributed widely in the future, more personal, more mobile. But that journalism will bring fundamentally the same things to “communities of democracy: news and information that people need for their personal and civic lives.

What can we do now? “The most important thing is that we figure out ways to sustain that kind of journalism, a way to create organizations that will remain, especially those tied to geographic communities, as well as communities of interest.”

Notes: I like Bill’s focus on economics, because in our newsroom right now, it feels as if that’s what it’s all about. The arguments about where we’re going seem to be over; now it’s about staying alive long enough to get there. And I like his approach of picking a “prism” before a conference – good strategy for those of us with ADD-style radar.

Conversationalist 1: Leigh Montgomery

Conversationalist 2: Sent to Jacob Kaplan-Moss via email

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?

As a librarian I assist our staff with any information needs they might have.  My career has been digital and working with information – over time that has become about showing people how I got the information.  This is inherently sharing knowledge, which needs to happen in all industries, but particularly this one.  We so rarely get a chance to step back and consider all of these issues on why newspaper-type journalism needs to endure.  I look forward to sharing my experience and thoughts and bring some back to our colleagues.

I attended a Poynter seminar a few years ago that was so enlightening and career changing in how I thought and approached my work.  I think about it regularly and came back with some great ideas still in place(a collaborative News Calendar of events for planning).

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you.ve had with these new realities — roles, tools, relationships, economics — in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

I’m an advocate of journalism ‘entrepreneurship.’  We don’t have time to sit in meetings and decide What will Our Strategy Be in Social Media etc.  The tools are in everyone’s hands now.  Let’s experiment and really dig in and maybe take the chance of some mistakes and see what works / what doesn’t and let’s enlist those who really care – readers, fellow citizens, help us.  We went ahead and did a ‘citizen journalism’ project.  This within two weeks.  I can talk more about it later, but – I suggested it and with the resources we had we did it.

3.Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?

I have ten years of experience working in information sources of all kinds for an international publication with extremely high standards, a very small staff, the tightest deadlines and the very worst there are(morning).   I’ve always been very creative and innovative and this year I’ve surprised even myself at what I’ve had to do under some of the most pressing demands in any industry.  I’m one of several hundred very innovative professionals in the news business that are dedicated to making their stories better, adept at change, technically savvy, sharing their knowledge – this is the kind of thing that is so needed in this climate and in an era where all employees will have to be more knowledgeable and productive.

4.What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

Journalism’s nobility; caring for others, putting attention on problems that need correcting and highlighting the best of the human spirit.  Making sense of the complex, through reams of datasets and charts and documents and things that no one has time or inclination to care about.

I received a call recently requesting an electronic copy of an article. The caller said ‘I am calling from the public defender’s office in _ state, and my client is facing execution.’  They were requesting this as the person had been detained at a facility in which brutalities had occurred and conditions were poor which was the subject of this article. This article was one of a series that had won journalism’s highest honor.  I could not help but think to myself – what would happen if no one took the time to expose these kinds of things? I know there are new ways to do that – but those who are there need to be guided in the craft, ethics, qualities and values of journalism – and get this to the audience that needs to know.

5.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?

We acknowledged that the world would be more informed and safer if there were more contributors to the media ecology.

We recognized that citizen journalism has tremedous potential but has been beset with poor quality and that it will take time and coaching to bring in more journalists, and we took a role in that.

We saw every reader as a potential contributor, that this would lead to great diversity of story ideas, more reader involvement with the site and the news, help “close the gap” between what journalists and readers consider news.  If this were to succeed, it could lead to a better informed and safer society.

We recognized the potential for technology to aid us in this – since those users already know how to use the tools, it is the values and importance that need to be conveyed.

Conversationalist 1: Robin Miller

Conversationalist 2: Elise Ackerman
ROBIN MILLER

During the dot-com boom, I interviewed Robin during his role as editor-in-chief of Slashdot.org, a trailblazing publication that produced “news for nerds.” I knew Robin was a smart and savvy technologist, but I didn’t know that he started out, like I did, at writing for an alternative weekly, in his case one in Baltimore.  Robin was known as the mad-man reporter, the guy who the police respected so much they let him into crime scenes.  At one point he interviewed 500 people in order to figure out how much crime in Baltimore was not reported to the police. It turned out that as much as 70 percent of crimes were not reflected in official statistics. Then he made the mistake of writing about the digital divide and fell into technology reporting. He ended up as the gadget guy on morning television and then was offered the gig at Slashdot.

Slashdot had layoffs recently and Robin is reinventing himself again as a videographer and working on some business plans. Right now half of his work is commercial production and the other half is reporting he does for himself. He said, “I’m trying to figure out how to make money so that I can turn reporting into a hobby.” He also said the only thing that mattered is telling interesting stories. Five years from now he thinks citizen journalists will be paid. He believes journalists of the future will work out of shitty home offices, feel good about themselves and have great sex.

My reaction: I loved talking to Robin, who tells the kind of wonderful stories that drew me into journalism back in the late 1980s. Like Robin, I’m also worried about how professional journalists are going to eat during the next five years.

Session Reporter: Michele McLellan

Conversationalist 1: Kelly Bridge, Michele McLellan

Conversationalist 2: Michele McLellan/Kelly Bridge

MCLELLAN

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?
I am interesting in the transformation of media, in particular how the practice of journalism is being dispersed from larger, established news organizations to small start ups and individual efforts. I would like to see this new eco system succeed and I am thinking a lot about how someone in a given community might identify and collaborate with new sources of news and information.

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you.ve had with these new realities — roles, tools, relationships, economics — in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

A specific example does not come to mind. But in general, I think the ability on the Web for people to truth squad published reports is a significant development because it allows the public to reframe stories where previously professional journalists got to make the call.

3.Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself?

What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting? I almost always see hte cup as half full. I like collaboration and I am generous with credit for the efforts of others.

4.What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

The essential core is public interest, transparency and verification. I can let go of the rest.

5.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?

The digital transformation of media and the decline of the established news industry (with its one-to-many model) offer an opportunity to foster citizen engagement that I hope we take advantage of as well as the opportunity for more transparency in government and other decision-making.

BRIDGE REACTION TO MCLELLAN COMMENTS: TK

BRIDGE

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?

I’ve been working as a general assignment reporter at the Press-Telegram in Long Beach for about two years now. I love the job, but am growing discouraged by how quickly things have changed for newspapers just in the last year. We’ve had mass layoffs, furloughs and the merging of a “universal copy desk” for all our papers in Los
Angeles Newspaper Group. And they say it’s far from over. I don’t believe that newspapers are dying, but I know they are changing form. I’m attending this conference to get ideas on what’s next and how I
can be a part of it.

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you.ve had with these new realities — roles, tools, relationships, economics — in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

I obsessively read ALL reader comments on my online stories.  Through readers’ feedback, debates and discussion, I often get news tips that lead to follow up stories. Sometimes, readers will even post a person’s police record before I have a chance to dig it up. I think it shows the new role and impact of citizen journalism. Through
reading people’s comments online, I know what kind of stories readers want, and which ones will trigger debate. I think that’s something our paper should focus on to generate more web traffic.

3.Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?
I’m always open and eager to try new things. I’m optimistic about the future of journalism. As one of the few print reporters attending (and someone who is very new to the industry) I think I can bring a different perspective.

4.What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

The essential core of journalism is truth…getting the truth out there and getting the information to the public. Unfortunately, as more newspapers cut staff, stories are going untold and cities are going uncovered. It’s scary to think of the corruption going on with no media watchdogs to expose it. I’m willing to let go of the traditional idea of journalism simply being ink on paper. It’s emerging in new forms on Web sites, blogs and video. I think it’s
something the newspaper hounds need to accept.

5.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?

I’d like to see more Web sites such as The Huffington Post and Bloomberg, Fark and Drudge Report. I’d also like to see more local media watch dog Web sites like my friend Bill Pearl atwww.lbreport.com.

MCLELLAN REACTION TO BRIDGE COMMENTS:
I really like Kelly’s optimism and especially the answer to Question 2, the way Kelly engages with readers and gets contributions from them. That is a big part of the new face of journalism. Good for Kelly for jumping in with both feet. I’m eager to meet in person and learn more about Kelly’s work and ideas about the future of journalism.

Conversationalist 1: Kelly McBride, ethics group leader, Poynter Institute

Conversationalist 2: Laura Emerick

When Kelly and I spoke Feb. 26, we spent much of our conversation discussing the just-announced demise of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News. Along with our shock, and the journalism industry’s as well over this tragic development, we agreed that the Rocky’s death makes the Journalism That Matters seminar (and other initiatives like it) even more pressing — to say the least.

As Kelly mentioned, “Everything about journalism is changing. What I care most about is saving journalism’s role as the democratic foundation of society and learning how journalism can best serve its audience in an era of sweeping change. We spend a lot of time [at Poynter] trying to figure exactly how audiences are changing dramatically as the nature of information is changing. What does that mean for democracy and communities? It’s a constant high-wire act.”

So when Kelly noted jokingly that she has been “at the epicenter of the moral universe of journalism” for the last seven years while at Poynter, it’s a jest masquerading as the truth.

As someone who has spent her entire career in print, I’m worried that I won’t learn how to adapt quickly enough. With all the cutbacks and downsizing at my newspaper, each day becomes even more of a race to the finish. Everyone left here has about a half-dozen jobs, and we all feel like those plate-spinning acts on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” In the meantime, we’re largely left wondering just how do we forge ahead into the new media future? Michele McLellan of the Knight Digital Media Center summed it up perfectly in a recent post: “How do you keep learning and leading your organization to new ideas during this crisis? Many editors are so immersed in the crisis of the moment that they are not taking time to learn the new things what they need to know to envision a future that looks radically different from the one they are watching diminish every day.”

That’s our situation in a nutshell.

So my fire-starter question, which has been hurled lately at many print outlets from new media turks, is: Why don’t you DIE already?

Conversationalist 1: Karen Duffy/Melissa Cornick

Conversationalist 2: Karen Duffy/Melissa Cornick

Melissa Cornick:

Brief Background:

I am a former network news investigative producer who is launching into hyper local news.

1. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?

As a gumshoe reporter of original investigations, I have always used unusual techniques to put the subject front and center and aware of what is happening through the news gathering process. This requires some high level ethical standards which I would like to ascertain for hyperlocal news. I have also focused on news

standards as an avocation for various organizations, including Poynter.

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you’ve had with these new realities — roles, tools, relationships, economics — in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered.What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

As part of three fellowships I have participated in for a year and a half, I have focused on locative media, an investigation of the partnering of citizen and professional journalism and an adherence to cost effective journalism as a necessary part of the experiments. The techniques have dovetailed into the local mobisode I am working on as well as the hyperlocal website, which I call, “Baby Banyan”. Out of that came a best practices guide for working with citizen journalists, who with all of the good intentions, have different “masters” guiding them through their work, such as families and other types of jobs. Respect and acknowledgement is a best practice that carries on in different ways for partnering with citizen journalists.

3.Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?

I am usually about 4-5 months ahead of the general media in stories and trends.

4.What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

I am ready to let go of traditional corporate based journalism which puts celebrity ahead of citizens.

5.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?

My focus is on being at the cutting edge of what people will need from journalists going forward and I have done this through my projects described above.

Karen Duffy

Brief Background: News Research Editor, Daytona Beach News-Journal, former middle school reading teacher

. What is the story of your work and how did it lead to saying “yes” to this gathering?
— I haven’t had the opportunity to attend any seminars for a couple of years now, due to financial cutbacks at work, so when I saw the posting on newslib (News Librarian listserv) that there was a stipend for two librarians available, I applied for it immediately. I’ve been feeling somewhat stagnant at work, knowing that the newsroom & journalism is changing, and not knowing where this would leave me – what my role might become, or should become. I thought the focus of this seminar was so timely – a stroke of serendipity.

2. We’re well beyond the debate that journalism is changing. Tell me about an experience you’ve had with these new realities — roles, tools, relationships, economics — in which the emerging news ecology actually made a difference in telling a story that mattered. What did that experience teach you about the gifts of both new ways of working and the traditional roots of journalism?

— Hmmm….that’s a difficult one to answer. I know that the emphasis has shifted to online news, whether it’s breaking news on our main site, or blogs on our alternative sites (entertainment web site). I did recently have an opportunity to work on a case involving a man who was in the witness protection program. He got himself in trouble with the law, and I worked with the reporter to figure out who he really was. We did that with old-fashioned legwork. However, we’d received tips as to his true identity from the back talk feature (reader comments) on our web site. So I’d imagine that is an example of how to blend new & old ways of journalism.

3.Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself? What do you see yourself bringing to this meeting?
— I value that I am conscientious, committed to doing thorough and accurate work. I am very aware that newspapers are fundamental to a democracy, and I’m also aware that an entire segment of our population (elderly, low-income, etc) is in danger of being bypassed if print newspapers cease to exist. We get many calls from older citizens who don’t have a computer, don’t want to deal with the internet at a library, etc. What about them? However, I am quite aware that times are changing, and I want to be able to bridge the gap and find a middle road that will address the needs of all citizens. I pride myself on being able to see all sides of the issue.

4.What is it about journalism without which it would cease to be journalism; what is its essential core? What are you ready to let go of?

— The essential core of journalism, as I see it, is a fundamental dedication to getting the facts correct — and to cover issues of vital importance (and stay clear of tabloid-like topics). I also cringe when I see typos and poor grammar, two things I’m seeing a lot more of these days. I know it erodes confidence in the material we’re printing.

I’m not sure what I’m able to let go of yet.

5.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?

— What matters most is that the events of the day (whether from down the block or halfway across the world) are shared with the public in a carefully analyzed, synthesized and articulate manner – whether that be in print/online/television/radio — and that the public can have faith in the integrity of what they are being told. Due to the poor economic realities of 2009, smaller newspapers decided to scale back and focus on their sole mission (for example: provide local coverage) rather than try to be all things to all people. This enabled: 1) better coverage of local issues; and 2) provided the opportunity for other mediums to step in and fill the gap (blogs/internet for entertainment, etc.).

Reflections from Karen Duffy:

I was struck by how positive and proactive Melissa is being in the face of such change & upheaval in the news industry. She’s also very passionate about bringing the focus back to citizens. One of the comments she made to me during our phone conversation was about how corporate-run journalism is not in touch with the people – and how it has lost its way. While I, as a news librarian, am waiting for the ax to fall on my profession – it is so refreshing to talk with someone who is out there, paving new roads to quality journalism. I think we both agreed that too much emphasis is placed on “celebrity” as opposed to the real issues and concerns of everyday American citizens.