{"id":93,"date":"2006-04-21T18:37:54","date_gmt":"2006-04-22T02:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/?p=93"},"modified":"2006-04-21T18:37:54","modified_gmt":"2006-04-22T02:37:54","slug":"how-to-turn-around-current-journalismnewsrooms-and-save-what-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/2006\/04\/21\/how-to-turn-around-current-journalismnewsrooms-and-save-what-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"How to turn around current journalism\/newsrooms and save what is good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Convenor: Michael Skoler<\/span><\/h1>\n

[Note: this conversation veered back into business model discussions.]<\/p>\n

Assumptions: Mainstream journalism is worth saving Mainstream journalism can change Mainstream journalism must change<\/p>\n

Goals: What is being done? How do we evaluate? How do we drive\/support change?<\/p>\n

Michael described public insight journalism at Minnesota Public Radio. (See )<\/p>\n

Chris P: MSJ still have role as counterbalances to powerful forces\/newsmakers in society (e.g. Karl Rove). MSJ knows it must change. I\u2019m not sure MSJ can change.<\/p>\n

Jim: System says certain slow deterioration is better than radical change.<\/p>\n

Peggy: Why not do what we\u2019re doing here in newsroom?<\/p>\n

Staci Kramer: Has to be done right. Risk is high.<\/p>\n

Michael S: New Tyco CEO has replaced 290 of 300 executives. That\u2019s one kind of change.<\/p>\n

Staci: There are ways to introduce change, and ways not to. Don\u2019t try to undermine whatever is being done. St. Louis Post-Dispatch tried to implement too much change too fast, while still doing what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Peggy: Change doesn\u2019t have to damage.<\/p>\n

Staci: What words do you use. \u201cPublic journalism\u201d had negative connotations. What do you want to achieve?<\/p>\n

Michael: When I came to MPR, I said we can produce stronger journalism. Journalists in newsroom said, \u201cWe are producing good journalism.\u201d Took a year.<\/p>\n

Scott: I appreciate the power of mainstream journalism. MPR holds state government accountable. This is why there\u2019s a lot worth saving.<\/p>\n

Jim: Powerful journalism getting smaller and less effective, or co-opted.<\/p>\n

How to change:<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t undermine people & their daily work
\n2. Understand human cost
\n3. Requires different people to do things differently (\u201cIf you can\u2019t do it, be prepared to do something else.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Examples of change taking hold:
\n\u2211 Where people are asked to be part of it, not being directed to do it
\n\u2211 Book on adaptive change: Leadership on the Line, by Heifetz and Linsky
\n\u2211 Preserve the core\u2014stimulate progress, strengthen journalism as we change
\n\u2211 Have a robust discussion among stakeholders<\/p>\n

Jim: We need to create models. A few organizations can make transition. New York Times will end print edition someday, but everyone will read it on-line. Anticipating in newsroom organizing. Wall Street Journal, more poorly managed, is doing that too.<\/p>\n

Staci: Look at stories about changes in Dow Jones\u2019 organizational structure. Electronic publishing no longer separate. One brand. 761,000 paying subscribers. Barrons has 69, 000. They also have a free news site: MarketWatch. Taps into inventory of consumer advertising (so they have access to those who don\u2019t want to pay for info). They \u201cgive away\u201d certain stories each day, sending them to bloggers, using \u201ctiny URL\u201d so bloggers can link to them easily. They\u2019ve increased their relevancy & awareness factor by making news accessible outside the wall.<\/p>\n

They also have a free site, OpinionJournal, with political pieces.<\/p>\n

NYT did obverse with Times Select. (Made people pay.)<\/p>\n

Jim: They have different advertising models.<\/p>\n

Staci: WSJ making great use of targeted advertising.<\/p>\n

Chris: Those aren\u2019t local media, but niche markets.<\/p>\n

Peggy: They know their audience, and are in service to their audience.<\/p>\n

Staci: When you create sites with no geographic boundaries, you attract surprise audience. There are newspapers with pay-only audiences on-line. (It didn\u2019t work in Atlanta, it did in Milwaukee\/Green Bay, with sports package.)<\/p>\n

Chris: You need passionate following.<\/p>\n

Michael: More than half of our online audience at MPR is outside our region. (They find it through search engines.) Demands a shift in perspective in what we cover, but we haven\u2019t done much of that.<\/p>\n

Scott: What if they want what you\u2019re already doing?
\nStaci: What if you\u2019re a Midwest paper, and lots of your audience goes to Florida in winter? Advertisers don\u2019t want to pay for that.
\n\u2026 How do you capture search engine visitors? (Trend toward Amazon-style, \u201cIf you liked this, you might like this.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Chris: Have you monetized the Internet?<\/p>\n

Staci: Can you bring in additional income based on ROI (return on investment)?<\/p>\n

Michael: Does serving outside online audience attract from or contribute to mission?<\/p>\n

Rich: Can you allow that audience to shop in your community online? Support journalism that way. (Hasn\u2019t worked yet, but I think it will.)<\/p>\n

Michael: My favorite \u201cwhat not to do\u201d story is MSNBC citizen journalism page. \u201cRunaway bride\u201d stories. CNN: what readers are doing about high gas prices. (Feels better)<\/p>\n

Jim: Newspaper ad people don\u2019t think in terms of targeted audience. Can there be a way to extract targeted audiences from newspaper databases?<\/p>\n

Staci: We need to be able to pay for journalism that matters.<\/p>\n

Linda: Is this a publisher\u2019s conversation or a journalist\u2019s conversation? We need to have both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Convenor: Michael Skoler [Note: this conversation veered back into business model discussions.] Assumptions: Mainstream journalism is worth saving Mainstream journalism can change Mainstream journalism must change Goals: What is being done? How do we evaluate? How do we drive\/support change? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-session-notes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/stlouis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}