1. the role of news
IN THE ERA OF OVERLOAD

2. MATT THOMPSON
EDITORIAL PRODUCT MANAGER,
NPR’s Project Argo

3. TWO
PARABLES

4. I: A tale of two scandals.
Watergate v. Enron
ladouceur78 / Flickr alex-s / Flickr

5. The Watergate Hotel - Noah Kalina / Flickr

6. The column that felled Enron
FORTUNE, 3/5/01

7. from information scarcity …

8. … to information overload

9. II. The classic editor
RAIJSI / Flickr

10. redmondbarry / Flickr

11. The water cooler effect in reverse

12. A good newspaper,
I suppose, is a
NATION
TALKING
TO ITSELF
ARTHUR MILLER, 1961

13. But that’s already
happening…
TweetDeck

15. There is a new profession of
TRAIL BLAZERS
– those who find delight in the task of
establishing useful trails
through the enormous mass
of the common record.
VANNEVAR BUSH, 1945

16. Nobody is looking for
another thing to read.

17. The biggest shortage in
journalism right now
isn’t good writers,
or even enlightened proprietors
willing to fund investigations.
IT’S CRITICAL
READERS.
FELIX SALMON, 2010

18. Step 1:
MASTER THE
CONVERSATION.

19. Talking Points Memo

20. not a series of isolated dispatches.
A STREAM.

21. Step 2:
NURTURE THE
CONVERSATION.

22. traditional reporting
is about building a
ROLODEX

23. a b c d e f
j


24. tomorrow’s reporting
is about building a
NETWORK

25. A B C D E
d j G
e f  


26. turn sources
into commenters

27. WBUR’s CommonHealth

28. … cont’d.

29. Step 3:
EXTEND THE
CONVERSATION.

30. you have to go where the
conversation is
before you can go
where it isn’t

31. The column that felled Enron
FORTUNE, 3/5/01

32. Vanity Fair’s Bethany McLean
was also at the breakfast, and she confirmed that
the blogosphere is a goldmine
for people like her who want
to understand the [financial] crisis.
FELIX SALMON, 2010

33. Imagine an alternate history

36. @mthomps
mthompson@npr.org
mthomps.com
Thank you.