The (surprisingly bright) future of local journalism
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Presentation to faculty of TCU's Schieffer School of Journalism. Also made to Texas Association of AP Managing Editors.
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The (surprisingly bright) future of local journalism
- 1. The (surprisingly bright) future of local journalism TCU Schieffer School of Journalism April 16, 2010
- 2. Act 1: Setting the stage
- 5. Differentiators, circa 2006 The Daily You™ Customized content and advertising for each user Small staff to cover full metro Content partner model Open comment system Social media / profiles Emphasis on databases Focused on one metro
- 6. Differentiators, circa 2010 The Daily You™ Customized content and advertising for each user Small staff to cover full metro Content partner model Open comment system Starting to use Social media / profiles news site to drive (Emphasis on databases) commerce Focused on one metro
- 7. Where we were wrong Very hard to sell local advertising as a new brand Citizen journalism is mostly a myth. Can’t replace daily newspaper ... yet We didn’t know the role so-called social media would play The average reader isn’t as web-savvy as we thought. People said we were too pessimistic about the prospects of traditional media. Compared to what’s happened, we weren’t pessimistic enough.
- 9. Act 2: We’re all screwed
- 11. Plus: already 1,658 jobs this year Source: PaperCuts
- 14. Findings from annual Pew study In its campaign coverage, the press was more reactive and The growing public debate over passive and less of an how to finance the news enterprising investigator of the industry may well be focusing candidates than it once was. on the wrong remedies while other ideas go largely unexplored. Even if cable news does not keep the audience gains of 2008, its rise is accelerating another change—the elevation of the minute-by-minute judgment in political journalism
- 18. Intermezzo: The good old days weren’t always so good
- 20. "The journalist enjoys good standing in his community. He is even likely to be held in awe." (page 47). "If you are a college graduate in journalism, you may land a job before you even leave the campus." "By far the best idea is to go directly to a newspaper and ask the city editor for a job." "By far the best idea is to go directly to a newspaper and ask the city editor for a job." http://ow.ly/1zg2o
- 21. Act 3: The promising future
- 22. Findings from annual Pew study The concept of partnership, motivated in part by desperation, is becoming a major focus of news investment and it may offer prospects for the financial future of news. Power is shifting to the individual journalist and away, by degrees, from journalistic institutions.
- 24. The new rules Content matters Distribution matters, but original source does not Commodity is death Be more local AND niche The industrial age is over The widget builder must sell, market, plan There are no experts “Compromised coverage” better than none
- 25. The primary purveyor of news and advertising is no longer the news company (and that’s a good thing.)
- 27. Filters matter Media companies moving position on gatherer-filter spectrum Filter=editor
- 28. Promising signs Speed (of collection and correction) More reporters (even if they aren’t pros) Story is no longer basic unit Tweet <----> Topical wiki Multimedia is (relatively) easy Better writing (believe it) More sources sending us readers (Twitter @ Oscars) News easier to find (Our sources post) Access to data Can prove financial worth of work
- 29. A mobile future?
- 33. Only one problem
- 34. Epilogue: What can you do?
- 35. Focus on the right problems It’s the money, stupid. Forget the dogma. And the ego. Leave the comfort zone. Burn the lifeboats. Stop worrying about the medium. Leverage the media. Don’t fear failure. Focus on the “is” more than the “should.” Serve demand. Whatever the job, be an entrepreneur.
- 38. There is more experimentation than at any time in history Learn from it with a critical eye.
- 39. “And so the Internet had it for lunch, because the Internet does not have to schedule 17 meetings to develop a strategy for impactfully maximizing brand leverage in emerging markets; the Internet does not have to worry about how a decision will affect one’s management trajectory; the Internet smells blood and leaps, and that has turned the game around, for better or worse. So we’re back to where we were in 1904 – except that the guys on the corner shouting WUXTRY, WUXTRY aren’t grimy urchins selling the paper – they’re the people who wrote the damn thing, too. “
Editor's Notes
- Today, I&#x2019;m going to talk about the exciting and challenging times in which we are living. I, for one, am more optimistic about the future of our profession than I have ever been.
- First, just a little bit about me and my company Pegasus News (aka PanLocal). So you&#x2019;ll know where I&#x2019;m coming from. In 2004, I was running Texas Lawyer and looking for a new challenge. I was a newspaper junkie frustrated with my local paper -- not to pick on the DMN, as they were no worse than any major market paper. But when the morning paper was such a quick read because I&#x2019;d found most of what was relevant online the day before, I knew there was an opportunity.
- So I took a week of vacation, spending the days reading about online and hyperlocal efforts. At night I&#x2019;d gather smart people -- journalists, ad sellers and readers to talk about what a newspaper looked like if created from whole cloth in the 21st century. The end product was supposed to be a business plan for the second coming of the Dallas Times-Herald, but what it became was more of a vision document that we affectionately called &#x201C;the manifesto.&#x201D;
- After fits and starts, struggling for funding and the like, we managed to launch first an entertainment site and then our full news site. We grew to more than 400,000 unique monthly visitors -- more than 90% local and sold to Fisher Communications, a NASDAQ-traded broadcaster in Seattle. They resold us to GAP Broadcasting, who owns radio stations in smaller markets. We&#x2019;re now rolling out &#x201C;light&#x201D; versions of Pegasus News in those markets under the brand &#x201C;The Daily You.&#x201D;
- I don&#x2019;t want to spend a lot of time on this part -- I imagine it&#x2019;s the mindset of much of the industry right now, and I don&#x2019;t think any of us doubt that we&#x2019;re in a tough spot. But it wouldn&#x2019;t be a presentation if I didn&#x2019;t give a couple examples...
- Newspapers and other media we&#x2019;ve counted on for some time are going out of business or into bankruptcy at an alarming rate.
- Our newsrooms are getting smaller -- and our own jobs are at risk.
- There&#x2019;s not a lot of good news. Perhaps if our firewall allows, we can read our about the last days on Twitter
- http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/its-official-2009-was-worst-year-for-the-newpaper-business-in-decades/
- http://www.stateofthemedia.org
- There is no question we are looking at a chasm. And despite the title of this presentation, don&#x2019;t think that I&#x2019;m a pollyanna. I do believe that with the cuts and the disruption and the bankruptcies, we are entering a dark age, particularly for the sort of local journalism that we practice. I often tell people that if I were a local government official who wanted to pull some shenanigans, I&#x2019;d do it in the next four years. We don&#x2019;t know what&#x2019;s on the other side, but we know the bottom is ugly.
- There are two ways to approach a chasm. This is one.
- This is the other.
- Better compromised than none-- City Council
- More opportunities to engage than ever before