Ideas for Online News, Or What’s Next for the Information Business
Someone once said the first rule of blogging is to do it regularly. The second is not to begin with an apology if you go silent without a heads up.
Screw the rules.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been asking a lot of people how news organizations can do a better job of providing and being a conduit for information and discussion while making enough money to sustain a business.
That last part is probably the most difficult question to answer. Most recently, media consultant Michael Rosenblum urged media companies to come up with a new business model for the realities of today.
Apparently, media CEOs were stymied. But there are examples out there:
David Cohn has proposed community-funded reporting and runs Spot.us, the live test. ProPublica uses the non-profit model to pay for investigative reporting. The Guardian in Britain is set up as a public trust.
So I ask you: what should we be doing to ensure there will be money to pay for the labor-intensive craft of news gathering?
Leave a comment below or send me your ideas. If the CEOs don’t know where to start, maybe we, the online collective can show the way.
I’ve been talking with people in social media, information visualization, grassroots reporting and news companies. I’ve wanted to talk with media buyers as well, but don’t have contacts. Do you?
Not related, but possibly useful to you: Thanks to the organizers of Capitolbeat, I was a conference panelist on a session about online fact checking with UNC assistant professor Andy Bechtel and staff reporter Taft Wireback of the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C. (You’ll find the links on my Delicious page.)
Photo: The (South Africa) Times newsroom by Gregor Rohrig/Flickr
Get Google to Fund Your Big Idea for Journalism
Search giant Google announced Project 10 to the 100th today. If you thought the money for the Knight News Challenge was big, this could be even bigger.
Project 10 to the 100th is a $10 million grant to fund up to five ideas that will “change the world by helping as many people as possible.”
They’re looking for proposals in eight categories, including some in which news-related projects would fit very well: community, education, and the catch-all, “everything else.”
As Google prides itself on encouraging creativity, the company has only the broadest of evaluation criteria:
Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
Longevity: How long will the idea’s impact last?
Proposals are due Oct. 20, and I’d encourage people interested in furthering and reshaping the mission of news to apply. Public voting begins Jan. 27.
Pitch Perfect: Learning How to Craft a Magazine Story Proposal
Most freelancers will tell you when it comes to deciding who to write for, choose magazines. The pay better. And there’s something nice about seeing your name, your photos, your work on glossy — or if it’s a “green” publication, matte — textweight stock.
They’ll also tell you it’s good to develop relationships with editors. After all, getting assignments is as much about who you know as it is about your story idea.
But what if you’ve never pitched before? Writer’s Market and Writer’s Digest are two sources for beginners’ guidance. Freelance Success has morphed into a dynamic community of newish and experienced guns for hire. And MediaBistro’s popular writing classes provide in-person and online experience with feedback from working professionals.
There’s a lot you can learn online as well. Jason Tanz is posting a step-by-step blogged article about how landing a profile of “Adaptation” screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in Wired magazine. If you’re curious about the pitch process, check it out.
And to show you how quickly word spreads online, check out the Google search.
If You Controlled the News, What Would You Do?
The news business, and it is a business, is getting squeezed. There are those who think “big J” journalism is a waste of effort and resources at a time when we can count exactly how many people spend time reading the stories, watching the videos, and clicking around on our interactive features.
Strapped for cash, the easy answer is to do things that drive traffic: produce more photo galleries; publish more “gotchas,” celebrity and entertainment news; follow and there by feed controversy; play up drama and conflict.
Does that mean that the fundamental mission of journalism — to find answers to incisive questions; to explore and reveal the world around us; to gather and check facts and report back; to challenge authority — ought to be left in the wings while we make enough money to get us past this rough patch?
Tim Robbins, actor, director and activist, had a few things to say about that during the National Association of Broadcasters conference, which closed last week.
Maybe we the public don’t need the things Robbins is talking about, but clearly, the numbers show us it’s what people are paying attention to. On the other hand, in surveys and day-to-day conversation, people say they want something better than what’s on offer.
So I ask: As a member of the public — not as a journalist — what kinds of stories do you seek out? How do you spend your time when you’re not working on news? And if you’re not in the media business, what do you spend your time looking for, reading and watching? And what aren’t you finding that you’d like to find?
L.A. Times’ Audacity of Hope
Senior editors at the Los Angeles Times met earlier this week to decide in three days what three years will hold in store.
Kevin Roderick at L.A. Observed posted an email from Editor in Chief Russ Stanton that outlines the roadmap cooked up during the conference.
Though the proof will be in the execution, it looks like the Times is laying the right path for becoming a new kind of media organization. The question, of course, is will these changes bring in badly needed revenue?
News Flash: In Blogging, Timing Matters
Those who blog conscientiously know this already, but it’s worth bringing up this excellent post from Mindy McAdams.
Today, OC Register science columnist Gary Robbins spoke at a panel about blogging during the Future of Science Journalism Symposium.
In addition to writing about things his local audience can actually see and experience for themselves, Robbins times his Sciencedude posts to have the most impact:
The idea that “people will find it” is a vestige of the old journalism, Robbins said — no, they won’t find it, unless you play it correctly.
Therefore, it pays to know your metrics. Any site that doesn’t let its producers see Web traffic is wasting opportunities to tailor its content for maximum traffic, which translates, of course, into money. Think about that.
(via Teaching Online Journalism)
Steve Outing Launches GrowYourNewsWebsite.com
Steve Outing, “Stop the Presses” columnist and online media consultant just launched a new site aimed at those looking for ideas to increase news website readership and make money.
Not all of Outing’s recommendations are earthshaking, but the comments will probably prove to be the true goldmine.
On a post about showing the numbers associated with “most emailed” stories to show weight and scale in addition to popularity, commenter Dave Bullard notes that the numbers are also a form of audience approval. Bullard writes:
“Perhaps you find a place on the home page for comments from readers, as in, ‘This is a great resource! Beats the paper six ways to Sunday. Keep up the good work!’
“Rotate those comments, and reinforce them by sending the commenter a little piece of branded swag.”
The editorial side might hate it, but think about the last time you went to a movie because your newspaper’s reviewers gave it a thumbs up.
Get in on the ground floor and join in the discussions.
Building Better Business Models for News
By coincidence, Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine was also thinking money today.
In his latest post, Jarvis suggests everyone take a step back and try to summarize specific problems your business faces before charging ahead with strategies and solutions.
Engineers use this “define the problem, then create solutions” approach, Jarvis notes. So do lawyers and economists, and they’re coming up with creative, workable solutions all the time.
Think about it: What, specifically, are the hurdles your news organization faces? Don’t think of answers yet. Just carefully form the question and post it as a comment either here, or on BuzzMachine.
By the way, Jarvis is organizing a follow-up to last year’s Networked Journalism Summit
. This year’s event in May will focus on business models. Details TK.
Free Ain’t Easy: Joe Grimm at O’Reilly TOC Conference, Day 2
I’ve been saying this for a while now: Websites can no longer rely solely on online ads to replace their shrinking offline revenue streams. What’s needed are smart acquisition and diverse partnering strategies.
Tim O’Reilly spoke about just that today at the Tools of Change conference. Joe Grimm sent an update. —Chrys
One of the most powerful words in the English language is also a buzzword at this week’s O’Reilly Tools of Change conference in New York. That word is free, as in free content.
Free content, or audience expectation of it, is bedeviling all media, not just book publishers like those attending the conference.
O’Reilly Media founder and CEO Tim O’Reilly – you might consider him to be the host of the conference – took the stage to talk about how his company deals with free and how other media can.
The big fallacy in free, O’Reilly said, is that the advertiser-supported model of free content is too simplistic. Free, O’Reilly said, is complicated. He attributed the observation to Dilbert creator Scott Adams, the first cartoonist to go to the Internet in big ways.
O’Reilly said it is becoming increasingly important for media companies to develop revenue streams apart from advertising.
His company draws revenue streams out of the pools of users its products - technical manuals, originally - create.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time because publishing is my original core business.” O’Reilly said.
In a reconfigured word, he said, his company’s core products are more abstract qualities such as mission, brand and community.
These pour out revenue through sponsorships content, events like this week’s conference, subscriptions to online information and big-ticket premium services and products.
People are driven to those products by free, used as a strategic tool.
“I probably spend too much time on my blog,” O’Reilly said, “but I am actually driving my overall business with free.”
The way forward, O’Reilly said, will be diversified companies that provide a range of services - some of them for free. “Don’t be afraid of free,” he said. “Figure out how to use it.”
One for Fun: The Super Bowl Ad Directory
This Sunday is the biggest U.S. TV broadcasting event of the year.
It’s not the Grammys, the Emmys or the Oscars — it’s the Super Bowl.
This year, the event also looks to be a huge online ad-play as well, though many of the Web spots will posted for free, according to WSJ.com.
AOL plans to make the ads available “soon,” but marketing consultant Ian Schafer came out of the gate today with an early peek of all the clips he could find.
Also, PCWorld reports HeyNielsen will use its youthquake focus group to rate and rank the ads. The results should be interesting.
