As a publisher, I thank all my advertisers and appreciate their support. But, man, oh man, I do love the second type.

For them, the decision to support a publication isn't simply an economic transaction - it's an act of passion. And passion is contagious. Someone likes what I'm doing so much that she's putting money down to support it, with no thought to whether she gets it back? Hey, if someone believes in me like that, I want to work even harder to justify that faith.

Those are the advertisers who buy banners on Little League and schoolyard fences. You'll find them in the back of community theater programs. For them, buying an ad is not simply like buying raw materials or supplies - an initial investment that enables greater return down the road. Sure, they're hoping for that, but for them, buying an ad also makes a statement - that they are a proud member of the community and spending their money to support other community institutions, as a result.

Now, to attract these community-minded advertisers, you can't think like the first type of advertisers yourself. If you're not contributing to the community, why should they contribute to you? If you see your relationships with advertisers as strictly dollars-and-cents, why shouldn't they feel the same way about you? More...

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Eight things that journalism students should demand from their journalism schools

September 18, 2009

But what should students expect from their schools? Sure, they're getting classes and instruction, but those alone won't be enough for most journalism students. Their educations must extend beyond the classroom syllabus if they are to have the best chance to compete in what has become a brutally competitive information marketplace.

Unfortunately, that experience can "fall through the cracks" of a college education, if students do not seize the initiative to demand it. So here is my list of eight things I believe every journalism student must demand from his or her journalism school: More...

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Can the Web forge a marriage between newspaper investigations and documentary filmmaking?

September 11, 2009

Having sat through so many PBS shows and pledge drives where hosts offer up copies of the network's documentaries on DVD for $20 a pop and up, Newsday's initial steps into documentary production suggest, to me at least, a possible alternate medium for newspapers to pursue their so-far elusive paid-content dreams. Forget about reading text on the Web for a moment. How about getting folks to pay for newspaper-produced investigative documentaries on Blu-Ray and DVD? Or pay-per-view or short-term rental via cable, satellite or movie distribution networks such as Netflix?

Robert: Walk us through the short tour of what you folks did, and how you did it. Whose idea was is it to do the video element, and how long did that take to produce?

Thomas: From the very earliest stage, this project was conceived as a multimedia investigation because of the wealth of photos, archival footage of nuclear bombs bursting in air, and the dramatic life stories of the Marshallese who were put back deliberately on their radioactive island as part of Brookhaven National Lab's 43-year study for the U.S. government. Ideally, we were hoping to combine Newsday's tradition of hard-hitting investigative reporting with a narrated "Frontline"-style documentary that could be shown on the Web in nine "chapters", averaging about five minutes or less. With our new owner, Cablevision System Corp., there was also a new opportunity to offer this 32-minute documentary as a single complete presentation without "chapters" on Newsday's on-demand channel -- a new emerging medium that offers the chance to tell our story not only on the small screen of a laptop but also on the much larger at-home TV screen, where the visual and story-telling impact is even greater. More...

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Howard Owens shows how journalists can become successful news entrepreneurs

September 9, 2009

From there, Howard grabbed more industry attention by helping establish the Bakersfield Californian as one of the nation's leaders in news convergence, finally making his way to GateHouse Media, where he started his latest project, a hyperlocal news site called The Batavian.

Howard's split from GateHouse earlier this year, and took The Batavian with him. Today, as he has for the past decade, he remains a model for the next stage of journalism - this time, for print industry veterans moving out on their own, as journalist/entrepreneurs.

I swapped e-mails with him last week, discussing his journey in website publishing.

Robert: The element that most seems to freak out journalists thinking about striking out as a local news publisher is the business side. What in your previous experience most helped you in running the money side of things at The Batavian, and what new skills did you have to develop for this gig?

Howard: Maybe to my embarrassment, I've done a lot of different things in my life. I'm not one of those people who came out of high school or college with a clear vision of "this is what I'm going to do with my life." I've worked in Law Enforcement (USAF), politics and sales, in addition to my journalism career. I started in journalism, really, in elementary school, and then drifted in and out of it over the following decades. My online career has included two Web start ups (three, now, if you count The Batavian), freelance Web development, programming and executive positions at three different newspaper companies (including two with revenue responsibility).

Billie, my wife, asks me all the time how many people could do what I do. It's not that I'm so great at it. It's that I just have a broad skill set. More...

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What is the one thing you would change about the news industry?

September 4, 2009

What's the one thing that you would change in the news industry, if you had the power to make that happen?

I found it interesting that I got just two responses from women. One, from a professional opera singer whom I know from our high school choir (yes, she was much, much, much better than I), who quoted Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday: "Just the facts, ma'am." The second came from a 3rd-level LinkedIn user I do not know, who recommended that newspapers charge for content online.

If nothing else, I take from this lesson that males in our field remain more comfortable spouting off their two-bit (or 140 character) opinions. :-)

Here are the responses: More...

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Journalism's biggest problems are not online: They're inside

September 1, 2009

Think again.

Traditional news organizations are stabbing themselves in the gut, making the decision to flee to online news and information sources an easier one for many readers, viewers and advertisers.

Here are just a few of current threats to the business of journalism, ones that have nothing to do with increased online competition: More...

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