OJR front page archive for November 2008
Things to be thankful for: Creative insubordination
November 26, 2008
What kind of journalist can start his or her own news website?The simple answer is "anyone," of course. Fire up Blogger, and you are there. But which journalists will be able to build a site that grows into financial success and stability, one that secures an enduring source of funding, whether it be advertising or non-profit support?
That class of individuals, alas, is much smaller.
Some colleagues and I were talking yesterday about how to identify potential journalist entrepreneurs. The last folks on that list, I said, would be the "team players" whom corporate managers love to put in charge of important new projects.
Whoops.
3 Comments | 
Archive Link
Students will actually read it! High school newspapers go Web-only
November 21, 2008
Like their professional counterparts, high school news organizations are moving online and fretting over budgets, but they’re also fighting censorship. This according to advisors from Southern California high schools who brought their students (some 300 strong) to the USC Annenberg School of Journalism’s high school journalism gathering Friday for a day of panels and journalism shop talk.Many of the 30 advisors who gathered this morning to commiserate and trade solutions said they were ditching the print edition to go online only. One advisor said she was seeking “more of a social engagement site. You can actually get them to read things if you go online.”
4 Comments | Archive Link
Building the data desk: lessons from the L.A. Times
November 21, 2008
In early 2007, when the Los Angeles Times launched its Homicide Report blog — an effort to chronicle every homicide in Los Angeles County — it was clear that there were important geographic and demographic dimensions to the information that a blog format wouldn't fully capture. What we needed was a ChicagoCrime.org-style map that would let users focus on areas of interest to them, with filters that would enable them to "play" with the data and explore trends and patterns for themselves. Problem was, the web staff (of which I was a part) lacked the tools and the expertise to build such a thing, so the blog launched without a map. (Sound familar?)It took several months to secure the tech resources and a couple more months to create wireframes and spec out requirements for what would become the Homicide Map, with the help of a couple of talented developers and a project manager on part-time loan from the website's IT department. We were fortunate, of course: We actually had access to this kind of expertise, and since then we've hired a couple of dedicated editorial developers. I'm aware that others might not have it so good.
Last week, Robert Niles argued that news organizations should be in the business of creating "killer apps". Put another way, there is a need to develop tools that hew to the content rather than the other way around. But creating the functionality Robert describes takes a closer connection between news thinking and tech thinking than is possible within news organizations' traditional structures and skill sets.
In this post, I'll try to squeeze some wisdom out of the lessons we learned in the process of assembling the Times' Data Desk, a cross-functional team of journalists responsible for collecting, analyzing and presenting data online and in print.
4 Comments | Archive Link
Brian Lamb: C-SPAN not immune to the digital threat
November 20, 2008
C-SPAN would seem to have as secure a future as any news operation could have. Thirty years after Brian Lamb began shopping around his off-the-wall idea for a public affairs network funded by the cable industry, it's hard to imagine a media landscape without C-SPAN's rich offerings on TV, radio and the Web.But Lamb says C-SPAN will be buffeted by the digital revolution just like everyone else. Despite successful work in recent months on a new long-term plan that helps ensure the network's future, Lamb told an audience at the University of Southern California that C-SPAN's core business could be affected.
"I see the handwriting on the wall at our network," Lamb said. "You gotta' be a little more agile … a little more nimble, to survive."
Lamb delivered the James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting on Thursday at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.
1 comment | Archive Link
Ad networks can help online news start-ups take first step toward profitability
November 19, 2008
Let's continue with the thought that David raised Monday, and talk about first steps toward making a for-profit news website start-up work.Today, I'll be writing about ad-supported news websites, as opposed to subscription-based publications. (We've written about those on OJR before, but they are far rarer to find than ad-supported sites.) Since we're talking start-ups, too, we'll operate under the assumption that you, the publisher, do not have a dedicated ad sales team working for you, pitching your site to potential advertisers.
Let's also stipulate that profitability for a start-up demands publishers to minimize the expense side of the ledger. Initial ad revenue for a news start-up - no matter how well designed - likely will be meager, so going it alone (or with a small partnership) and spending little on development and reporting will help keep expenses manageable.
6 Comments | Archive Link
The case for independent news sites as profit-makers: 'I think there's a great business model here'
November 17, 2008
After my recent stories on the state of independent news sites, several folks called or e-mailed to say I was barking up the wrong tree by focusing on nonprofits like MinnPost and the Voice of San Diego. The real future, they said, is with sites that are in it to make money. They may be right."I think there's a great business model here," said Merrill Brown, a media management and strategy consultant. "If you can get a quality product out there, local advertisers are looking for alternatives… I think there's plenty of evidence of that."
So far, of course, there's little evidence that profitability will reliably follow. Even many operations that talk about being in the black do so with asterisks – the key players aren't drawing a salary, or the site is subsidized with other lines of business, for example. Others argue nonprofits will be the winning models for robust public-service news sites. Only today, a seemingly promising startup in Seattle, Crosscut, announced it was transitioning from a for-profit site to nonprofit status.
But many people say it's not surprising that profits are not there at this point in the innovation cycle, and point to the rapid growth of businesses trying to tease out local advertising dollars. The day of online profits is coming, they say, and for-profit news sites will be best positioned to thrive.
10 Comments | Archive Link
Training key to helping journalists become comfortable with Web 2.0
November 14, 2008
When Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 1908, American Indians were still referred to as "wild" by famed Rocky Mountain News journalist Damon Runyon. Delegates were entertained by snow hauled in from the nearby mountains. And the Rocky chronicled the convention in a broadsheet format. It would be three more decades before Colorado's first newspaper would take a chance on publishing in the tabloid format that its readers still embrace today.To say the least, 2008 was a far cry from that 1908 DNC. A staff of 150 field journalists covered this year's convention 24 hours a day for five straight days, posting vignettes, photos and video to RockyMountainNews.com. So much content poured into the site at once that we used two scrolling windows on the home page to channel the flow of information. A nurse at a local hospital told me she was glued to the site throughout the week, checking back whenever she could to see the latest updates on protests, celebrities and the delegates.
7 Comments | Archive Link
Add original functionality to original content to build Web traffic
November 12, 2008
OJR long has enjoyed a strong following among newspaper website managers and employees. So don't think that we've forgotten about you when we write about start-ups and independent online news efforts. I think there's much that newspaper-dot-coms can learn from the "little guys," ideas and innovations that they can bring back to their papers in an effort to keep them competitive in their news marketplaces.But let's not forget, either, some of the advantages that newspapers bring to these markets. Over the next couple weeks, we'll be bringing you blog posts from newspaper website editors whom I've asked to share some of their recent successes. If you a newspaper website editor with a story to share, too, please, feel free. You can post to the site directly, or e-mail me and tell me your story so that I can post it to the site.
Before we get to those stories though... a challenge, if you will.
Newspapers often focus on their newsrooms, and even, sometimes, their sales staffs when looking for strengths that they bring to their local markets. But what about their IT departments?
Great content build traffic for a day. If you want to keep that traffic, you must continue to add new great content. But great functionality builds traffic, too. And keeps it for far longer than content does before it needs to be refreshed.
2 Comments | Archive Link
The journalism 'priesthood' destroyed?
November 11, 2008
It was Nieman reunion time last weekend, and the honored veterans of journalism were gathered in the very shadow of Harvard. Our panel was called: “Voices from the New World of Journalism.”“I think we’re fooling ourselves a little bit in how much change is needed,” Michael Skoler of American Public Media said. The needed transformation lies well beyond the use of new tools. “People expect to share information.” But that goes against our ethos – getting the scoop, keeping it exclusive. Nor does allowing people to participate in – not just respond to -- our work come naturally. “Deep in our souls we feel like that’s dumbing down our journalism. I would argue that it’s smartening it up.”
6 Comments | Archive Link
Online publishers need new heroes in the battle for community relevance
November 7, 2008
Picking up from my piece on Wednesday....The Obama campaign did not build its social network in isolation. In many communities, it built upon an existing "netroots" of progressives that had developed over the past several years. That network, in turn, developed in frustration with both the Bush administration, as well as the new media coverage (or lack thereof) of that administration and its Congressional allies.
Markos Moulitsas, a j-school graduate with a law degree and an Army stint behind him, bootstrapped what might be the most influential of all progressive netroots websites, DailyKos. His new book, "Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era" offers a blueprint for political activists, one that well complements the Obama strategies I wrote about on Wednesday.
But Moulitsas' book teaches important lessons to would-be journalist entrepreneurs as well. I e-mailed Kos about his book, and point out some of its many lessons, after the jump.
3 Comments | Archive Link
Exploring the uses and effects of the Internet in the 2008 U.S. election
November 6, 2008
For the fourth consecutive election Tom Johnson, professor at Texas Tech University and Barbara Kaye, associate professor at University of Tennessee, are exploring both the uses and effects of the Internet in the presidential campaign.This study, like its predecessors, will explore motivations for using the Internet and its components, credibility of online and traditional media and the degree to which Internet components are taking time away from new media.
The new study also explore the degree to which the media are polarizing public opinion by examining selective exposure and hostile media effect. The 2008 study also includes measures for reliance, credibility and motivations for using social network sites and YouTube. Finally, this study doesn't simply look at blogs and political websites, but distinguishes between media journalism, political and candidate blogs and political websites and studies their uses and effects.
2 Comments | Archive Link
What can news publishers learn from the Obama campaign?
November 5, 2008
Congratulations to everyone who worked late into the nightSuch as, oh, say, building readership for a news website.
What can news publishers learn from the Obama campaign? Lots.
Republicans mocked Obama's experience as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago. But Obama's community organizing skills defined his campaign. I think that the single best piece of political journalism this fall came from Zack Exley at the Huffington Post, with this examination of Barack Obama's volunteer-driven ground campaign.
You can sell a lot more than a presidential campaign this way, too. Even newspapers and websites.
2 Comments | Archive Link
The state of independent local online news: Start-ups look for foundation support
November 3, 2008
[Editor's note: This the final article in OJR's week-long look at the state of independent local online news start-ups.If you missed the first five installments, here they are:Part 1: Sites on the rise; business models remain elusive
Part 2: Experience makes MinnPost a top online new startup
Part 3: No paper? No problem! News companies use the Web to enter new markets
Part 4: Seeking consistency from grassroots reporting
Part 5: Outsourcing as a path to profitability?]
Can the nation's network of private local foundations be rallied to the cause of nonprofit news on the Web? Even if they can, is there enough money there to make a difference in the developing world of local-news Internet startups?
The Knight Foundation, which has given $400 million in journalism grants over the last six decades, is trying to find out. And there are a few early signals that there's at least some money to be had by journalists trying to make a local news splash on the Web.
The Voice of San Diego, the three-and-a-half-year-old community news site, recently won two grants from the San Diego Foundation – $25,000 to support the site's own fundraising efforts and $40,000 to tell the stories of San Diego residents who overcame particular challenges to succeed in the community.
MinnPost, a Minneapolis site that celebrates its first birthday Nov. 9, recently won a $225,000 grant from the Minnesota-based Blandin Foundation to produce reporting on rural issues in Minnesota.
These are smallish examples against a backdrop of huge potential needs, as strapped mainstream media scale back reporting resources in their communities. Nevertheless, some Web startups are making the argument that local foundations ought to consider news and information as critical community needs along with traditional territory like the arts and health care.
2 Comments | Archive Link
RSS Feed
