OJR front page archive for February 2010
The pros and cons of newspapers partnering with 'citizen journalism' networks
February 26, 2010
Bleacher Report, which calls itself "the Web's largest sports network powered by citizen sportswriters," made a big breakthrough for itself on Feb. 22... and the citizen journalism movement.The company announced it was beginning a partnership with Hearst to introduce local online editions in the newspaper publisher's four largest markets, including San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate, the Houston's Chronicle's Chron.com, the San Antonio Express-News' MySan Antonio.com, and Seattlepi.com. Essentially, headlines will be pulled into the main sports page, highlighting local content from Bleacher Report's citizen journalists.
For the newspapers involved, the partnership represents an extra stream of advertising revenue and, most importantly, a commitment to increasing coverage of local sports.
In many ways, the success or failure of this partnership will help determine whether citizen journalism is the "integral piece," as cited by many experts, that will help newspapers both survive and prosper in the current media landscape.
Sports pages are a particularly excellent venue for this test. They lure the coveted young and middle-aged demographic who are passionate and vocal about their favorite teams and favorite sports ... and more than willing to provide their written opinions for free.
While citizen journalists such as these might look, think and act like paid, professional journos, they're not - at least in the traditional sense - and not just in the salary department.
Indiana University journalism professor David Weaver doesn't even think citizen journalists should be the correct term in this discussion. "Citizen communicators" would be better, he says, because "without the training and education that most journalists have, most citizens cannot qualify as journalists."
In a project conducted by OurBlook.com, Prof. Weaver and other experts around the country shared their thoughts on the pros and cons of citizen journalism, and its possible role helping newspapers. Here are some comments.
2 Comments | 
Archive Link
Why I love NBC for blacking out the Olympics: A cautionary tale for all publishers
February 23, 2010
Lots of folks have been bashing US broadcast network NBC for its coverage of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver, Canada. But allow me to take some space today to congratulate NBC. Thanks to the network's decision to delay broadcast of many Olympic events - sometimes as much as 10 hours after their completion - I haven't had so much fun watching an Olympics in, well, ever.Huh? I hear folks asking. People have been roasting NBC's decision. Do I actually support it?
Heck, no! But by denying me the chance to watch the Olympics live (which are taking place in the same time zone where I live, by the way), NBC's pushed me to search the Web for live video and coverage, allowing me to find lively, even wildly entertaining, streams of coverage that I'd never have found if I'd been able to watch the games live on my TV.
That's an important lesson for all news publishers. If you don't provide the information that your audience wants, in the manner that they want it, people not only will they seek alternatives... but they might find ones that they strongly prefer to yours.
1 comment | Archive Link
Top 10 reasons why you ought to apply for the News Entrepreneur Boot Camp
February 18, 2010
You have until midnight Friday (Pacific Time on February 19, 2010) to apply for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp.Why should you apply? Because we'll be bringing 20 journalists to Los Angeles in May for an intense, one-week camp in entrepreneurial thinking, and showing you how that applies to publishing a news website. By the end of the camp, you'll not only have been trained in the right mindset to run a successful publishing business, you'll have materials in hand with which you can pursue the funding that you'll need to continue your journalism career.
Oh, and we won't charge you a thing for this: It's free. (We'll even kick in $250 to help get you to LA.)
You need more reasons to drop whatever you were planning to do today, and apply? Here are 10:
No comments | Archive Link
The need for a 'digital media pyramid'
February 16, 2010
[Editor's note: A reminder: Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 is the deadline to apply for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Please consider applying if you're looking for better training on how to make your online news publishing efforts an income-producing business.]The advent of the Internet and digital age of communications has brought forth the expected decline of newspapers at a faster pace than many business journalism experts predicted. A major part of the decline results from publishers not adjusting their products and news gathering techniques fast enough to changing technologies. Publishers competed in a digitally dominated world using analog-based technologies, business models and journalism techniques.
One news gathering technique still being taught to practicing and aspiring journalists is the more than a century-old use of the Inverted Pyramid, which guides the construction of writing predominately print news stories. The Inverted Pyramid is analog. A new paradigm known as the "Digital Media Pyramid" has found a place among some young writers and journalists.
The basic premise of the Inverted Pyramid remains sound, but the device desperately needs to be adjusted for the fast-moving digital world. The Inverted Pyramid has had its detractors throughout the years, many of whom assumed that it would be forgotten as a once-vital part of news gathering. But what the Inverted Pyramid provided that was hard to replace in the deadline world of news was the ability to quickly present facts, first to the editor and then to the consuming public.
3 Comments | Archive Link
How the Vancouver Winter Olympics (and other big stories) can help a hyperlocal news website grow
February 11, 2010
Hyperlocal sites, by definition, are focused on their local community. However, periodically something happens in your community that has national significance that can draw some broader attention. More important is how it can accelerate your reach within your community by exposing your site to a new set of local people. This latter form of traffic is the most sustainable.The reality for most communities is that their neighborhoods either never received coverage from local media or that coverage has pulled back as budgets have tightened. This has left a big opportunity for hyperlocal sites to get a marketing boost like no other. I will share how that has worked tremendously well for my local site -- www.sunvalleyonline.com -- so that you can take these experiences and apply it into your own site. I will also share how we are being proactive with the upcoming Olympics to draw more audience. Our site has a local connection with the most prominent snowboarders on the U.S. Olympic team -- Lindsey Jacobellis, Seth Wescott, Shaun White, Nate Holland and Graham Watanabe -- that we are going to utilize to provide our community with a perspective they won't get from NBC.
Curtis Bacca is a local the top snowboard/ski technician in the world with a small shop in town called The Waxroom that tunes skis and snowboards. No one has done the tech work for more gold medalists at the Olympics or X Games in the last decade. He had three athletes (Jacobellis, Holland & Wescott) competing in two events at the recently completed X Games and they came in first, first and second. He shared some pics after the event and was profiled by ESPN. He also provided his updates on the Waxroom page. Afterwards, he told me he was blown away with all people from our community and around the country who saw what he was doing and was psyched to do more at the Olympics.
2 Comments | Archive Link
Wanted: Required Web journalism skills
February 9, 2010
[Editor's note: OJR welcomes USC's Robert Hernandez, who will be writing for us on technology and journalism.Also, a continuing reminder: We're taking applications for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Please consider applying if you're looking for better training on how to make your online news publishing efforts an income-producing business.]
With our industry in such turmoil, the constant technological changes, the evolution of news consumers and the uncertainty of the future, the question on the minds of veteran and aspiring journalists alike is what skills do I need to stay relevant, employed and innovative.
That's the number one question I have gotten over the years. (That and equipment recommendations.)
Everyone has an answer.
There have been pieces written recently saying journalists need to become programmers. Debates over how important Flash is to a reporter. I even remember speakers coming to my class when I was in college advising photographers to look for other careers because still photography, they incorrectly predicted, was dead.
Um, they are pretty much all wrong, in my humble-yet-cocky-sounding opinion.
9 Comments | Archive Link
Writing skill is no longer enough to sustain journalists
February 5, 2010
[A reminder: We're taking applications for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Please consider applying if you're looking for better training on how to make your online news publishing efforts an income-producing business.]What's the value of journalism?
The short answer is, of course, "whatever someone will pay for it." But a more thoughtful response gets at why people are willing to exchange something of value for news information.
Economics 101 teaches that if more people want something, and the scarcer it is, the higher the price. With millions of new websites competing for people's attention, advertising rates across all media have plunged, threatening news businesses that depend upon advertising income.
But the Internet hasn't just created more advertising space, driving down its price. It's also developing millions of new writers, diminishing the economic value of writing itself as a craft.
9 Comments | Archive Link
Have you talked with a customer recently?
February 3, 2010
To encourage OJR readers to apply for our 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp, I'm writing again on some of the things you need to know, and skills you might need to develop, to become the successful publisher of a thriving news website.Much of what you'll learn at the camp, should you be one of those selected to attend, focuses on mind-set. The skills necessary to run a news website are remarkably similar to the skills needed to work as a reporter. But the mindsets of a successful entrepreneur and a newsroom reporter, unfortunately, are very often quite different.
To that end... have you talked with a customer lately? (Or a potential one?) By "customer," I mean a person who writes - or might someday write - you a check to fund your site. (Your current boss does not count!) It could be an advertiser, a subscriber or a non-profit foundation. You can't publish a website - or run any business - without customers, and if you're even just thinking about doing that one day, you need to learn what your potential customers are doing... and what they want.
So for my post this week, I offer not some provocative opinion but an assignment - some entrepreneurial homework. Find some people, at least one, who you think might someday, possibly, provide some financial support for that website you might start (assuming you don't have one already). Then start a conversation.
No comments | Archive Link
RSS Feed
