Tag Archives: FutureOfNews

PricewaterhouseCoopers Releases Newspaper Outlook 2009 Report

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Outlook for newspaper publishing in the digital age | 2009 report -from PWC.com (pdf)

56 page report on the outlook of the industry ask lots of great questions the industry should be asking itself like “What does your audience want from you – and do you
know what they will pay for?”, many newspapers have not honestly asked themselves this question because if they did they would be the largest creators of business websites in their DMA.

Newspaper Outlook 2009 Related Video (sorry PWC doesn’t allow embeds at this point).

Interview with Journalism Online LLC Strategy Consultant Merrill Brown

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BIO:  Merrill Brown is the founder and principal of MMB Media LLC, which provides clients with management and strategy consulting, corporate, editorial and program development, business analysis and marketing services. Since the founding of MMB Media, clients have ranged from companies in the news, information and wireless businesses to a large foundation. Brown serves as Chairman of the Board of NowPublic.com, the leading citizen journalism company in the world.  (bio provided by Journalism Online LLC)

RI- what is your affiliation with journalism online LLC?
MB- I am the strategy consultant at the moment, this is a start-up so we all have varied roles.

RI- I see in your Bio that you are an advisor to evri.com, a site that looks and feels to me like a news aggregator, does this complicate your involvement with Journalism Online LLC?
MB- No, it’s not an aggregator at all it is a natural language search site that builds related topics pages for new sites and others.  Our largest distribution deal is with WashingtonPost.com and if you look at the bottom of every new story page you’ll see our widget there. Continue reading →

What Would Jay Rosen Do? Huffington Post Taps Rosen as Senior Advisor

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THE HUFFINGTON POST TO LAUNCH NONPROFIT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM VENTURE

THE AMERICAN NEWS PROJECT AND THE ATLANTIC PHILANTHROPIES JOIN HUFFPOST IN BACKING FUND

Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University School of Journalism
To Collaborate with Fund By Involving Students in Investigative Projects

(New York, NY) — March 29, 2009 — The Huffington Post announced today that it is launching a new initiative to produce a wide range of investigative journalism — The Huffington Post Investigative Fund. It is being funded by The Huffington Post and The Atlantic Philanthropies, and will be headed by Nick Penniman, founder of The American News Project, which will be folded into the Investigative Fund.

“The importance of investigative journalism cannot be overstated — especially during our tumultuous times — and we are delighted to be creating an initiative whose goal is to produce stories that will have a real impact both nationally and locally,” said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. “Everyone who recognizes the role good journalism plays in our democracy is looking for ways to preserve it during this time of great transition for the media. The Huffington Post Investigative Fund is one of the ways we are addressing that need, while also providing work and a platform for seasoned journalists downsized by major media outlets. We are grateful to the American News Project and The Atlantic Philanthropies for their generous contributions, and intend to engage with other donors as we continue to expand the Fund.”

Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, said, “There is no more critical reporting than investigative journalism. This nonprofit investigative journalism venture is a very important and logical next step for The Huffington Post. Our mission will be to produce and distribute distinguished, independent journalism made widely-available to all news outlets. We are proud to be working with our prestigious partners and look forward to expanding and building upon this venture with other investigative news organizations from around the country, and the world.”

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund, headquartered in Washington, DC, will produce a broad range of investigative journalism created by both staff reporters and freelance writers, with a focus on working with the many experienced reporters and writers impacted by the economic contraction. The pieces will range from long-form investigations to short breaking news stories and will be presented in a variety of media — including text, audio and video — and will be free for any media outlet to publish simultaneously. The Huffington Post Investigative Fund will have an initial budget of $1.75 million.

Nick Penniman, Executive Director of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, said: “I’m looking forward to producing journalism that can have an impact, and that incorporates the best of traditional journalism and the tools of new media and distributed journalism.”

Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, will serve as a senior advisor to the project. Rosen, as a director of NewAssignment.Net, his research project at NYU, previously collaborated with The Huffington Post on OffTheBus — an experiment in citizen journalism that drew 12,000 contributors and gained widespread media attention for its coverage of the 2008 campaign. Continue reading →

SXSW09 The Future of News SBJ

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Old Growth Media And The Future Of News

The following is a speech Steven Berlin Johnson gave yesterday at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin.Can we expect the general public to navigate the new ecosystem with the same skill and discretion?

Let’s say for the sake of argument that we can’t. Let’s say it’s just too overwhelming for the average consumer to sort through all the new voices available online, to separate fact from fiction, reporting from rumor-mongering. Let’s say they need some kind of authoritative guide, to help them find all the useful information that’s proliferating out there in the wild.

If only there were some institution that had a reputation for journalistic integrity that had a staff of trained editors and a growing audience arriving at its web site every day seeking quality information. If only…

Of course, we have thousands of these institutions. They’re called newspapers.  continue at link above

Here is the Qik video of his talk. You can read along at the link above.  The recording starts in section 2, paragraph 3, line 4 here:

or the print newspaper business: the future of news itself. Because there are really two worst case scenarios that we’re concerned about right now, and it’s important to distinguish between them. There is panic that newspapers are going to disappear as businesses. And then there’s panic that crucial information is going to disappear with them, that we’re going to suffer as culture because newspapers will no long be able to afford to generate the information we’ve relied on for so many years.

Steven is bullish on news and I like his take on the situation because it raises some new points and turns newspapers role into that of a filter.  Is he right? Who knows but hey, at least he’s thinking it through giving people ideas to knock down, manipulate or affirm.  He did give me one great idea so I fired off the email below to my local police and fire departments.  I look forward to their response.

To my township officials,

My name is Robert Ivan, I am an aberdeen-matawan local and run news media blog metaprinter.com.  I am writing to request a meeting with someone at your offices to set up an RSS feed for fire and police information.  I feel this would be a great service to our community and serve as a yardstick by which all other public service announcements will be measured.

The idea came about when I drove past the train station today to find a building had partially burned down.  Had I not driven past the building I would have known nothing about it.  It made me wonder what other crimes or disasters were occurring in my town, around my home, that I did not know about.

I hold an MA in Graphic Communications management and technology from NYU, have over 9 years experience in online media and web design, and am a member of the local chamber of commerce.  I would love to speak to someone about this.  I am not looking to profit from this enterprise, just get our community better connected as traditional media becomes increasingly less relevant.  My contact info is below.

Best,
Robert Ivan