Left to Right: Susan, Matt, Jeff, Nick, some lady’s head, Andrew
The Future of News – Panel discussion
If we accept that media will never return to its pre-Internet form, what lies ahead for news? How will we use current and future digital tools to craft and disseminate information? What lessons can publishers of all types learn from the news industry’s digital transition? A panel of media experts will discuss these topics and others in this forward-looking session.
Wouldn’t you know it, my recorder failed during this event. Below is what I could jot down. TOC will have a video up soon enough and I’ll embed it here. Some key topics mentioned by the panel members:
Andrew Nachison (We Media)
-Everyone is media, there is no more “the” media.
Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine.com)
-Books could have done what Google did, linkable, searchable, etc..
-Google has better technology than any newspaper.
-An online model has yet to be invented / discovered which will support an entire news industry
Nick Bilton (The New York Times R&D Labs)
-Google and Microsoft are not content providers, they aren’t good at it.
-NYT is working on “smart content” customization technologies to help readers parse out content of interest to them.
-NYT publishes over 600 articles per day.
-All we talk about is business models, business models, business models. Something has got to give.
Susan Mernit (People’s Software Company)
-Knight News is helping find the future.
-Some hyperlocal is working like Baristanet and WestSeattleBlog.
-trusted locals will report foreign affairs, no more costly foreign bureaus.
Matt Thompson (Reynolds Journalism Institute)
-Introduces the term “micropatronage” at least neither I nor Jeff Jarvis ever heard of it before.
-News sites must develop a community for micropatronage to work, like the examples Susan gave. Continue reading
