What happens when you bring together local journalists, bloggers, web publishers, online journalism experts and new media startups - and get them talking?
That was the question that JEEcamp sought to answer: an ‘unconference’ around journalism enterprise and entrepreneurship that looked to tackle some of the big questions facing news in 2008: how do you make money from news when information is free? Where is the funding for news startups? How do you generate community? What models work for news online? (more…)
March 18, 2008
In the final part of the Model for the 21st Century Newsroom I look at how new media has compounded problems in news organisations’ core business models - and the new business models which it could begin to explore.
Let’s start by looking at the traditional newspaper business model. This has rested on selling, in a broad simplification, three things:
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Advertising. Put more explicitly: selling readers to advertisers.
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Selling content to readers, and, twinned with that:
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Selling the delivery platform to readers - i.e. the paper
Developments in the past few decades have eaten into each of those areas as follows: (more…)
January 28, 2008
Guest Blogger Bas Timmers is Newsroom Editor at Dutch broadsheet de Volkskrant.
‘A newspaper is like an oil tanker,’ editors in chief call out in despair again and again. Changing the direction is often slow and difficult. But that of course just depends on whether you have the right rudder or not. Because the captain is still steering the ship. Yes, journalists can be quite nasty and stubborn, but mutiny is still a step too far for most of them. (more…)
November 14, 2007
Over at BBC Radio 4’s iPM website there’s an interesting experiment going on - and some good examples of my 21st century newsroom ideas in practice.
- Firstly, their ‘Rough Notes’ blog is a good example of the ‘draft’ stage of my News Diamond, with members of the team talking about what they’re working on (and comments facility for people to suggest stories - some very good ideas there, BTW). Also, posts labelled ‘In Production‘ allow you to see the work so far, while you can comment on the current running orders.
- Secondly, they have a Flickr page where users can upload images. Distributed Journalism, perhaps? Well, more like simple community.
- Thirdly, and perhaps best of all, they’ve made their del.ico.us account public, so readers can see what they’re reading. That’ll be the ‘What’ of my Five Ws and a H, then.
The blurb, BTW, is: “We’ll source what we do through the best blogs, passionate ‘ear catching’ online debate as well as comments and recommendations of others. So what ends up on air will be shaped by listeners and bloggers.”
November 13, 2007
The Washington Post have followed up their playful Facebook app Compass with the more functional newsTracker - and it’s very good indeed.
Not only can you specify which topics you want ‘fed’ to your page - but you can also include custom searches (which is why mine has no current matches - they’re very specific).
The ‘Hot News’ tag cloud is nice - but the ‘Friends’ Search Terms’ really takes advantage of the social element of Facebook technology - although it does raise possible privacy issues (Blog Friends does a similar thing very well).
Add the application here.
Read Rob Curley’s blog entry on the tool here.
November 5, 2007
Dear Roy,
For someone who believes in the merits of the web conversation, your decision to leave the NUJ strikes me as strange.
You say you
“cannot, in conscience, go on supporting this crucial plank of NUJ policy when it is so obvious that online media outlets will require fewer staff. We are surely moving towards a situation in which relatively small “core” staffs will process material from freelances and/or citizen journalists, bloggers, whatever (and there are many who think this business of “processing” will itself gradually disappear too in an era of what we might call an unmediated media).” (more…)
November 5, 2007
The concluding part of this draft book chapter sums up some of the key points and looks at the future paths of investigative journalism in a new media age. I would welcome any corrections, extra information or comments.
Conclusion
Blogs and new media have undoubtedly changed the landscape of investigative journalism. In terms of its form, journalism as a whole has become more conversational, and iterative, as readers seek to contribute to the story, and journalists open more of their processes to public view. The time and space offered by the internet has provided opportunities for these conversations to take place, and for journalists to make raw material available to fuel them. And the networked nature of the Web has facilitated coordination of contributors across borders and industries, along with a now global distribution of material. (more…)
November 2, 2007
German regional publisher WAZ just launched its new flagship website, Der Westen. New features include geotagging, blogs and keyword filtering, monitored from a futuristic-looking newsroom. Martin Stabe has the details.
The concept, writes Der Spiegel, is to let users choose the centre of their world, their perspective on news. Der Westen then provides content around it.
The FAZ today has an interview of blogger-turned-editor-in-chief Katharina Borchert. Numerous online ventures have been playing on regional papers’ turf, from local advertisers flocking to AdSense to local radios breaking news more rapidly, she says. To compete, paper brands must regain their offline roles as community leaders by enhancing the news hole with social features, Facebook-style. (more…)
October 30, 2007
