FROM OLD TO NEW MEDIA

1. FROM OLD TO NEW MEDIA Will traditional journalism and its business models still be relevant in the age of the blogosphere? Jan. 26, 2010 (with the aid of Slideshare—a free-shared service)

2. NEWS OF THE DAY Mac Tablet New Twitter Numbers Texas Tribune Raises $3.5 million from venture capitalists.

3. SO WHERE ARE WE NOW? AND WHAT IS THE FUTURE? • Pessimists • Continuation of “Tower of Babel” effect of the Internet. • Anyone can create content • No one is editing • No one is checking for accuracy • And the wisdom of crowds isn’t strong enough to maintain truth online…too much goes unnoticed • Optimists • More conversations leads to more truth? • The more content the better • Democratization of journalism is a good thing • Who are we to decide what is accurate or not? Especially when traditional journalism hasn’t shown itself to be all that great in the realm of truth.

4. Media futurist Dan Gillmor predicts that by 2021, ‘citizens will produce 50 percent of the news peer-to-peer’, however mainstream news media, that we have grown up with, are yet to meaningfully adopt or experiment with these new forms.

6. NON-PROFESSIONALS • Accidental journalists – eyewitnesses with a recording device/cellphone—we’ve always used eyewitness accounts so tht is nothing new • Amateur journalists – bloggers who cover news, do original research and expose hidden issues. This is where we might have the most impact—teaching the basics of journalists. • Citizen journalists – Amateurs with a particular social mission in politics, etc. These are people we need to help as well—but also understand what their “mission” is. • Pro-am – a combination of the above with a professional journalist/mentor.

7. ‘BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE’ • Gillmor is a digital optimist • Society can no longer afford to rely on “Big Media”—but we still do because technology we use is owned by “big media” • News reporting is becoming a two-way conversation—a “seminar”, not a “lecture” • “Professional journalism’s worst enemy may be itself.” (xxvi) • Blogging and citizen journalism are in the tradition of bourgeois liberalism (eg: Thomas Paine)

8. NEIL HENRY: THE PESSMIST The weakening of journalistic professionalism and centrality in this rapidly transforming system not only makes lies and hoaxes more possible but also poses compelling new questions about the quality of news informing democratic society. (p.117) In such a new and still-evolving order, governed less and less by professionalism—or at least incognizant of the need for standards—it becomes far easier for objective truth and basic facts about important issues to become debatable notions in civil society and political discourse. (p.31) Neil Henry, American Carnival (2007)

9. BLOGGING ISN’T JOURNALISM—AT LEAST NOT YET… • Bloggers and citizens don’t: • Fact-check (generally) • Abide by the rules of engagement—telling sources that they are going to write about them. • They DO mix opinion and fact-based reporting • Many don’t create their own journalism—although that is changing—but link to traditional media—so the two need each other? • Create confusion over what is media—and what is not? Digital convergence has led to a blurring of the boundaries between reporter and audience. • But bloggers do make news…because traditional journalists now feel compelled to follow them

10. SO WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE TRADITIONAL JOURNALISM? • Journalism—and what we mean by it—will continue to evolved, morph and change. • But we (by this I mean me as a traditional journalist and professor) must teach the amateurs, the pro-ams, the citizens some of the basics of journalism. • This will make “citizen journalism,” blogging, etc. better (imho) because it will not leave accuracy, truth, etc. to the wisdom of the crowds • Do it right the first time. Then you don’t have to correct again and again.

11. TRADITIONAL NON-NET MODELS • Newspapers and magazines supported through advertising and subscriptions that make up 80 percent of their revenues • Television supported through advertising • Radio supported through advertising • Public radio and television supported through government funding, viewer funding, and non-profit funding

12. EARLY NET JOURNALISM MODELS • No funding model for news websites. They were “shovelware” sites that offered no more than the news that was already in print and broadcast • Websites were initially expensive to produce. Media got caught up in the dot.com craze—IPOs were planned for the likes of NYTimes.com and others—to provide the funding to support the site as well as traditional journalism. • Two newsrooms were generally created, adding to cost and confusion. • Today, we are still paying the price for this mistake in media convergence (or lack thereof)

13. MOVING TOWARD A NEW FUNDING MODEL • Problem is that the early ‘Net models were not good—advertisers weren’t willing to pay high prices for ‘Net advertising—and they still aren’t because we didn’t pay attention to content. • In fact, companies are shifting to other forms of online advertising: branded websites, social networking, etc. • While we have become better at creating multimedia journalism from the days of “shovelware,” we haven’t spent as much time creating new funding models. • We haven’t explored with advertisers what content draws consumers—and what doesn’t. • Can we make it for the next couple of years as we work out how to pay for journalism online? • How do we “monetize content?”

14. MAKING A PROFIT—SOME IDEAS The Rich Uncle Model – Media moguls decide to fund through acquisition websites that look a bit like journalism—but aren’t really. They are more facilitators of multimedia journalism. Example: Rupert Murdoch buys MySpace for $580 MM and Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. Yet neither have truly figured out how to monetize the content or their audience. Example: Huffington Post—Arianna and friends and venture capital Example: Sharesleuth and Mark Cuban

15. RICH UNCLE SAM • The federal government continues to consider how to help the ailing newspaper industry—just as it helped autos and finance. • FTC is considering changing how newspapers are regulated • News-gathering organizations could be exempt from anti-trust laws—which could mean that all newspapers could move to a paid model on the same day without being charged with violation of anti-trust? • Could grant subsidies or ease tax burden as well.

16. TIP JAR • The Tip Jar Model – Many content sites and the famed release of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” album asked consumers to pay however much they thought the content was worth. Some bloggers also subscribe to this “tip jar” method. While there are some people making money, most aren’t. Example: Chris Albritton funded a reporting trip to Iraq to cover the war with $15,000 in donations from his readers

17. NEWS AGGREGATORS • Aggregators like the Huffington Post, Fark.com • These websites are far less expensive to create—so the new ‘Net journalism models don’t have the same overhead as the old model. • So they can be “free.” • Content, however, still has to come from somewhere, even as newsrooms are cutting staff…so how do we pay for journalism so that we can still aggregate it • Big news: News Corp’s Murdoch wants to block Google from searching its sites and will only allow Microsoft’s Bing to search (and pay)

18. MORE NEWS ON AGGREGATORS • Fark.com—which aggregates user-generated links—signs a deal with USA Today in which it will sponsor Fark’s Tech aggregation section and share ad revenue • MSNBC buys BNO—a Twitter service that nearly 1.5 million people receive streams of news updates on their mobiles or the Web. (Started by a Dutch teenager)

19. CROWDFUNDING • Crowdfunding Model—like Obama’s campaign or Radiohead…but for journalism Example: Spot.us—created by journalist DigiDave and NYU. The rules: • Anyone can come up with a "Tip" or story idea they'd like to see covered. People can "pledge" money toward that story. • Freelance journalists can sign up to cover those story ideas or pitch their own stories, attaching a cost to writing the story. • Once a story has a journalist attached to it, people can donate money to help fund it (but no one can give more than 20% of the total cost of the story). • When the story has full funding, the journalist writes the story, and a fact-checker is paid 10% of the funding to edit and check it. • Before the story is posted, news organizations have a chance to get exclusive rights to the story by paying the full cost, which is given back to the donors. Otherwise, the story is posted online and any news organization can run the story for free.

20. AD-SUPPORTED • The Ad-Supported Model (big media). To date, the most successful content models are those that are free, but advertising supported with only a few still offering content for a fee. Example: New York Times, CNN, Washington Post

21. AD-SUPPORTED • The Ad-Supported Model (small media)—Google AdSense and other advertising aggregate models are reliable sources of revenue—it’s just not very much revenue. Example: Most news sites have Google AdSense, but it isn’t their main source of revenue

22. SUBSCRIPTION AND SERVICES • The Subscription / Services Model – WSJ was one of the first out of the gate with a true subscription-based model. It remains one of the few subscription models that still works, although Murdoch has talked about making the site free. Still it also added advertising to support its revenue stream. • Services may include job listings or content that is aggregated for use by a specific industry. Example: www.wsj.com, www.bondbuyer.com

23. AD NETWORKS • The Ad Network Model – A derivative of the ad-supported model, but in this case publishers participate in an ad network and receive a share the revenue for ads sold on their sites. In the blog world, look at Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker Media as the pioneering models. Outside of the blog world, there are literally hundreds of ad networks working off of a revenue share based on either impressions or clicks. Example: www.celinabean.com, part of the Martha Stewart ad network that aggregates blogs and websites Example: www.voiceofsandiego.org--and other city sites that may be able to band together to create a network that advertisers would want to buy into—when they wouldn’t buy one city.

24. AFFILIATE • The Affiliate Marketing Model – Marrying your content with ads for 3rd party products and services, publishers are paid a fixed commission (usually in the 5-15% range) based on sales directly resulting from clicks on the publishers’ site. Example: Amazon’s and Barnes & Noble affiliate programs

25. NON-PROFIT • Non-profit/public service model—taken from the world of public television and public radio Examples: www.propublica.org, www.michiganmessenger.org. Foundation money to support journalism with the next step being traditional media using that journalism in their publications—either free or paid—to raise awareness levels.

26. SPLOGGING? OR “BRAND JOURNALISM.” Outside of journalism—but still in the realm of content, brand marketers who create their own social networking sites. P&G’s www.beinggirl.com. Sometimes referred to as “splogging,” bloggers who are paid by companies to create content.

27. CELEBRITY CONTENT? Individuals who have managed to monetize their content and launch careers—in celebrity—not necessarily journalism…but what can we learn from Obama Girl, Lonely Girl 15, and the dancing guy from The Evolution of Dance? The creation of “web celebs.” Why not “web journalists?” 

28. NEW RESEARCH…TOWARD A FUTURE MODEL • New research shows that you may actually be willing to pay for news on personal computers and especially on mobile devices • But it has to be “cheap and easy” in the words of Steve Brill, founder of Journalism Online • In the U.S., Boston Consulting Group’s research shows people would pay $3 a month for news especially if it falls into these categories. • Unique, local news • Specialized news • Timely, especially if there were news alert service • Accessible on any device • And news that isn’t available for free anywhere else

29. SO WHAT’S NEXT: WILL CONTENT STAY FREE? • Clay Shirky “Revolutions Get Worse First.” • Demand Studios—starts from the other side—determining how much revenue the multimedia piece will generate (using algorithms on search words and phrases) and then determines whether to create the work. • Maggwire—buy pieces of content from many different magazines along the iTunes model. • FLYP—a new multimedia online “magazine” run by former editors of Time, Life and People, focuses on the visual representation of news. • Editor talks about working at Flyp with the New York Times

30. FROM POYNTER’S “WHO WILL PAY FOR THE NEWS?” • Collaborate and partner—Yahoo creates an ad marketplace that brings together publishers with advertisers • Harness experimentation—The Knight News Challenge • Target and customize to readers and advertisers. • Promote the value of news—why should we care anyway? If people care, they may pay? • Get over being “jilted by your audience.” • Mike Orren of Pegasus News said at the event, "Stop thinking about how to regain what was 'lost' and focus on what can be gained. Play offense more than defense. Be opportunistic.“

31. FREE THOUGHTS? • Is Anderson confusing two things: distribution costs and storage costs converging toward free or too cheap to meter and the cost of content? Has the cost of creating gone down in price as well? • The cost of creating content hasn’t halved every 18 months unless you count blogging. Or maybe it has? If we don’t care what the content is. • “News” content has stayed constant or fluctuated depending on supply and demand. Right now, we have too much supply and too little demand?

32. FREE THOUGHTS? • On the one hand, information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right places just changes our life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other. • Abundant information wants to be free. Scarce information wants to be expensive. • Where are the news media when it comes to the five stages of getting to “free?”

33. FREE THOUGHTS • Denial • Anger • Bargaining • Depression • Acceptance • Maybe all five at once.

34. WILL FREE LEAD TO A FREE WORLD? • For the next two weeks, we will be working on our technical skills. • But as you shoot video, record audio, write your blogs—consider how “Free” affects you. Would you want someone to take your content and make money off of it with or without your knowledge? • We will return to our “Free” discussion on Feb. 16. Please be reading the remaining chapters of the book through the next three weeks.

35. TECHNICAL LECTURE • Comments on your fellow classmates blogs? • Concerns/issues? • Outcome of crowdsourcing exercise? • A bit of a change of plans. • Write a blog post from crowdsourcing this week. Give credit to your helpers—consider interviewing them or linking to their blogs or websites as well. • Have you added other blogs to your website? • What are you learning from them?

36. FEB. 2, 2010 • Feb. 2 • ISS Media Center at 330 E. Liberty Street. • See course website for more information • See Jan. 26 syllabus outline for what we will be doing during the class and the technical readings • Come armed with questions and ideas. • Consider meeting in your final project groups before these class to begin thinking about what your final video story may be. We can also brainstorm about ideas today.

37. FEB. 9, 2010 • Sava’s on State • Capturing audio and video in difficult environments. • We will be holding class in a restaurant so you can have the experience of capturing audio in loud environments. • You will have people to interview for audio and video. • We will discuss interview techniques, preparations for interviews. • We will discuss setting up interview subjects and using the exercises learned on Feb. 2 in video. • We will learn how to upload audio and video to websites.