The Future of Journalism in the era of Social Media

The Future of Journalismin the era of Social Media Susan Breidenbach IRMA Conference • Reno, NV September 10, 2011

Extremely Disruptive • Not a fad • Not just about marketing • Emerging lingua franca of business • Is impacting • virtually every role • in every type of business • all over the world

Paradigm Shift IBM: We will see a greater disruption in communication in the first half of this decade than we’ve seen in the previous half-century

Paradigm Shift In fact, social media is a REVOLUTION See “Socialnomics” video

The Social Media Imperative

Paradigm Shift • Hierarchies → overlapping networks • One-to-many → many-to-many • Monologue → dialogue • Outbound → inbound • Control → influence

Social Media does not isolate us • Heavy social media users are more likely to: • Meet people face to face • Get involved in their communities • Have more friends • Have closer friends • Real-world + online socializing = synergies

Two branches of social media Social networks Information networks Social graph side Facebook LinkedIn Focus on people relationships Blogging & microblogging WordPress, Twitter Images & video YouTube, Flickr Social bookmarking Diigo, StumbleUpon Focus on sharing info

Citizen journalism • Web made publishing costs near zero • Eliminated barriers to entry • Everyone became a writer/journalist • But no editorial oversight • Writing quality has suffered • Fact checking minimal/non-existent • Journalists & content devalued

Citizen journalism • Disaggregation effect • Mainstream media no longer gatekeepers • Table salt analogy • Media relations conundrum • Whom do you target? • Influencers may be scattered bloggers

Citizen journalism • Tweets are journalism • Billions of feet on the street, armed with the six-shooter of the 21st century (mobile phone) • Scoring scoops galore • Tweets used as quotes in NYT, WSJ • Can’t disentangle social media from journalism anymore

Business model? • No one has figured it out • Harder if still do print edition • Optimal content for print vs. online differs • Social media content half life is 3 hours! • So: How do we get paid?

Social-ized publishing • Geosocial media • Hyperlocal news and content • Me Media • Personal magazines

Hyperlocal content • “Journalism’s last untamed outpost” • Meets local community need • Community newspapers dead or dying • Big papers closing bureaus • Better advertising model • Reduces advertising economies of scale • Provides more targeted audience

Hyperlocal magazines • Video: How to create a killer hyperlocal magazine • Does it as you watch in less than 3 minutes • Swindon Link • Profitable hyperlocal magazine • Still publishes hard copy edition • Street Fight Summit 2011 • Hyperlocal industry; NYC Oct. 25-26

Personal magazines • “Me Media” • Applications for iPads, etc. • Zite, FlipBoard, Pulse, AoL Editions • Content discovery & curation • Aggregate news based on preferences • User customization • Passive behavioral tracking (heuristics) • Auto-populate screens into magazine pages

Personal magazines • CNN just bought Zite • Interview: CNN’s general manager of digital • “algorithms are CNN-agnostic” • Wired’s take • Likely to see packages with only CNN-owned/syndicated content

Transaction-based journalism • Forbes creates social-ized article page • Turns Facebook inside out • Brands individual journalists • Future of journalism is transactions • Not addressing “the reader” anymore • Journalists now must engage

Age and gender matter • Favor different social networks • Use social networks differently • Penetration among young almost 100% • More than half U.S. adults use social media • Older demographics are fastest growing groups

Keywords are critical • Concepts & meaning are for people • Words & phrases are for search engines • Headlines & subheads count more • Placement matters—top of story counts more • Repetition matters • Fresh content matters

Viewer format issues • Think small • iPad-type readers penetrating rapidly • Smartphones to dominate Web access by 2013 • Browser wars continue • Explorer vs. Firefox vs. Chrome vs. Safari • Social browsers emerging • Rockmelt

Crowdsourcing • Great way to engage readers • Get input from them • Learn more about them • Poor man’s market research • In lieu of focus groups

Social bookmarking • Curating information • Collaborative research • Great tool for editorial teams • StumbleUpon, Diigo, Digg

Powerful tools • Social media dashboards • Hootsuite • Tweetdeck • Google Alerts • Newly indexed content • Reputation management • Roboform • Password management • Auto-fills forms

What’s ahead? • Gamification of social media • Rewards systems • Foursquare, Empire Avenue, Klout • Web 3.0 • a.k.a. Semantic Web • Heuristics (a.k.a. artificial intelligence)

Analysis Paralysis? • Don’t wait until you have a handle on this • Keeps changing • Rate of change probably increasing • Get on the learning curve • Fail forward fast

Some links • Video: Panel at IdeaFestival talks about future of journalism • University J-schools finally addressing issues • Citizen Journalism 101, from PeoriaMagazines.com • The hyperlocal lessons of America’s weekly newspapers

Questions? Susan Breidenbach Certified Social Media Specialist (775) 722-5777 sbreidenbach@usa.net

The Future of Journalism in the era of Social Media