Technology360

The Reconstruction of American Journalism

This is the title of a new report by former Washington Post executive editor, Leonard Downie, Jr. and Professor Michael Schudson, The Journalism School, Columbia University.  They begin:

... Newspapers and television news are not going to vanish in the foreseeable future, despite frequent predictions of their imminent extinction. But they will play diminished roles in an emerging and still rapidly changing world of digital journalism, in which the means of news reporting are being re-invented, the character of news is being reconstructed, and reporting is being distributed across a greater number and variety of news organizations, new and old. ...

Some lengthy comments on public broadcasting begin on p. 5 of the online version (p. 12 if you make a 39-pp. pdf of the document).  Their recommendations for public broadcasting begin on p. 14 of the online version (p. 33 of a pdf) and look to reorienting public radio and television "to provide significant local news reporting in every community served by public stations and their Web sites."  I've given shortcuts to pubcasting material, but it's important to read their analysis and recommendations in context.

Link:  Columbia Journalism Review.  Thanks to Vivian Schiller for the link. 

Update: 28 October 2009:

The "atomic" version of Current newspaper has a page one overview of this report by Karen Everhart.  It's not yet on current.org.  Also on page one but not on the site is a report on the forward-looking Chicago News Cooperative.  WTTW-TV is a founding partner and the article says WBEZ-FM may also join the partnership.  I'll try to remember to add links when they appear.  --Dennis

A media business model that works?

Retweeting here (sort of) a Scott Hanley (WDUQ GM, Pittsburgh) entry on Twitter tonight:

sehanley A media business model closest to working -- build a large group of followers , have trust,hope, ask when you need it http://bit.ly/15422R

Follow the link and you'll see a thoughtful blog post from Scott in which he says:

... The real power behind public radio's future is more than just the commodity of our content. It is the relationships we have built and sustained.  ¶  For public radio (and media), our "business model" has been built from the act of service and the voluntary support of people who believe in and rely upon that service. ...

In these tough times when both WDUQ and NPR are tightening belts, the station is taking the ususual step this week of allowing contributors to decline the traditional "thank-you gift" during its pledge drive "and instead have 10% of their pledge sent as an additional gift to NPR."

It will be very interesting to see what happens.  --Dennis

Radio tunes out Google (and vice versa)

Having already gotten out of the newspaper ad business, the Wall Street Journal reported today that it's also getting out of the radio ad business.  Jessica E. Vascellaro writes:

... radio tripped up Google. The company is pulling the plug on its attempt to automate radio-ad sales on May 31, exposing how far Google is from its goal of grabbing a big chunk of the multibillion-dollar business of off-line ad sales.  ¶  A look at what went wrong shows that Google misjudged the capacity of its technology to work beyond the Web, and underestimated the human side of the business. Radio stations refused to turn over airtime to a computer algorithm that set prices far lower than their own rates. Big advertisers steered clear.

Link:  Wall Street Journal.  The radio industry, for some reason not enthused about the "dollar a holler" financial return, didn't buy in.

For more analysis, see Charlene Li, Why Google's One-Trick Pony Struggles to Learn New Tricks.  She writes:

But Google faces a tough situation in that, in 2008, 97% of its revenues come from Web advertising, and 68% of that advertising is on its own Web sites. That's down only slightly from 69% in 2007. This is a problem because while Google has been on a torrid growth pace for the past few years, it's essentially a one-trick pony: search advertising. Make no mistake, it's a very nice trick, but one that has little upside outside of organic growth. And Google isn't likely to grow much more in search advertising given its dominance, especially in advertising-rich markets like the United States.

Link:  Harvard Business Publishing.  --Dennis

The cunning genius of the public radio fundraising drive

June Thomas has a great article listing ten effective techniques for public radio membership fundraising, complete with audio examples.  Link:  Slate.  Thanks to Vivian Schiller, Alicia Shepard, and Todd Mundt for the link.  --Dennis

The DTV delay and Big Yellow Taxi

 Matthew Lasar has more on the proposed (by incoming Obama administration) delay in the February 17th shutoff of analog television broadcasting, asking if it's too late to turn back for logistical reasons.  Links:  Ars Technica plus another on Consumers Union also asking for the delay here.  That may be the case.

The DTV transition has been in the works for a very long time, however until four months ago, no one predicted that it would coincide with a general financial crisis that has brought a number of broadcast advertising staples -- financials, automotive and retail -- to depression levels.  It's also demonstrable that broadcast stations are more economically reliant on their over-the-air households than their cable and DBS households, magnifying whatever loss they will get in overall households by perhaps double in economic terms.

So, the coupon program is out of money.  Congress should calculate whether it's cheaper to replenish that fund or wait for the television broadcasters to join the growing list of industries looking for a bail-out.

But it's not clear that consumers will be significantly more ready for digital several months hence with more coupons.  These lines from Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" come to mind:

...Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone...

--Dennis

Obama asks Congress to delay digital TV switch

Jim Puzzanghera and Christi Parsons write:

... In a letter to Congressional leaders, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's presidential transition team, urged that the Feb. 17 conversion date be extended. A major reason was the announcement this week by the Commerce Department that it had run out of money for a government program to provide $40 coupons for low-cost converter boxes to allow older TVs to receive the new digital signal. ...

Link:  Los Angeles Times.

Update 9 January 2009:
Also see Kim Hart's article in the Washington Post. 

Update 11 January 2009:
FCC's Kevin Martin says delay could cause confusion.  Associated Press via NPR.  --Dennis

'Better Than Free' revisited

At the end of January, Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired and formerly publisher/editor of Whole Earth Review, posted what I think was the best essay of 2008 of relevance to us in the media -- Better Than Free -- in his blog called The Technium.  The post has also attracted a number of good comments in the months since.  I linked to it at the time and compared it to Chris Anderson's upcoming writing on the same topic.  The essay is now available as a "manifesto" in pdf form at ChangeThis.

On this topic, also see his People Want To Pay and Where Attention Flows, Money Follows, from which comes:

"... Free is always a fine way to win a flow of attention. As Chris Anderson's clever parsing of the four types of free shows, whenever a free product or service is given, the free is exchanged for attention. Without the flow of attention back to the producer, the free is meaningless. A producer might as well dump the free things in the woods if attention from customers did not count...."

--Dennis

Web Sites That Dig for News Rise as Watchdogs

Our new SVP & GM Digital Media at NPR, Kinsey Wilson, sent around the following email to a few of us this morning.  With permission and  thanks, I'm sharing it with you.  --Dennis

As you dig into the morning papers, I'd call to your attention an interesting article in the NY Times today that describes how small, independent, not-for-profit local news web sites are springing up around the country -- further evidence of the growing number of players that hope to lay claim to the local news franchise as papers come under increased financial pressure.

This line in particular caught my attention: "[F]financially, VoiceofSan Diego and its peers mimic public broadcasting, not newspapers. They are nonprofit corporations supported by foundations, wealthy donors, audience contributions and a little advertising."

If they succeed, they could gradually compete for the audience, allegiance and charitable giving that traditionally has sustained public radio. The audience for terrestrial public radio isn't likely to go away anytime soon. But as younger audiences form their media habits and older audiences look for serious local news sources to replace the papers they once relied upon -- something that's happening right now -- sites like these will gain in influence and popularity among our target audience and could eventually pose a threat to the member station franchise.

Local public radio stations are ideally positioned to form alliances with sites like these. The member stations have reach; they have an audience already pre-disposed to quality journalism; and if they want to use it to this end, the ability to drive traffic to these (or co-branded?) endeavors. They also have established relationships with funders, which these sites presumably are just starting to put together. The startup-ups, meanwhile, have the capacity to innovate in ways most stations do not.

In other words, member stations could potentially bring audience and money to the table to help keep these efforts alive; and in the process further develop their reputation and capacity as a source of serious local news. (And NPR, through its API, could provide wider visibility and lift for these efforts).

If half a dozen of the more progressive member stations around the country aligned with the best of these sites on a trial basis, they might create a model that other start-ups and stations could emulate.

In addition to the sites mentioned in Richard Pérez-Peña 's piece, also check out the newly launched Spot.US, which solicits story pitches from individual journalists in the Bay area and asks readers to donate money to support story ideas they think are worthy of further effort. It launched Monday.

"Analog?" So funny, and yet not

The Ides of March come about a month early for television broadcasters next year when millions of over-the-air viewers -- many of them elderly -- must deal with receivers that, without converter boxes, become livingroom plant stands.  Having just installed a new HD set in the livingroom and moved the analog set to an upstairs bedroom and installed one of the coupon converter boxes there for a technology-intimidated friend, I can testify that it's a challenging task.  FOX's Talkshow with Spike Ferensten has a great send-up of the various television spots on the conversion that are now playing on stations across the country.

Do yourself a favor and watch this piece.  But have a Kleenex handy.  It will make you laugh big time, but when it's done, if you're a broadcaster, it might also make you cry.  Link:  MSN Video.  Thanks to Karen Olstad for that link.  --Dennis

More digital developments at NPR

The best electronic media journalism organization in the country and our stations' nearly 12 billion listener hours each year deserve the best response possible to the challenges of multiple emerging digital platforms.  OK, that's bragging, but true.  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about Seven ways to use public radio on your smartphone.  Earlier last month, I posted about NPR's digital distribution strategy.  In early August, we announced that we'd brought Public Interactive to NPR.  July brought NPR's open API announcement (about which see a longer post here and also Todd Mundt's post).

But since "the times, they are a changin'," there's more:

Hibbing, Minnesota's favorite son, Bob Dylan, is giving NPR.org listeners an exclusive one-week free preview of his new two-disc recording, Tell Tale Signs.  Check it out here.

Current notes that NPR hires USA Today editor to run its Digital Media wing.  That would be Kinsey Wilson, who starts later this month with a lot of enthusiasm from myself and our staff (Link:  paidContent.org; Link: NPR press release).

NPR's Dick Meyer writes, NPR Launches Online Community, in his blog.  Check out the post, then check out the new features of NPR Community.  See the  review of it on Ars Technica.

See also Jennifer Dorroh's The Transformation of NPR in American Journalism Review's Oct./Nov. 2008 number.

Finally, check out Anick Jesdanun's NPR boosts online offerings, seeks larger audience for the Associated Press.

Ya think those reports in March that NPR was slowing its commitment to digital may have missed the mark?

Updated 3 October, 2008:
Also, see Chris Snyder's NPR's Digital Evolution: Social Networking, Open API, and Training the Dinosaurs at Wired.com.

And, Sam Churchill's NPR Mobilizes in dailywireless.org:

... NPR management is reimagining the company, and its journalists are learning to reimagine their stories. ¶  NPR has an intense, seven-week training course in multimedia journalism that encouraged reporters to expand their repertoire of reporting and storytelling skills. As of October, NPR will have started or completed the training of about 40 editorial staffers in three groups, and aims to bring the other 410 up to speed in multimedia by next fall. ...

Updated 4 October, 2008:
And, NPR opens the doors on its social network in Zooped.com.

--Dennis