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

Consumers crave individualism and personalization

Allison Muller, CRM manager for Accenture, has some interesting observations on how new technologies are making it easier for retailers to individualize and personalize for consumers.  She writes:

... Phenomenon like YouTube and MySpace give young consumers a stage for voicing their opinions and showing off their social lives and it's influencing how they shop. Some companies are reacting by offering customers avenues for personal expression, like personalizing a Heinz Ketchup bottle or Kleenex box with personal slogans and pictures.  ¶  More sustainable ideas include MyTwinn.com that produces dolls that are exact replicas of real girls, allowing them to celebrate their identity through their toys. And, for an extra charge, you can get specific freckles or birthmarks painted on the dolls. ...

Link: Accenture.  --Dennis

NYTimes.com's Vivian Schiller to be new Pres/CEO @ NPR

Yesterday, NPR announced that Vivian Schiller, current SVP/GM at NYTimes.com, will become its new President and CEO effective January 5th.  She brings some great qualifications with her, not the least of which to readers of this blog is her history of bringing content out from behind DRM at the Times.  In previous professional lives, Vivian also has experience with long form media at CNN and Discovery.  I'm very happy to extend to her my enthusiastic support.

Links: paidContent.org for Rafat Ali's take on the story and Staci Kramer's interview with Vivian.

I will continue as NPR's Interim Prez/CEO until then, and the board has asked me to follow that with a stint as Executive Vice President.  Thanks to the many well-wishers who've written or called since yesterday.  It's been a true privilege to serve in this role.  There is no "NPR exception" from the current deep recession, but I'm confident we will be unwaivering in our commitment to both excellent journalism and breaking new ground in emerging platforms.

Updated 13 November, 2008:
Hear NPR's Madeline Brand and David Folkenflik discussing the hire on Morning Edition.  Link:  NPR. 

--Dennis

A Broadcaster's Christmas Carol

I've linked to it before, but Terry Heaton has "reprinted" his Christmas 2004 essay, a take-off on the Charles Dickens classic.  A sample:

... Ebenezer was a second generation Broadcaster, having built his empire from a small A.M. radio station his father owned in the 50s. With a penchant for squeezing every last penny from a dollar, Ebenezer Broadcaster had a reputation as a hostile and difficult employer. He boasted that many celebrities had come through his television stations on their way up the ladder, but the truth is he never paid anybody enough money to want to stick around. ...

Link:  Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog. If you're in broadcasting, don't miss it.  --Dennis

TV's Revenue Woes Reach Tipping Point

Diane Mermigas writes:

... Until now, flat-to-rising household TV usage was no real threat to earnings. “However, recent data points on TV viewing and HUT are more disturbing,” [Bear Stearns analyst Spencer] Wang said. In calendar 2007, HUT is down 1.2% from 2006 for the first time–without a change in the Nielsen measurement sample. TV’s core selling demographic (adults ages 18 to 49) has seen HUTs drop 2.5% from a year ago, even when adjusting for the new live, same-day and DVR ratings, that collectively underestimate the erosion. “We find it more than coincidental that declining TV usage is occurring in tandem with broadband Internet penetration reaching mass market levels” of more than half of U.S. homes, he said. ...

Link:  MediaPost.  --Dennis

Implications of the Writers' strike

Diane Mermigas has written three recent columns for MediaPost that are must-read analyses of the impact of the Writers' strike on television's economy:

TV Nets Stuck: Strike Ends With New Metrics, 12 December 2007

Strike Will Transfer Ad Power To Web, TV To Revamp, 18 December 2007

For TV, Crisis Is Catalyst For Change, 21 December 2007

Umair Haque looks at it in terms of how this relates to emerging business models for content:

... While writers and networks have been crippling each other with a simplistic - and totally obsolete - game of mutually assured destruction, Google is slowly but surely reinventing a better way for content to create value: one which doesn't need exactly the rigid contractual lockstep writers and networks are squabbling over.  ¶  See the point? Google is solving exactly the problem that core-focused players are paralyzed by; that's suddenly brought the existing value chain to a crashing, creaking halt. ...

Link:  Bubblegeneration.

Finally, read Paul Bond's article, [Bear Sterns] Report weighs ripple effect of writers strike on Street.  Link:  Hollywood Reporter.  --Dennis

Transition to Media Systems Engineering

It's a rare broadcast engineer who becomes a GM, and if the GM didn't come up by that route, the engineering department is pretty mysterious.  Still, most CEOs are aware of the sea change in broadcasting technology toward information technology.  In an interesting unsigned article in Broadcast Engineering, the author states that "neither broadcast engineering nor IT are absorbing the other; in reality a new engineering discipline is being born."

Still, the changes underway have a profound impact on the capabilities and capitalization requirements of an organization.  The author discusses how using the Capability Maturity Model and Six Sigma can help broadcasting management understand and manage this development.  The article ends with a half dozen links to resources on these two models.

Link:  Broadcast Engineering.  Thanks to Ralph Hogan for the tip.  --Dennis