Well the conference is finally over and I am greatly relieved. Also pleased that Jeff Jarvis himself said it seemed to him that this conference had done away with the Eyeorism that had characterized last year's conference, which was one of my goals in all this (though I had never heard that wonderfully useful word before.) If you look at his blog's main page, you can also read more about what Mark Cuban said here yesterday.
OK I'm way behind. I'm a bad, bad blogger.
I am hugely gratified at the kind words of praise I got for the panels I orchestrated. Perhaps because the organization is plum out of foolish victims, I was asked a couple times tonight if I would be willing to help coordinate next year's conference. I said I would give it some thought, but not tonight, maybe tomorrow.
Leaving DC tomorrow for PA. Will try to catch up on my notes somehow on the way, otherwise I'll do it later. Or after that. As I said, I am a bad, bad blogger.
My conclusion, however, I can give you now: Despite SignOn's successes and profitability, we are way behind where we should be online, with a primitive publishing system and a divided -- and divisive -- organizational setup that leaves us unprepared to meet the challenges of this new digital age.
Yet we saw the other day how our newsroom is ready for the change, indeed our news staff is way more receptive to going online in a big way than those at many other big newsrooms. It seems like there is still a long way to go toward that goal at the NY Times and other big shops, and it's clear that those papers -- sorry Mr. Jarvis, norgs -- that never had a seperation between newsroom and online are now producing better, more innovative online journalism than many of their much larger Metro counterparts.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
Some thoughts from the British gorilla - or, is this blog post is too long?
They keynote speaker this morning was Adrian Van Klaveren, deputy director and controller of production, BBC News, which has been online since 1997.
Get this, the "Beeb" has the "idiosyncratic funding" of an annual fee of $250 on every TV set in the UK. (I thought it was just $75. Man, that must be nice.) BBC allso gets money from commercial licenses for content and from a grant-in-aid from the British Foreign Office for covering news overseas.
BBC considers itself the global leader in 24/7 and on-demand news (What they want, when they want it) and current affairs.
He said there is no sense of starting or finishing a day, it is truly round-the-clock operation.
But social networking is now taking away attention from news. We must ask ourselves, what will the next big idea be? What's the next big attention grabber?
Keeps in mind relevance. That is, do we really understand what we want to do?
Big media players do not have a track record of innovation. (ya think?)
Again raised questions: What are you about? What are you trying to achieve? What resources can be made available for the task? What are others doing? How can you distinguish yourself from them?
Quality of serendipity, we have to deliver content in an unexpected way. Need to create a hugely enhanced consumer experience.
"MySpace is increasing the time young people spend online."
"User-generated content is crucial in sharing the monopoly on truth."
But must use technology as an enabler, not just for tech's sake.
I love this quote, puts things in perspective: "When TV came along radio became audio wallpaper and movies, which had been the ubiquitous movie, became a special event."
Yesterday the mission was all about editorial (journalism); today it's about packaging.
Web is not TV. Mobile is not web or TV. New biz is passé; we're in the information biz
Are we in this for public service or to provide an audience for advertisers? (I would say we have to do the latter so we can perform the former.)
He showed an interesting video -- Ron asked for a copy for us -- called Creative Future, which grew out of the effort to strategically map out BBC's next steps. It must be modern, accessible, courageous and dynamic.
He offered some numbers documenting the huge increase in user content submissions since the London Train bombings (7/7). It increased to the point that after a recent industrial explosion (at Buncefield) they had 6,500 emails and 1,500 images offered from readers, with lines outside their satellite transmission trucks of people wanting to contribute their material.
In answer to a question, he said BBC even has a user-generated content hub (that's really what it's called) of 6 people to vet and verify the stuff they get from users.
BBC breaks it's audience down as:
- Traditional: Sits on couch to watch the news at a scheduled hour
- Mix & matchers: consume a combo of linear news and news on demand
- Clickers and flickers: All info they consume is on demand, don't even try to reach them with a scheduled broadcast, but rather offer them interactive models that allow them to define and schedule the content
A neat thing: BBC's done Web cam interviews, interviewing reader-contributors over their own computer web cams.
His conclusons: Life is complex. Our job is to simplify it and make it relevant to all audiences. It is OK to fail, but it can't be a mindless failure, you have to learn from it.
Get this, the "Beeb" has the "idiosyncratic funding" of an annual fee of $250 on every TV set in the UK. (I thought it was just $75. Man, that must be nice.) BBC allso gets money from commercial licenses for content and from a grant-in-aid from the British Foreign Office for covering news overseas.
BBC considers itself the global leader in 24/7 and on-demand news (What they want, when they want it) and current affairs.
He said there is no sense of starting or finishing a day, it is truly round-the-clock operation.
But social networking is now taking away attention from news. We must ask ourselves, what will the next big idea be? What's the next big attention grabber?
Keeps in mind relevance. That is, do we really understand what we want to do?
Big media players do not have a track record of innovation. (ya think?)
Again raised questions: What are you about? What are you trying to achieve? What resources can be made available for the task? What are others doing? How can you distinguish yourself from them?
Quality of serendipity, we have to deliver content in an unexpected way. Need to create a hugely enhanced consumer experience.
"MySpace is increasing the time young people spend online."
"User-generated content is crucial in sharing the monopoly on truth."
But must use technology as an enabler, not just for tech's sake.
I love this quote, puts things in perspective: "When TV came along radio became audio wallpaper and movies, which had been the ubiquitous movie, became a special event."
Yesterday the mission was all about editorial (journalism); today it's about packaging.
Web is not TV. Mobile is not web or TV. New biz is passé; we're in the information biz
Are we in this for public service or to provide an audience for advertisers? (I would say we have to do the latter so we can perform the former.)
He showed an interesting video -- Ron asked for a copy for us -- called Creative Future, which grew out of the effort to strategically map out BBC's next steps. It must be modern, accessible, courageous and dynamic.
He offered some numbers documenting the huge increase in user content submissions since the London Train bombings (7/7). It increased to the point that after a recent industrial explosion (at Buncefield) they had 6,500 emails and 1,500 images offered from readers, with lines outside their satellite transmission trucks of people wanting to contribute their material.
In answer to a question, he said BBC even has a user-generated content hub (that's really what it's called) of 6 people to vet and verify the stuff they get from users.
BBC breaks it's audience down as:
- Traditional: Sits on couch to watch the news at a scheduled hour
- Mix & matchers: consume a combo of linear news and news on demand
- Clickers and flickers: All info they consume is on demand, don't even try to reach them with a scheduled broadcast, but rather offer them interactive models that allow them to define and schedule the content
A neat thing: BBC's done Web cam interviews, interviewing reader-contributors over their own computer web cams.
His conclusons: Life is complex. Our job is to simplify it and make it relevant to all audiences. It is OK to fail, but it can't be a mindless failure, you have to learn from it.
One interesting discussion I missed yesterday
Aside from the fancy USA Today reception yesterday, I also missed this discussion on real-time news.
One of the panelists, Neil Chase, a really good guy, is now continuous news editor at New York Times. (I've met him when he was running CBS Marketwatch.) He said in this panel discussion that that's not like issuing edicts and writing memos but more like working with "tenured faculty." I assured him in a separate conversation that everything would be better once they move into the Times' new building.
One of the panelists, Neil Chase, a really good guy, is now continuous news editor at New York Times. (I've met him when he was running CBS Marketwatch.) He said in this panel discussion that that's not like issuing edicts and writing memos but more like working with "tenured faculty." I assured him in a separate conversation that everything would be better once they move into the Times' new building.
Wash Post editor says online is swell
Washington Post Editor Leonard Downie walked across the street to speak to the ONA this morning. His basic message was that all his early assumptions and worries about the internet years ago were unfounded. Online was not competition for the newsroom, and didn't ruin its journalism, instead it made it better. And the audience for Post's journalism is huge, now much bigger than with just print, and has strengthened Post's brand.
Post's Continuous news desk starts at 4:30 a.m. The paper runs an AM and an FM station that carries Post writers talking about the news,.
"(internet) has imoproved our journalism a lot. Our journalists are working earlier, watching breaking news more closely." plus unlimited newshole.
Print and online work the the same standards. He later raised the question about seperateness, as the web side remains separate. "Will we eventualy merge? I don't know."
He noted the increased scrutiny of journalism online, and said that there used to be big names in the business in the old days who were "cheaters, fabricators and plagiarists" who did not get caught but would swiftly get exposed nowadays.
He said citizen journalsts haven't displaced traditional journalism, but has joined it, noting that the most-read journalism on the net remains edited, verifiable journalism. He said largest single driver of traffic to the site is Drudge.
"Everyone blogs." Staffers take pictures and video for the web. Still important we keep opinion out of news coverage.
Here's a link to Staci's paidcontent.org blog entry on Downie's comments. Staci is a more experienced blogger and one more accustomed to typing as people are talking.
Post's Continuous news desk starts at 4:30 a.m. The paper runs an AM and an FM station that carries Post writers talking about the news,.
"(internet) has imoproved our journalism a lot. Our journalists are working earlier, watching breaking news more closely." plus unlimited newshole.
Print and online work the the same standards. He later raised the question about seperateness, as the web side remains separate. "Will we eventualy merge? I don't know."
He noted the increased scrutiny of journalism online, and said that there used to be big names in the business in the old days who were "cheaters, fabricators and plagiarists" who did not get caught but would swiftly get exposed nowadays.
He said citizen journalsts haven't displaced traditional journalism, but has joined it, noting that the most-read journalism on the net remains edited, verifiable journalism. He said largest single driver of traffic to the site is Drudge.
"Everyone blogs." Staffers take pictures and video for the web. Still important we keep opinion out of news coverage.
Here's a link to Staci's paidcontent.org blog entry on Downie's comments. Staci is a more experienced blogger and one more accustomed to typing as people are talking.
ONA blog on conference
The ONA has students blogging the conference, and they are doing a much better job than I am. (I'm still encountering panel loose ends.) you can find that blog at http://journalists.org/2006conference/
Cooking with gas - and Cuban
OK now we're online and blogging, yay
my first panel, the Developing New Voices one, went well, though there were some logistical hiccups.
I am now listening to Mark Cuban's keynote, which is very interesting because he's so smart and outspoken.
He said Google would be nuts to buy YouTube (not MySpace, as I wrote earlier, duh on me, thanks Huntz) that YouTube is a copyright lawsuit waiting to happen.
Asked what he would do if he ran a newspaper, he said he would figure out its core competencies, what it does well; who is "going to kick my ass" (what competitors are out there) and how am I going to differentiate myself from the others. He said the hardest part is the marketing, to brand your product so that people will come to you.
He also said papers should raise the price to better match the value proposition, ie it's worth more than we charge for it.
my first panel, the Developing New Voices one, went well, though there were some logistical hiccups.
I am now listening to Mark Cuban's keynote, which is very interesting because he's so smart and outspoken.
He said Google would be nuts to buy YouTube (not MySpace, as I wrote earlier, duh on me, thanks Huntz) that YouTube is a copyright lawsuit waiting to happen.
Asked what he would do if he ran a newspaper, he said he would figure out its core competencies, what it does well; who is "going to kick my ass" (what competitors are out there) and how am I going to differentiate myself from the others. He said the hardest part is the marketing, to brand your product so that people will come to you.
He also said papers should raise the price to better match the value proposition, ie it's worth more than we charge for it.
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