Rji-pivot-comments

RJI Pivot Point Participant Comments

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Comments are now being dated and added to the top, so if you check this page repeatedly, read down to what you've already seen.

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Alan Mutter describes Inland Newspaper Association's Executive Program for Innovative Change / (Alan Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur)

Posted June 19

• Martin Langeveld points to Pivot Point participant Alan Mutter's post on Inland Newspaper Association's Executive Program for Innovative Change, which Mutter will be heading up. "The association will admit up to 18 senior executives to the new program, who then meet as a group at regular intervals over 12 months to learn how to build the audience, revenue, productivity and profitability of their companies through transformational change. Because the program is designed to deliver real-world results, every participant will be required to identify – and execute – a significant game-changing project at her or his newspaper that’s aimed at delivering a measurable return on investment. The projects, which will be selected by participants in consultation with the management of their papers, may address either legacy print products or digital initiatives."
  

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=Participant Luke Stangel: On attention, paying for news, social editing, personalization

Posted June 19 Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:42:23 +0000
From: luke stangel <luke@tackable.com>
Subject: Early thoughts ahead of PivotPoint

Here are some of my thoughts ahead of PivotPoint:

• Journalists are fighting for attention in an infinitely fascinating world. How much news really affects my daily life? The Internet promises: Your

friends will alert you to news that you should care about, and you can always search on-demand for news for free. Why keep up with daily news?

• Young people won't pay for news ever. News is homework. News is depressing. They'll pay for Netflix, ESPN, cable, Internet and mobile before they pay

for news. They'd pay for Facebook before paying for news.

• Given the choice of an excellent product (behind a paywall) and an acceptable product that's free, the crowd will choose free.
• The rise of the crowdsourced editor. Reddit points to the future: The crowd decides the front page. The crowd wants humor, celebrities, interesting

personal stories, cats, handmade comics and inside jokes. At this moment, there are just 3 news articles on Reddit's front page: Apple's unfixable laptop, self-powering brain implants and crowdsourced fact checking on a dubious WSJ article. They crave social reactions... it powers everything online.

• The rise of the social editor. I'm more likely to read an article that my friend is reading.
• The rise of the personalized, automated editor. Figure out what I like, send me more of that.
• I think it's important to understand that people haven't changed. If you asked us in 1950 if we'd rather read the front page of the New York Times or

the front page of Reddit, we'd have chosen Reddit. It does us no good to wring our hands over the decline of the industry or the increasingly shallow tastes of the public ... it's up to us to understand how people are consuming information now and change our approach. Inforgraphics get shared exponentially more times than blocks of text. Photos draw readers in to compelling articles. Interactive games (when done right) can help educate people better than an article.

• Ultimately, we have to decide why we exist, or if we must exist. One of my French colleagues once told me, "The graveyards of France are filled with

people convinced of their own necessity." If we exist to sell local ads, then let's think about building a product that sells local ads better. If we exist to watch over the shoulders of the powerful and protect the weak, then we must convince people that our work is important enough to fund.

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ENGAGEMENT: Tom Grubisich tips had to Matt Leighninger's work on community engagement

Posted June 19

• Tom Grubisich directs our attention to the community-engagement work of Matt Leighninger, executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium. Matt is author of two definitive reports on public engagement:
• http://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/Using%20Online%20Tools%20to%20Engage%20The%20Public_0.pdf
• http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/governance-civic-engagement

Bill Densmore has spoken with Leighninger, who is in Hamilton, Ontario, and may post a short Skype video interview with him in this space in a couple of days. Leighninger believes newspapers and news organizations should be part of the discussion when local public officials, schools, libraries and universities are talking about how to better connect with the public and encourage public participation.

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Stijn Debrouwere: A need to reflect on sheer breadth of challenges -- help from Jonathan Stray

Posted Mon., May 18

I've tried to take an opposite but complementary approach in collecting resources, trying to go as broad as possible, because the industry is facing challenges that go from making money, fixing advertising to doing better digital storytelling to figuring out how professional news orgs and communities can work together, and it makes sense to reflect on the sheer breadth of those challenges for a minute. Anyway, up here:

• http://stdout.be/2012/06/18/the-news-industry-and-its-problems/

With regards to our "three things to read", I'd promote Jonathan Stray's "Designing journalism to be used". and perhaps something about fungibility ( http://www.yelvington.com/node/533 ) or, humbly, ( http://stdout.be/2012/05/04/fungible/ ).

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Martin Langveld comments on Jonathan Stray's Nieman Blog post re hyperpersonalization utility

Posted Mon., June 18)
REGARDING: http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/06/theres-no-such-thing-as-an-objective-filter/

Martin writes:

"I've been saying for a while that a great unsolved problem (and therefore a great business opportunity) is the creation of a truly good hyperpersonalized news stream or discovery tool. Many have tried, and nothing really does it yet. Ongo tried and went OOB. There are apps like Zite, Wavii, Trove, etc., but none of them are any better than a well-managed Google Reader account, and all of them require too much work on the part of the user to set up and maintain. What's needed is something that begins with just a little input from you and then continuously learns about your interests from your usage and improves its offerings accordingly.

"At NiemanLab, Jonathan Stray tackles the question of why this is so hard, and comes up with this: So filtering algorithm design is one of those wildly interdisciplinary problems. The challenge is to imagine systems that:

• Forward societal goals that we think are important, yet are precise enough to be phrased as performance yardsticks,
• Combine algorithms with humans in a productive way, and
• Can actually be built with available technology.

"That’s very hard. It requires a rare type of cross-domain thinking, because we don’t yet really know how to combine the pragmatic demands of technology with the social aspirations of the humanities. But it’s also an exciting time to be working in digital journalism, where these two cultures meet every day."

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Clayton Powell's key question: How the new divide between small-screen and large screen content?

Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 22:08:58 +0000 / From: Adam Powell <acpowell@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: Issue for RJI Pivot Point

My issue - one with which I'm wrestling for a major report to be published in July - is how the migration to mobile phones and similar "small-screen" media will affect content. Guy Berger, now at UNESCO, has just put forward an argument that we will have a new digital divide, small screen versus large screen, with serious content (and certainly any long-form content) appearing only on large-screen devices

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Thoughts from Ted Anthony of The AP

Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2012 20:42:03 +0000 From: "Picht, Randy" <pichtr@rjionline.org> Subject: ted anthony thoughts

1. How can we do a better job of helping people understand how international and national news affect local communities?
2. Let's revisit in a targeted fashion what journalism means these days. What does the news industry stand for as a whole beyond the usual suspects like freedom of information. We need a reboot of our bedrock principles.
3. AP clips and the power of real-time journalism.

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Two points from Jonathan Stray lead to: 'Assume traditional newspaper organization is a loss and won't survive'

Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:14:58 +0000 / From: Jonathan Stray <jonathanstray@gmail.com>
Subject: Pivot point links and ideas

By far the most relevant recent article I've read is by Stijn Debrouwere -- http://stdout.be/2012/05/04/fungible/

These days two basic lines if inquiry occupy my thoughts:

1. What is the possible competitive advantage of having local staff with boots on the ground, versus a technology company with entirely remote operations? Niceties like "we know the community" are not answers. I'm looking for real, hard, "what would make consumers choose us over Yelp?" answers. Think like you're planning to wipe out the local newspaper by building a better information product for people who don't have any attachment to "news", and doing it way cheaper than a traditional newsroom. Also, I don't know if it's helpful to focus on ways to transform existing organizations, so assume instead that you're building a brand new company by selectively poaching from your existing newsroom. We have to think in these ways, because this what everyone outside of journalism is actually doing.

2. The advertising business is going to the companies formerly known as the "technology industry." Let's face the fact that they're now just the "media" industry. So, rather than trying to transform ill-suited news organizations into tech players, let's ask how we can build newsrooms inside of tech companies. What are the experiences of the recently established news teams inside Yahoo, Twitter, AOL? How do we import journalism talent and culture into these sorts of organizations? How to we re-establish the professional tradition of funding public-interest journalism -- which has always been a cost center, not a profit center -- within the new online advertising-funded tech-media ecosystem?

• Basically what I'm saying is let's just assume that the traditional newspaper organization is a loss and will not survive, and come up with other plans to produce local journalism. I may or may not be right about the possibility of survival for the former news industry, but I think this point of view forces the right questions.

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Discussion suggestions from Chris Peck, editor, The [Memphis] Commercial Appeal and board member, ASNE

Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:51:31 -0700
From: "Peck, Chris" <peck@commercialappeal.com>

1. Focus on tablets. For legacy newspapers, I firmly believe the tablet offers the best hope for moving current print subscribers to a paid digital model.
2. Paid digital subscriptions. The revenue issues continue to eat away at the heart of journalism for legacy companies. The focus simply must on holding circulation revenues in a digital formats.
3. Partnerships. The ideas we discussed at Rutgers about building partnerships now between legacy media and emerging media would see ripe.
4. Privacy issues. Not central to discussion of future of journal per se, but an issue that likely will cut both ways for journalists in the years ahead. Less privacy could mean more access to information for journalists and the public. But less privacy will also stir up concerns about open government and public records. Journalism needs to be on side of openness, but also respect personal privacy concerns.
5. Finally, I've attached slides of the most recent research on the usage of digital devices done by Roger Fidler. Some good stuff here for your use ....

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Comparison by Buzz Wurzer of community-needs assessment process in Vero Beach, Fla., absent media help

Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:29:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Henry K Wurzer <hkw36@earthlink.net>

Chuck's words yesterday regarding how our current news gathering efforts are closed and thus the community shuts the newspaper out....ring true.

I mentioned in an earlier call that I serve on the board of the Indian River Community Foundation which is in its third year of operation. It is a 501C Non-Profit that serves some 200 NP's in the region as an unbiased, convener, catalyst and collaborator. I have two key Community meetings prior to Chicago that have relevance to our effort. I am responsible for the branding, messaging and communications to the area and residents we serve.

My current assignment is to bring together the various publics that are stakeholders in the Homeless/Poverty/Hunger Sector as well as the stakeholders in the Enviornment Sector. Vero Beach's metrics in unemployment and its fallout are far worse that the US averages. The Indian River Lagoon is facing major pollution problems for a sector that is the lifeblood of the region.

These are two huge local issues that are being ineffectively reported by local media. Indian River County residents are in need of "actionable" ongoing information. We have had three meetings with each sector to frame the issues from all sides of the issues. My job is to then build the case for action to meet the unmet needs in each sector and bring them back to the community at large for funding. We are close to case statements leading to a community wide initiative for solutions.

As an unbiased convener of all stakeholders, local media has been conspicuous by their absence. As we continue our work with these two Sectors and initiate work with the other six Community Sectors....we will involve local media. Thus the newspaper is in a position to participate fully in all sides of the issues through a continued dialogue.

The bottom line is news gathering and distribution needs to have transparency. Thus all publics are included. Thus information becomes actionable. Without doubt, a new interface for compelling information is a must to entice and engage users.

• More from Buzz Wurzer: "The industry's last change."
  

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Tom Grubisch seeks feedback on LocalAmerica project

From: Tom Grubisich <tom@localamerica.com> / Date: June 15, 2012 7:21:45 AM EDT
Subject: Local America: A "do-able" project

LINK: Local America slide deck (PDF download) from Tom Grubisch

I'm sending you a slide deck for my Local America project. In Randy's letter to the Pivot Point participants, he said: ""We'll identify or invent 10 ideas to help the industry perform the pivot. And we will commit ourselves to some specific action steps that we can take...to develop, test or experiment with these ideas." I believe Local America is the kind of pivotal project that can help move journalism into a new era that will make it 21st-century worthy as an engaged and necessary partner with the community in these challenging times.

The slide deck would take only a few minutes to present. I'd like to have an opportunity to do that in one setting or another and take any questions. Thanks for your help on this.

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Martin Langeveld recalls 2008 API convening, and Outing's comments

Martin Langveld writes:

In 2008, an American Press Institute gathering had very few visible results and certain no visionary consensus, but the Newsright concept did emerge eventually from threads that had their origina at that gathering. In 2009 another major gathering in Chicago galvanized the industry's swing toward paid content models, a shift that is still in progress.

Here's a Steve Outing column from 2008 on the API "Summit for an Industry in Crisis" ^T the gathering that put Chuck Peters on the map for us: http://steveouting.com/tag/api-summit/ See also and especially, Steve's 11 suggestions for that gathering: http://steveouting.com/my-crisis-advice-to-newspaper-company-ceos-11-points-to-ponder/

• 1-5 have pretty much come to pass.
• No. 6 is the one they still balk at, but it will happen in 24-36 months.
• Nos. 7-11 is what they have mostly ignored

Here are my own posts from the same period:
http://www.newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
(scroll down to Nov. 19 and before, back to Nov. 14)

Now, [RJI Pivot Point Chicago] seeks to find the next major vision. Can we create that vision using building blocks that include Newsright (and its own longer-term vision for broad, automated management of content rights and payment) as well as paid content models, and combine these with the vast opportunities inherent in new and developing technologies especially the tablet and smartphone models, possible other mobile models, retina displays, apps and HTML5? 

• MORE LANGEVELD: On "Wikipediaing the news" and nuking the newspaper.

Notes about reader engagement in the Netherlands

Martin writes: Here's another great idea for reader engagement: http://metrocolumn.nl/ (try Google translate Dutch>English)

Here's how it works, from Piet Bakker, Dutch blogger. 

• The Dutch edition of Metro has introduced a new online forum for readers^Ys columns:Metrocolumn. Columnists must first register, and can upload their columns and share tehm though social media. Readers can also vote for their favorite columns and comment on the content. Every week one column is selected by the editors to appear in the newspaper on Monday. The selected columnist gets ¬100.

You could skip the print part, that's not what's making it work. I would enhance the social ranking part. Also, I'd incorporate a "suggested edits" feature where registered users can privately message columnists to make spelling, grammar, style and other improvements. (Something Quora does.) And, columns should permit hyperlinking and illustrations. Beyond this, you could do videos and even audios (songs, comedy routines, etc.), plus short fiction, poetry and art uploads.

Benefits:

• Site can be used to point to news site content
• Collect email list addresses and FB likes
• Site could serve ads
• Pointers from news site to columns site extend reader engagement
• Lots of social sharing 
• Brand extension

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Notes about topic pages found by Chuck Peters from Richard Gingras' presentation at the MIT Media Lab

http://brownbag.me:9001/p/gingras

Quote - Richard argues strongly for evergreen story pages. It is not the brand, not the site, but the story itself that is the lifeblood online. Publishers should not think about editions, or even ephemeral streams of articles, but rather living story pages. Story pages are the most valuable real estate. Wikipedia was beating the Washington Post's search results despite all of the Post's great reporting. [You'll find journalists complaining about this sort of internet result filed under "P", for "Parasites"] The Post publishes a stream of new articles with new URLs and sends the olds ones to die in the archives becauase they're still producing content for the daily newspaper content model. The Wikipedia page is constantly changing and remaining updated, probably to this day, with a persistent URL where people can find it.

News publishers complained to Google that their topics pages were being consistently beaten by Wikipedia. These topics pages are not updated in realtime. The newspapers redesigned the topics pages and began to see success. Their long-term answer to this question, though, was to hire batches more rewrite people to maintain these topics pages. To someone familiar with the internet, this is crazytalk. Why wouldn't the journalist and editor, who are experts in this topic, just own this page as they own the beat itself? Shouldn't the news articles themselves flow from changes to the topic page, rather than rewriting articles to produce an index? The changes needed aren't just in content architecture, but in human workflow and roles. It comes back to, "How do we build trust?" Trust requires getting transparent about all of the content we have available to publish. It's expensive to produce, so share it.

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Peggy Holman on the 49 ongoing "gnarly problems" the world faces; she asks: Should journalists be focused on these?

Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:13:01 -0700 / From: Peggy Holman <peggy@peggyholman.com>
Subject: A source for gnarly problems

I was recently sent a link to a proposal sent to the Club of Rome focused on a "Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-wide Complexities and Uncertainties".  It contained the "global problematique" -- the persistent 49 critical continuous problems first identified in 1970.

• Context: http://blogora.wetpaint.com/page/Global+Problematique
• The paper: http://sunsite.utk.edu/FINS/loversofdemocracy/Predicament.PTI.pdf (49 problems listed at Pages 14-16)

Ultimate gnarliness, yes?  Wouldn't it be great if journalists were covering the actions being taken to address these problems?  Because as gnarly as they are, people are making a dent in places.  And if journalists were to amplify the good work already happening, they could catalyze the spread of that good work.  Or at least that belief is what got me working with journalists in the first place . . .

ALSO: Peggy Holman provides links to PDF-download background on Journalism That Matters:

• General background
• Mapping the new news ecology
• JTM insights over time

• An Open Letter to Journalists - http://journalismthatmatters.org/blog/2010/07/15/an-open-letter-to-journalists/
• Possibility Journalism: An Emerging Trend? - http://journalismthatmatters.org/blog/2008/05/22/possibility-journalism-an-emerging-trend/
• An Ecology of Story - http://journalismthatmatters.org/blog/2008/06/04/an-ecology-of-story-for-the-well-being-of-community-and-democracy/
• Six Questions that Matter to Journalism - http://journalismthatmatters.org/blog/2008/05/31/six-questions-that-matter-to-journalism/