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Creating the Future of News Questions to Consider Richard Gingras [email protected] April 20, 2012

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Page 1: Gingras

Creating the Future of News

Questions to Consider Richard Gingras [email protected]

April 20, 2012

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Disruption in Media Not the first. Not the last.

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Disruption in Media

  Shi$s  in  distribu-on  shape    the  business  model    

  The  40  “golden”  years  of  newspaper  profitability  was  triggered  by  an  earlier  media  disrup;on:  television.  

  Open  distribu;on  of  the  Internet  eradicated  print  distribu;on  leverage  

1949 1959

Newspapers

TV

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Brand & Scope Defining products

in a marketplace of niches

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Brand  &  Scope  

  Content  economy  is  less  about  demographics;  more  about  context  and  relevance  

  Disaggregated,  open,  and  filled  with  niche  players  

  Cross-­‐subsidiza;on  was  important  for  newspapers.  Now  it’s  more  difficult  

  Consider  the  cost/revenue  economics  at  the  segment  level  

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Brand  &  Scope  

In  a  marketplace  rich  with  niche  players,  does  an  all-­‐things-­‐to-­‐all-­‐people  “portal”  product  make  sense?  Might  it  beSer  be  thought  of  as  a  stable  of  focused  brands?  

Q:

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Audience Flows & Site Design

Optimizing for multiple entry points

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Audience Flows & Site Design

Story Page

75% Home Page

25%

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Audience  Flows  &  Site  Design  

How  do  changes  in  audience  flows  impact  site  design,  or  indeed  trigger  the  rethinking  the  very  defini;on  of  a  website?  

Q:

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Content Architecture

Capacity is unlimited. Creating content is expensive.

Use it all.

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Content  Architecture  

  Not  about  edi;ons.  Not  about  ephemeral  streams  of  ar;cles  

  It  can  be  a  real-­‐;me,  living  resource      The  story  page  is  the  most  valuable  real  estate!  

Ephemeral anthrax attack article Persistent anthrax attack resource

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Content  Architecture  

Should  we  not  explore  and  adopt  new  approaches  that  maintain  the  full  expression  of  a  reporter’s  efforts  in  one  place  behind  a  persistent  URL?  

Q:

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Style & Form “Every new medium begins as a container for the old”

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  The  right  form  for  the  right  medium  –  long,  short,  other  

  The  evolu;on  of  the  social  network  post  

  Effec;ve  user  of  embedded  links  and  footnotes  

  Properly  tuning  for  search    Leveraging  rich  media  when  it  makes  sense  

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Style  and  Form  

In  a  culture  of  bullet  points,  updates,  and  posts,  are  there  approaches  to  conveying  in-­‐depth  journalism  that  move  beyond  the  current  templates?  

Q:

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Computational Journalism

Big data. Smart data. Knowledge.

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  Computer  programming  to  mul;ply  the  value  of  a  reporter’s  efforts  

  Inves;ga;ve    reports  wriSen    with  Fusion  tables    and  query  strings  

  A  logical  part  of    the  resource  mix  

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Computa;onal  Journalism  

Can  computa;onal  journalism  be  used  not  only  to  help  with  stories  but  eventually  become  persistent,  automated  inves;ga;ve  reports?    

Q:

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Reporter’s Tools Getting the most out of a most

precious asset

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Reporter’s  Tools  

Since  the  medium  can  accommodate  the  full  expression  of  a  reporter’s  work,  is  there  not  huge  value  in  developing  tools  to  op;mize  a  reporter’s  efforts?  

Q: 2.0

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Organizational Roles

The right approach for the right medium at the right time

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Organiza;onal  Roles  &  Workflow   The  role  of  a  reporter  when  tools,  ;ming  and  procedures  are  different  

  The  role  of  an  editor  in  an  edi;on-­‐less  environment  with  mul;ple  forums  to  engage  

  The  use  of  different  resources  from  computa;onal  journalists  to  the  trusted  crowd  

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Organiza;onal  Roles  &  Workflow  

Given  current  and  future  advances  in  how  news  is  gathered,  organized  and  presented,  does  that  not  require  a  complete  “digital  first”  rethinking  of  editorial  roles  and  workflow?      .  .  .  

Q:

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Organiza;onal  Roles  &  Workflow  

.  .  .    Are  there  new  approaches  that  let  news  organiza;ons  leverage  the  assistance  of  the  trusted  crowd?  .  .  .  

Q:

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Organiza;onal  Roles  &  Workflow  

.  .  .    Might  we  benefit  from  systems  that  allow  small  news  orgs  to  collaborate  and  work  together?  

Q:

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Culture of Innovation It is not a luxury.

It can’t be intermittent.1 It must be part of an organization’s DNA.2

1. Cycle of change is too rapid 2. No, it’s not a Chief Innovation Officer!

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Culture  of  Innova;on  

How  do  we  staff  news  organiza;ons  with  the  right  resources  and  the  right  mindset  to  imbue  constant  innova;on  into  the  culture’s  DNA  and  into  the  role  of  every  par;cipant?  

Q:

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A Different World Quality journalism is more

important than ever

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A  Different  World  

  The  Internet  can  offer  support  any  opinion,  belief,  or  fear  and  give  it  greater  volume  

 We  can  no  longer  say,  “trust  us  because  you  should  trust  us.”  

 We  need  new  methods,  new  forms,  new  tools  

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A  Different  World  

Can  journalism’s  future  be  stronger  and  beSer  than  its  past?  

Doesn’t  it  have  to  be?  Isn’t  that  why  we  are  here?  

Q:

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