Online Journalism Symposium

The business model for journalism is no longer relegated to creative excellence, it’s now about relevance.

Neal Burns, a professor in the UT Department of Advertising, talked about what is not working in journalistic business models, namely the interruption model.

“People don’t even want to go from page 60 to page 76 to continue a story in a magazine,” Burns said. “So they definitely don’t want a thirty second video before or in the middle of the video they want to watch.”

Burns said that news consumption is continual, and should cater to the ability of many to multitask.

“I teach students who have white ropes coming out of their ears. Their laptop is open and they’re looking at their favorite porn site while I’m lecturing my guts out. But what’s amazing is they still hear me.”