Online Journalism Symposium

Tracking the Changes and Transformations in Today’s Newsroom April 18, 2009

A very cohesive panel on changes and transformations in the newsrooms featured three panelists on the transformations in physical newsrooms.
Sue Robinson took a look at the physical space of changing newsrooms and how to spatially arrange a newsroom to promote a successful digital transition, especially by the older, traditional journalists. Placing the online journalists and editors in the front and center of the traditional print journalists is one of the best practices she found, because it keeps the digital transition accessible and on everyone’s mind. She also found that old school journalists feel that working online is not real journalism, and management expectations can address his by acknowledging the time journalists spend engaged in cross platform work.
Neil Thurman next presented his research on Europe’s first online-only newspaper, Taloussanomat. The financial daily went online only in December of 07. Thurman presented many aspects of his research, including the way journalists and editors stuck to traditional print operations, even in the absence of it. He found that the journalists as the paper he studied wanted to have stories ready by the end of the day, even without that old deadline restriction. He also presented research on lost profits and reduced expenditures.
This panel’s final presenter, Chris Anderson, focused on Web production, audience and metrics, describing an alternate way of addressing audience, and how technology changes the news product.

Steve Sullivan discusses need for adaptability in newsrooms April 18, 2009

Steve Sullivan, Multimedia Editor of the Baltimore Sun, reflected on remarks he made 10 years ago and where he sees newsrooms going in the future.

Ten years ago at the first International Symposium on Online Journalism, Sullivan remarked, “There is always going to be a place for a single medium specialist, some people just excel in one form of communication.” While still agrees with these predictions, Sullivan added today that these same specialized journalists need to broaden their perspective to understand what is going on in other mediums.

Sullivan focused his talk today on the need for understanding and adaptability in news rooms. He said that versality is something every newsroom has to strive for in order to survive, and he also mentioned that newsrooms should cultivate entrepreneurial journalists – people who can find ways to grow their audience and their outlet’s revenue through creativity.

Although many pundits may remain pessimistic about the future of the newspaper, Sullivan maintains that today the media is lucky – today, media has opportunities to be in places it has never been before.

Q&A – Costs April 5, 2008

What are the costs of producing these games?

“It costs a lot of money to develop interactive software. A lot of that can be offset by doing really creative things. For some of our games, it cost money, but there was a very attractive upside. I’m willing to work on things at very low cost upfront if it will pay out later. Plus it makes me more invested in the game and in the quality of the game.” – Ian Bogost

“Some of these games had 2 million players. They’re free, that’s part of why they work so well, but they are reaching a lot of people. Some of the games I showed had a budget of $3 million, so it goes up.” -Suzanne Seggerman

“If you want to use the game to develop them to other traffic, develop it that way. It’s cost from 50-500,000 thousand, depending on how fast you want to develop it.” – Howard Finberg

Absentee blogging April 5, 2008

I’m in a hotel room in Wheat Ridge, Colorado checking on what I missed of today’s events. You may be reading up on this in between log-ins to your Facebook and Myspace, which brings us to Day 2 of the Symposium…

I spoke with Dr. Tremayne earlier this week and he says the research presentations Saturday will cover a lot of what we really concentrate on in class- our online social networks. Keep it locked in here for the multimedia class’ coverage of Day 2!

Global Voices- “The World Is Talking…Are You Listening? April 4, 2008

Rising Voices is introducing new media to techniques to those who would otherwise not be exposed (Bolivia, Morrocco, etc…). Basically helping information be distributed from those who would be unheard due to government control on the media. The site has a project where people translate over 50 languages to English to be distributed. They are now actually being funded by Reuters.

They are working with some mainstream media (NYT) and are hoping to work with Washington Post soon. They are in preliminary discussions to have aprofession news wire based on the best Global Voices stories.

Ultimately they are trying to enhance global media by reporting on global issues.

Global Voices April 4, 2008

She mentioned the blogosphere vs. journalists…her take on the ‘age old’ question was that blogging is complimentary of journalism.

Community Building Jim Brady April 4, 2008

Jim Brady’s Slides are very nice. No? Journalist at the top and moving to generators then responders. Anyone agree?

Some Q&A April 4, 2008

Q&A on the hybrid newsroom panel is happening as we speak. Some interesting quotes from Chris Lloyd:

““We’d all like to see more revenues going to the Internet, but more important is what you’re missing out on if you don’t do it.”

“We’ve moved away from having bureaus to having people based in countries. We can’t work against our resources.”

From Almar Latour:

“It’s not unheard of to get more page hits on an info graphic than on the story itself. We’re pouring resources into it.”

“I don’t think in-depth reporting and having many storytelling skills at your disclosure are mutually exclusive. Our local market is a virtual market. Within that, you’ll see hard hitting reporting and lots and lots of resources.”