Its hard to predict things particularly things in

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“It’s hard to predict things, particularly things in the future” -- Yogi Berra, former

“It’s hard to predict things, particularly things in the future” -- Yogi Berra, former Yankee catcher and manager

What’s the Problem? What Happened to Newspapers – and What Can We Do About

What’s the Problem? What Happened to Newspapers – and What Can We Do About It?

Well, There’s the … • TV problem (decades old) – Now hundreds of TV

Well, There’s the … • TV problem (decades old) – Now hundreds of TV channels – News that fits your view of the world – Reality unwrapped, not filtered by reporters – TIVO • (Photo: U. S. family watching TV in the 1950 s. Note newspaper) – http: //geekphilosopher. com/bkg/people. T V 50 s. htm

And the … • Internet problem – Millions of web sites – Plus: Games

And the … • Internet problem – Millions of web sites – Plus: Games and chat – Plus: Those darn bloggers – like me – Plus: Ability to create and share media – The virtual communities predicted in the 1990 s have arrived

And the … • Age problem – Average newspaper reader is age 53 –

And the … • Age problem – Average newspaper reader is age 53 – Abandoning the News, http: //www. carnegie. org/reporter/10/ne ws/index. html – Even the 35 -65/yr segment using less news: 5 -8% less in a decade – http: //pewresearch. org/trends 200 5 -media. pdf – Ever notice how the paid obituaries keep growing and growing?

And the … • Youth problem – 18 -30/yr-olds using 18% less news in

And the … • Youth problem – 18 -30/yr-olds using 18% less news in a decade – http: //pewresearch. org/trends/tre nds 2005 -media. pdf – They’re IM’ing – They’re I-Podding – They’re making their own media – They’re not reading newspapers

And the … Oh, Oh … Pop Quiz!!! Who is this man?

And the … Oh, Oh … Pop Quiz!!! Who is this man?

And the … • Utility problem – Craigslist: “I’ll sell my stuff there –

And the … • Utility problem – Craigslist: “I’ll sell my stuff there – for free” – 7 cities in Canada (3, 000 listings a week in Toronto) – Movie listings? Online (and I can buy tickets. ) – Stocks? Online – Newspaper? “I read it online. It’s free and I can email what I like”

And the … • Credibility problem – 45 percent of Americans believe little or

And the … • Credibility problem – 45 percent of Americans believe little or nothing printed in newspapers (Pew Research Center) – http: //pewresearch. org/trend s/trends 2005 -media. pdf

And the Money Problem …

And the Money Problem …

These Things Are All True … So Maybe We Should …

These Things Are All True … So Maybe We Should …

Blame the Readers!!! • Some journalists think so. – It’s not our fault, is

Blame the Readers!!! • Some journalists think so. – It’s not our fault, is it, that people prefer to read about Paris and Michael instead of the planning commission? – “Perhaps the old notions of an engaged and virtuous citizenry, upon which the founding fathers’ hopes for the republic were based, are archaic concepts” • http: //www. cjr. org/issues/2005/1/cornogreaders. asp

Or … We Could … • Change !!! – A popular concept – Amazon

Or … We Could … • Change !!! – A popular concept – Amazon search returns 357, 344 results – But … newspapers are lousy at change, always have been

Change … 10 Years Ago • “Newspapers have made almost every kind of radical

Change … 10 Years Ago • “Newspapers have made almost every kind of radical move except transforming themselves. It's as if they've considered every possible option but the most urgent – change. … That makes newspapers the biggest and saddest losers in the information revolution” – Jon Katz, Wired magazine, 09/1994 – http: //www. wired. com/wired/archive/2. 09/news. suck. html

Change … Today • “Despite the new demands, there is more evidence than ever

Change … Today • “Despite the new demands, there is more evidence than ever that the mainstream media are investing only cautiously in building new audiences” – State of the News Media, 2005, Project for Excellence in Journalism – http: //www. stateofthemedia. org/2005/

OK, Smart Guy … Now What?

OK, Smart Guy … Now What?

Two Themes to Start With Intentional Journalism Explode the Newsroom

Two Themes to Start With Intentional Journalism Explode the Newsroom

No More Accidental Journalism • An editor at a top 20 U. S. newspaper

No More Accidental Journalism • An editor at a top 20 U. S. newspaper says Page 1 is “often a happy accident” • That means it is: – More haphazard than thoughtful – More opportunistic than planned – More luck of the daily draw than drawn from a longterm strategy

Intentional Journalism • Ask yourself this: – Someone gives your current annual newsroom budget

Intentional Journalism • Ask yourself this: – Someone gives your current annual newsroom budget and says: Make any kind of news operation you want. Would you make the same newspaper? – Would you create the same beats, departments, production and decision-making processes? – Would you hire the same people? – Would you design the paper and its web site in the same formats?

OF COURSE NOT! So … how do we overcome the inertia, culture and tradition

OF COURSE NOT! So … how do we overcome the inertia, culture and tradition that keep us from changing?

Intentional Journalism Six Things You Can Do

Intentional Journalism Six Things You Can Do

Intentional Journalism • Develop a strategic plan – What are your readership goals for

Intentional Journalism • Develop a strategic plan – What are your readership goals for 5 years? 10 years? – What are your editorial goals? – What are your human resource goals? – Is there an editorial succession plan? – Do a SWOT analysis for business, for editorial. Where do they overlap?

Intentional Journalism • Develop annual newsroom objectives – Fewer institutional stories, more Latino faces,

Intentional Journalism • Develop annual newsroom objectives – Fewer institutional stories, more Latino faces, more community voices – whatever – Specific, strategic and unique to your community – Measure progress regularly – Adjust processes or staff as necessary – Hold managers accountable

Intentional Journalism • Develop annual individual goals – – Not evaluations, but personal learning

Intentional Journalism • Develop annual individual goals – – Not evaluations, but personal learning plans for every staffer from the admin to exec editor What you should be able to do a year from now that you can’t do now. • – – – Edit tighter, coach better, speak Spanish (or French – bien sur!), write more (or less), read five books on leadership Be creative, be specific, align with newsroom goals Reward successes The newsroom watchword: Grow or go.

Intentional Journalism • Build learning time into the budget – Newsroom training budgets are

Intentional Journalism • Build learning time into the budget – Newsroom training budgets are important, but even more critical is learning time. Allocate it on an FTE basis. Schedule it – Make it as mandatory as meeting deadline – Hold managers accountable – Change, by definition, is new; anything new requires training and learning

Intentional Journalism • Evaluate: How are we doing? – The No. 1 question of

Intentional Journalism • Evaluate: How are we doing? – The No. 1 question of the day, every day. What is working? What is not? Are we making progress toward our larger goals? – Encourage honest self-evaluation by supporting open discussions about quality and direction – Discouraging defensive and competitive posturing by managers who feel threatened when their work is debated

Intentional Journalism • Challenge assumptions – Why do we do things this way? –

Intentional Journalism • Challenge assumptions – Why do we do things this way? – Change cannot happen without questioning the status quo – Use “what if” scenarios to zero-base newsroom systems -- production to beats • – Why do we cover education this way? Is this the right amount of police reporting? Do we have enough copy editors – or too many? How will you know if you never ask?

Intentional Journalism • Plan, Teach, Measure, Adjust 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Develop

Intentional Journalism • Plan, Teach, Measure, Adjust 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Develop a strategic plan Develop annual newsroom objectives Develop annual individual objectives Build learning time into the budget Evaluate: How are we doing? Challenge assumptions: Why are we doing?

Explode the Newsroom • Don’t just reorganize – “It seemed every time we were

Explode the Newsroom • Don’t just reorganize – “It seemed every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized. . . I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization. ” – Petronius Arbiter, 210 B. C.

Explode the Newsroom Re-think, Refocus, Re-invent Seven Ideas to Build On

Explode the Newsroom Re-think, Refocus, Re-invent Seven Ideas to Build On

Explode the Newsroom • Don’t Tinker, Explode – Big rewards come from big bets.

Explode the Newsroom • Don’t Tinker, Explode – Big rewards come from big bets. The most innovative work today involves bold moves by newspapers into new territory – tabloids, non-English spin-offs, citizen journalism, blogs – Adding a columnist or rearranging type-faces isn’t enough – Papers that survive will have learned how to adapt and exploit current emerging markets. – Risk-taking is a learnable skill. Teach it. Reward it.

Explode the Newsroom • The 10% Solution – Devote 10 percent of the newsroom

Explode the Newsroom • The 10% Solution – Devote 10 percent of the newsroom budget each year to product and staff development – Goal: Restructuring traditional, content silos – Goal: People who have the cross-disciplinary skills. – You can’t change your newspaper over night, but you can do it in a decade – 10 percent at a time

Explode the Newsroom • Structure Horizontally, Not Vertically – Tear down the Sports, News,

Explode the Newsroom • Structure Horizontally, Not Vertically – Tear down the Sports, News, Features and Business silos • Reconstitute around virtual communities: Moms, singles, Baseball fans, age, etc. – Want younger readers? Devote a department’s worth of editors, reporters, photographers, designers and online producers

Explode the Newsroom • Go Weekly -- Every Day – Mass is dead; class

Explode the Newsroom • Go Weekly -- Every Day – Mass is dead; class matters – Old: Something for all – New: A lot for fewer – Old: Mass media – New: A mass of niches

Explode the Newsroom • Be the Tip of the Information Iceberg – Reverse the

Explode the Newsroom • Be the Tip of the Information Iceberg – Reverse the printonline priority equation – Publish more online than in print – Print can’t match the: • Virtual newshole • Endless conversation • Power of relational advertising

Explode the Newsroom • Lead from the Middle, Not the Top – You cannot

Explode the Newsroom • Lead from the Middle, Not the Top – You cannot lead from behind the desk – Reporters and line editors want direction, want to learn – Edit more, manage less • Get the editors out of the offices and onto the newsroom floor

Explode the Newsroom • Don’t Cover the Community, Be the Community – Empower readers,

Explode the Newsroom • Don’t Cover the Community, Be the Community – Empower readers, enable citizen journalism – Aggregate and celebrate their work and their voices – Get engaged. Lead civic discourse. Be on the side of the people – Dig, dig – into the public officials, civic and corporate institutions and the flow of money. This is a differentiating capability of newspapers.

Explode the Newsroom • Seven Ideas to Build On 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Explode the Newsroom • Seven Ideas to Build On 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Don’t Tinker, Explode The 10% Solution Structure by Horizontally, Not Vertically Go Weekly -- Every Day Be the Tip of the Information Iceberg Lead from the Middle, Not the Top Don’t Cover the Community, Be the Community

Questions? Tim Porter tim@timporter. com http: www. timporter. com/firstdraft 415 -381 -9945

Questions? Tim Porter tim@timporter. com http: www. timporter. com/firstdraft 415 -381 -9945