Recent Events and Surviving Pain for Botswana Orphans

February 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Orphan1

A lot has changed for me in the past few months. Since I last posted on the blog I have scored a job as a News Librarian at Network Ten News in Melbourne. It was completely unexpected but also incredibly exciting. It came around the same time I was interviewed by the Herald Sun after attending the Melbourne Writers Festival. To be honest I’m glad I ended up with the job at Ten over working for the Herald Sun. Working in the News Library often means looking through old archive tapes and trying to find the best footage to use for a particular story. It’s interesting work and as someone relatively new to Melbourne it has helped to rapidly give me an idea of who the important people are and what the major issues have been. This time in the News Library will no doubt help me with my journalism into the future.

In October last year I also completed my honours project on using mobile technology to change the media. I believe it was a success and it has changed the way I perceive and approach media organisations. Since spending so much time performing academic research I am far more skeptical about many aspects of journalism. While I have not changed by views on many major topics, including how journalism should change, I did gain a very good instinct for how to annoy academics. My work came back with good grades. I scored 78% from both of my examiners, which was far higher then I expected considering I was trying to push the boundaries. Watch out for an upcoming post on www.Media140.com where you will be able to download a copy.

Anyway, since finishing my project, life has just been busy. Most importantly (besides work that is), I’ve been training hard to complete a 300km bicycle ride along the Great Ocean Road from Geelong to Warrnambool raising money for charity. The charity I have chosen to support is the Botswana Orphan Project. As part of the training, for the past three weeks I have ridden up Mt Macedon, north-west of Melbourne. My final ride, completed on sunday, was a 63km ride, starting in New Gisborne, and then riding up the front face of Macedon and back down through Woodend and Gisborne. All I can say is… it was hard work!! The worst part is that the first day of our ride is double that! We will likely die. But I can’t think of a better way to go then by raising money for such a great cause. Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world and average life expectancy has been plummeting to the point where people are not expected to live past the age of 40. This leaves an increasingly young population which needs help… and I want to help!

You can support me in my ride by donating here: http://www.mycause.com.au/mycause/raise_money/fundraise.php?id=5190

Filed Under: Job Hunt, Journalism, Life, Melbourne Tagged With: , , , ,

The Question Was Not If NewsTilt Would Fold But When

July 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
newslabs-logo

Last week the inevitable happened. NewsLabs, the company behind NewsTilt, shut their doors. That’s right, the service which was meant to bring personal branding to journalists worldwide will no longer be a brand themselves.

The companies founder Paul Biggar made tall promises of NewsTilt being “the future of news, and the saviour of journalists everywhere.” But this statement was never going to be an easy one to fulfil. NewsLabs really had no other choice but to close its doors when Biggar, who held the initial vision, left the company a few weeks ago. After a re-assesment of the service, the company decided to cut their losses and run.

While it is a sad day for journalists who had hopes in the start-up, the fact that they folded is not such a big surprise. I predicted that NewsLabs would struggle to make serious money from the service before they even went live. This is what I had to say:

“…I am concerned that NewsTilt may be placing too much reliance on building these personal brands and not enough reliance on building the networks brand. Sure journalist’s can build their credibility but part of gaining that credibility has traditionally been partly due to the masthead they work under. I’m not sure if they will really be able to make enough money from their advertising to keep the service funded and most importantly to pay the journalists for the work they do.”

So while NewsLabs folding is not a big surprise, what is a big shock for me though is that NewsLabs folded less than 3 months after launch. I had expected that they might be able to last at least 6-12 months, but alas their fate was already written before they even got underway.

There is still no detailed account from the founders as to what went wrong, but in simple terms they figured out NewsTilt was never going to make enough money. All of the dreams and promises made simply could not be fulfilled.

As I said in April, the big problem is that NewsTilt was not structured well enough to build itself as a brand. There was no clear cut model for how they would make enough money to fulfil their promises. Added to that, their website was dull and boring, and they did little to really promote their contributors personal brands.

However, what I believe really caused issues for the service is that they were building their ‘new’ journalism model to be nothing more than a mismatched collection of newspaper columns in a digital format. It was not really anything new or exciting.

What journalists had jumped upon initially was the idea that you could be paid money for writing articles which you felt were important. You didn’t need to worry about the technology or the marketing, NewsTilt would handle that. They just offered you as a journalist an outlet for content which you wanted to write about. To me that sounds incredibly similar to a medium which already existed…. it’s called blogging.

NewsTilt was never going to be a solid idea. Sure, the idea of journalists being the brand is a serious one; that may be how news could develop in a social media world. The problem is that you can’t build any new service and expect it to be successful immediately unless it really revolutionises an industry. Success on the web will never be sustainable unless companies are serious about differentiating their products.

To be successful and to change journalism, you must offer something different. NewsTilt held nothing different, they only took the current industry, current ideas, and current technologies and tilted it slightly more in favour of the journalists.

The question in the end was not whether NewsTilt would be successful, but rather when it would shut the doors.

Filed Under: Future, Journalism, Newspapers Tagged With: , , , ,

Re-inventing Journalism: Why Innovation Is The Only Way To Save The Media

June 18, 2010 By 3 Comments
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Image by theonlyone

No matter what your interest is in the media it’s hard to escape talk about the possible demise of the journalism industry. Once powerful newspaper companies are now struggling to stay afloat in a market that has primarily moved online. But with an ever expanding and socially driven marketplace the only way to survive will be to innovate. This innovation must be driven by the mobile space and deliver news content in a way users want to read it. A new journalism model must be interactive, it must be engaging, it must be social, and it must be different.

While most companies have shifted their reporting efforts towards the online market it has not come without significant restructuring and downsizing in an attempt to maximise profits from a dwindling advertising market.1 No matter the size of the company, or the significance of their online presence, they have all been affected. The New York Times, for instance, has shed hundreds of staff since 20082 and also restructured the editing of its news service.3 These company wide cuts are despite The New York Times website receiving around 20 million unique visitors every month4. The website alone simply can’t sustain all the resources which the print edition has built up. Other major companies like The Los Angeles Times have also shed staff with almost half of their once 1200 strong workforce axed in the past 9 years.5 Another casualty is the American television network news giant ABC, which has been planning to cut up to 400 jobs from its 1500 strong staff this year.6

The big problem for news companies is that they are still thinking about how money was made during the golden years of print and broadcast. Advertising has always, for most media companies, funded quality news and investigative journalism. News is expensive but these models of journalism and revenue making cannot be directly shifted to the internet without modifying them. They must be modified to make the most of the technology available. Some websites have tried to create the ideal blend by integrating multimedia and social features but these integrations are often only surface repairs, masking an archaic structure. Adding extra content and features has often been merely an afterthought but not the focus of how the websites were designed. Most of these integrated news websites are still funded by advertising with a few exceptions. The Wall Street Journal, successfully use a subscription-based pay-wall system to fund their efforts, and others like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are funded entirely by Government; but these are the exceptions. For other sites the ads used are still similar to the past just having taken a new form with a combination of banner, video, pop-up, viral, and text. Often these ads can crowd the layout of a website leaving only a small amount of room for journalistic content. This content is often just a replica of a story already published in another medium or has been used entirely from a newswire service. Such poor designs and approaches to online news development may explain why many news websites are seeing rapid declines in the time users spend on their sites.7

[Read more...]

Show 7 footnotes

  1. Rupert Neate, “Times Newspapers loses £88m as advertising drops,” Telegraph.co.uk, March 23, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7500527/Times-Newspapers-loses-88m-as-advertising-drops.html. ↩
  2. David Folkenflik, “’New York Times’ To Make Deeper Staff Cuts,” NPR, October 19, 2009, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113942218. ↩
  3. Richard Pérez-peña, “New York Times News Service to Cut Jobs and Relocate,” The New York Times, November 13, 2009, sec. Business / Media & Advertising, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/business/media/13times.html?_r=1. ↩
  4. Zachary Seward, “Top 15 newspaper sites of 2008,” Nieman Journalism Lab, February 19, 2009, http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/02/top-15-newspaper-sites-of-2008/. ↩
  5. John Koblin, “Los Angeles Times Cuts Staff for Third Time This Year; 10 Percent of Newsroom Let Go,” The New York Observer, October 27, 2008, http://www.observer.com/2008/media/l-times-cuts-staff-third-time-year-10-percent-newsroom-let-go. ↩
  6. Brian Stelter and Bill Carter, “ABC News to Cut Hundreds of Staff,” The New York Times, February 24, 2010, sec. Business / Media & Advertising, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/business/media/24abc.html. ↩
  7. Jean Chainon, “US: Time spent on top 30 newspaper sites tends to decrease – Editors Weblog,” EditorsWeblog.org, February 20, 2008, http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2008/02/us_time_spent_on_top_30_newspaper_sites.php. ↩
Filed Under: Future, Journalism, Newspapers, Research, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Steve Jobs Tells D8 We Need Editorial Now More Than Ever

June 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

In the past few months everyone has been talking about the iPad and how it might save the journalism industry. Finally Steve Jobs has commented on the situation at All Things Digital‘s D8 conference held this year at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Steve spoke clearly with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg about many topics, questions, controversies that have come up surrounding Apple recently and was incredibly open about all of them. The most interesting thing that he had to say however was that he didn’t want to see editorial die and be taken over by a nation of bloggers. I think Steve made it clear that journalism needs to exist as an iteration of its current form and that the iPad may just be the catalyst for helping news organisations innovate and make money.

Check out Steve’s comments on how the iPad was designed and how it could impact on journalism.

If your interested in some of the other things Steve at had to say at D8 then check out more of the videos below.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Apple, Future, Journalism, Newspapers, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Why Google Is So Important To Journalism

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

If you have followed the journalism debate for a while you will know that Rupert Murdoch has been out to get Google and other news aggregators. He has said that Google is stealing all his content (which is simply not the case), and so is putting up pay-walls around all his websites.

This week though I’ve been reading a great book written by Ken Auletta called Googled: The End of the World As We Know It, and it has done nothing but solidify my position that Google is vitally important to online news.

Auletta’s book is a history of Google starting from the beginning, however it covers the company from many different perspectives. One of these perspectives looks directly at what Google has done with news content through Google News. The book goes through a lot of the reasoning behind different decisions by Google and some of the deals it has made with the likes of the Associated Press and other media. But the issue for Murdoch is that he thinks Google has been stealing his content. I only have one question for Mr Murdoch…. What content does he have worth stealing???

Since when has a News Corporation company really cared about creating quality content which is worth paying for? With the exception of the Wall Street Journal of course. Murdoch needs to stop complaining about Google and other aggregators which send them large amounts of traffic. They can’t possibly survive digitally without having their content indexed in some form by Google. Google is the pathway to information for most people, no other search engine matches this.

Whatever Mr Murdoch thinks, the fact remains that Google is not out there to destroy companies but is out there to make information accessible. They’re innovators, and it’s hard for innovators to sit still while a market is dying. It is impossible for Google to operate without looking at a market that’s stagnant and saying, ‘we can do better’. But if news organisations were even interested in keeping readers on their sites they would learn to be innovators. If they were innovators maybe they would be receiving the huge amounts of traffic which Google is receiving. Newspapers have a huge amount of data and should have been in search for a long time. Either way they need to start making quality content for all devices.

It is not just enough to distribute your content to multiple platforms but news companies need to learn to create quality content specifically for a platform. Platform specific content is the only way you can create serious profit from all mediums. It’s the only way to create content which does not take away the need to view news on another device. If I look at news on my phone, why would I want to read the same thing on my laptop? There needs to be a reason for me to go to each product offering.

Learn to innovate and add value to all of your offerings. This is the only way to be successful digitally.

Filed Under: Future, Google, Journalism, Newspapers Tagged With: , ,

Tom’s Not The Only One Who Wants A Job

May 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

If you have been hanging around the Twittosphere in the past week you may have heard that journalism student Tom Cowie (@tom_cowie) wants a job. Tom is graduating in a few weeks and to put it in his own words he is “a little worried about his future”. Not only is he graduating but he has created quite an interesting and rather brilliant idea to document this transition from humble student into full-time professional journalist.

Tom has even gone so far as to post his pitch for the Crikey Website Editor position on his blog. To be honest, with all the effort he has gone to, he clearly does deserve a job somewhere in the media. Given the popularity of the campaign he could probably easily transition to the dark-side. But I have some news for you Tom….. you’re in for some strong competition.

Many journalism graduates, like myself, are equally qualified for a job in journalism and have struggled unsuccessfully filling in more job applications then we even care to think about. Finding a journalism job is hard at the moment. It doesn’t matter how good you are, there are always many others equally qualified.

So yesterday I posted my intention to challenge Tom for the job at Crikey on Twitter and today I followed up on that challenge. I put together my pitch and sent in my application for the position.

But fair is fair, Tom posted his pitch on his blog for everyone to see. So to be fair to Tom here is the pitch I sent off to Jason Whittaker at Crikey.

“I am a dedicated and passionate Melbourne based journalist with experience in the writing, production, and presentation of news and features for online, print, and broadcast. ABC News Online, the Walkley Magazine, and QUT Radio and Television News have all published my work. I hold bachelor’s degrees in Journalism from the Queensland University of Technology and Interactive Entertainment (Animation) from QANTM College. Additionally I have been an intern in the ABC Online, ABC Radio, and Channel 10 Television newsrooms in Brisbane.

While I am a skilled journalist, my interest in web technologies does not end with news production. I have always been passionate about the internet and have previously worked as the Web Master for the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation in Brisbane, a role which involved successfully managing and optimising the RCHF website to improve design, useability, traffic, and online donations.

I am experienced with many different software and web technologies including Newsboss, ENPS, iNews, Final Cut Studio, Audacity, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, WordPress, PHP, HTML, and CSS. Because I learn extremely quickly many of these technologies have been self-taught. I also enjoy building and managing my own blogs and I actively use different forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter (@kristoforlawson).

Given all of my skills and abilities I believe I would be an excellent fit for the Website Editor’s position with Crikey. I have always loved the independent voice Crikey brings to the Australian media and I want to be part of Crikey’s future.”

I do however wish Tom Cowie all the best in his quest to get a journalism job. Should I ever find myself running a news organisation (my long term goal) I would definitely hire him because he obviously gets online media, a task many journalists still fail to grasp.

Filed Under: Job Hunt, Journalism Tagged With: ,

Is The Future Of Journalism Really In Branding?

April 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

Today I was reading a very interesting article over at TechCrunch on the future of journalism. The article focused on a new journalism platform called NewsTilt which is developed by a new company NewsLabs funded by Y Combinator.

NewsTilt focuses on journalists building their personal brands. Journalists apply to be part of the service and then are selected based on their experience and suitability to create individual brands based on the NewsTilt platform. NewsTilt provides the service, they set up the sites, the handle advertising, and automatically hook the journalists new brand into social media websites. Journalists can then focus on doing what they do best, creating compelling and interesting content.

NewsLabs founder, Paul Biggar, said it like this in the companies press release. ”In the future, news will be all about the journalist and their community,” he said, “The journalist is the brand, and their community tells them directly what to write, and whether they liked it.”

I think there is a lot to be said for what NewsTilt is trying to achieve.

Think of all the media companies you know and ask yourself why you read/view/interact with them. More than likely it is because of a journalist rather then the media company which will keep you coming back. Journalists are in-fact brands. Think of Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Co-Editor of All Things Digital. Just his personal brand alone brings many people back to the Journal’s website and what he says can impact the entire technology industry.

Building a brand around you as a journalist is very important, especially if you want to survive in an industry that is ever changing. Your brand is like a passport, you take it with you to get you into new places. If ever you decide you don’t like NewsTilt then the company says you are free to take your brand with you.

However I am concerned that NewsTilt may be placing too much reliance on building these personal brands and not enough reliance on building the networks brand. Sure journalist’s can build their credibility but part of gaining that credibility has traditionally been partly due to the masthead they work under. I’m not sure if they will really be able to make enough money from their advertising to keep the service funded and most importantly to pay the journalists for the work they do. It is of course hard to judge this until after I see a site developed on the NewsTilt platform.

That said, I have already submitted my application.

Filed Under: Future, Journalism Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tips For Keeping Newspapers Alive Digitally

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In my efforts to re-invent journalism I have already begun the process of scouring the web and academic resources for articles and journals which might help inform my ideas. While I have already said I don’t like the process of academic research I am already surprised at some of the resources which I have found.

Today I came across an article published in the Winter 2008, Nieman Reports, by Edward Roussel (@edwardroussel) who is the Digital Editor for Telegraph.co.uk.

The article is entitled ‘To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present’ and it outlines 10 ways in which newspapers can shift their focus to the digital realm. Many of the tips I think are still very relevant, So in the spirit of sharing information I wanted to share his tips with you. I have tried to add my own take on what Roussel meant by each tip, so here we go.

1. Narrow the focus

Media organisations need to focus on providing content which differs from everyone else. They need to be prepared to spend time and money on providing this exclusive/premium content so they can differentiate themselves from the competition.

2. Plug into a network

Papers need to look at the content they provide and decide what they do well in covering and what they don’t. Once they find the key areas which they fail to provide good coverage in they should link across to someone who provides exceptional coverage. Users will love this.

3. Rolling news with views

Focusing on the readers is important to making content work. Look for when your audience is mostly visiting your site and then focus on providing content during those times. Remember that deadlines for papers always suited publishers but in the digital realm it is the readers who define what you do. Ignore 24hr news coverage and leave this to a wire service allowing you to focus on your readers.

4. Engage with your readers

Encourage your readers to interact with you through comments, forums, or social media. This keeps them interested and makes them feel involved in the news gathering process.

5. Bottom up, not top down

Focus on your reporting staff as they are in the best position to engage with your readers. They are most likely to know what readers are interested in and they should be placed in charge of areas of your site, like blogs, which will get readers talking.

6. Embrace Multimedia

Run workshops to teach your staff the importance of using multimedia resources along with their stories. Multimedia can not only enhance a resource but also keep visitors interested in your online presence. You can also use multimedia very effectively to sell the most important stories you cover. Make sure your editors especially know the importance.

7. Nimble, low cost structures

Look at your costs and consider outsourcing parts of the business which you don’t do well to someone who does. Don’t spend time on advertising if you are not good at selling your ads, consider using Google or another ad-network if they can do a better job. However don’t let this shift your focus from your editorial content as this is what you should be doing well.

8. Invest in the web

If you plan to survive digitally you need to make sure that your web infrastructure can handle it. Push serious money into your website so that it can become the backbone of your new digital news organisation. Your website needs to reflect your new digital focus.

9. Shake up leadership

Get rid of key people who cling too tightly to printed newspapers. They will disrupt your ability to move digital and may become a hindrance to your survival. You don’t need them if they won’t innovate.

10. Experiment

To be at the forefront you need to be constantly in development and trying new things. Look for opportunities and don’t be afraid to try them out.

Filed Under: Journalism, Newspapers, Research Tagged With: , , ,

Getting My Head Around Honours Research

March 18, 2010 By 3 Comments

It just doesn’t make much sense to me….. research that is. As a journalist usually we are trying to be as anti-academia as possible, yet this year I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place because there is no avoiding it.

Today Adrian was talking us through different research methodologies and how although our research might not be very specific we all have a different approach to how we do research. While I’m sure that many of the other students have had more experience with actual research than me this point did resonate, albeit only slightly.

Ok, so I understand that everyone researches differently, and I may be an encyclopedic person knowing many different snippets of knowledge but that doesn’t change the fact that research and journalism clash head-on.

All of my university based study up until now has been very practical. Even when there were requirements occasionally in my course to write essays the actual essay content was limited. Now I find myself needing to write over 15,000 words in essays in first semester alone. I just don’t get how all my journalism experience can be used in a research arena. Practically I get it, but I am still struggling to link the practical aspects of my honours project with the whole idea of researching. I don’t understand the purpose of trawling through academic journals… I don’t understand how that helps me in my quest to re-invent journalism.

On the whole I find the research process, as I understand it, to be completely backwards, disruptive, and non-progressive. But I’m a journalist and this year for me is about completing an excellent project not for complaining about the research.

Filed Under: Honours, Journalism, Research Tagged With: , ,

Re-Inventing Journalism: Can It Be Done In One Year?

March 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It will be a hard topic to cover in just one year but during 2010 I will be attempting to re-invent journalism as if it were just being invented for the first time. That means I will be examining the current resources available on and offline which could all be combined together to make a brand new 21st century journalism model.

To kick-start my honours research we were asked to come up with a 4 line abstract of our project. The abstract covers 4 key points and can be used to give a guide for why you are attempting the project and how you will do it.

Here is the structure of the 4 lines.

  1. The problem.
  2. This matters because.
  3. I propose or think that…
  4. And this will make a difference (or this matters) because…

Initially I struggled with this and my abstract may need some work over the coming weeks but here it is.

  1. Media companies are stuck in the industrial age unable to fully realise the potential of new technology.
  2. This is causing many companies to fail to think about the best journalistic practice in the 21st century.
  3. I propose to re-invent journalism as if it were to be invented for the first time in 2010.
  4. This will allow the journalism industry to realise the full potential of technology and innovation hopefully open the door for journalism to become a profitable and dynamic industry.

What do you think?? Is my task to big? Can I really just re-invent journalism?

Filed Under: Honours, Journalism, Research Tagged With: , , ,