Future of News: Media Convergence or for the news public

1
Future of News Media Convergence or for
the news public?

• Nora Paul
• Institute for New Media Studies
• npaul_at_umn.edu

2
News is undergoing change

• Array of choices for getting news

Nightly News
3
News is undergoing change

• Anyone is a reporter
• Rodney King
• Todd Beamers report from Flight 93
• Space shuttle explosion

4
News is undergoing change

• Anyone is a publisherBlogs
• Who runs a blog?
• (estimated 2.4 million)
• Who reads a blog?

5
News is undergoing change

• Audience is changing
• Time shifters
• Time starved
• Participants / contributors
• Multi-appliance users
• Action takers
• Niche not Mass
• Identify by interest not geography
• Growing users of online news
• Trust through triangulation

6
News is undergoing change

• No more mono-media companies
• Alliances with former competitors
• Poynters Convergence Catalog

7
Media Convergence

• Newspaper / cable news partnerships
• Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Comcast
• Orlando Sentinel / Time-Warner
• Newspaper / Television cross-ownership
• Tampa Tribune / WFLA
• Chicago Tribune / CLTV / WGN
• Newspaper / Television collaboration
• San Antonio Express-News / KENS /
  mysanantonio.com

8
Convergence different levels different
successes

• Converged Newsrooms cross-training of
  journalists
• Deep resistance
• Training issues
• Pay equity issues
• Converged Branding cross-promotion of products
• Most effective convergence impact

9
Convergence different levels different
successes

• Converged Advertising cross media sales
• Resistance from advertising sales and clients
• Difficult to find equitable models
• Converged Technology cross platform production
• The Holy Grail
• Production cycle coordination
• Content format varieties

10
Convergence different levels different
successes

• Converged Content cross-pollination of content
• Online is still an after-thought
• Little created originally for the web
• Downsizing of online news creative staff
• Removal of online news from the legacy newsroom
  (though that is shifting back)

11
News Story on Convergence

• Jim Lehrers News Hour

12
Reactions
13
Convergence Issues

• Different media uses what is the audience
  looking for?
• Dilution of the media - fewer voices?
• Dilution of values - Speed is the enemy of
  accuracy ltTom Rosentiel, Project for Excellence
  in Journalismgt
• Independence of media in a collaborative
  reporting environment

14
Convergence Issues

• Competition Its not whose idea it is, its
  whos in the best position to drive the story
  ltDonna Reed, Tampa Tribune Managing Editorgt
• Little emphasis on developing a new medium TV
  is the appetizer. Newspapers are the main course.
  Internet is the dessert. ltMichelle Bearden,
  Tampa Tribune Religion writergt
• New organizational models / new newsroom roles

15
I beg to differ

• Arthur Sulzberger chairman of the NYT
• The plain truth is I dont give a tinkers damn
  how we distribute our information I am
  absolutely agnostic regarding methods of
  distribution.

16
Questions?
17
(No Transcript)