(My Mac just crashed, and more than half-way into this post, which I’ll now have to re-create. That so sucks.)
As a follow-up to the “future of journalism” post and the great discussion it generated (thank you, all), I’m wondering what the ideal new media venture in journalism should look like, imagining it to be unencumbered by legacy media models (and recognizing that there isn’t one ideal). In other words, let’s dream up a couple of VCs interested in good journalism and open to leveraging new media to both gather and report that good journalism. What would the venture look like? Who would it serve? What kinds of information would it provide, and in what media forms?
A New York Times article on national political news startup The Politico spurred this question. Several aspects of the new news site intrigue me. First, its drill-down on one interest, national politics. Listen to the financier of the site, Robert Allbritton, tell the Times why he’s interested in such specialization:
“Newspapers have to be all things to all people. On the Internet, there is no one site that delivers everything. It’s broken down into mini-mini-subdivisions of interests and they attract people who are passionately interested in one subject.”
He’s describing the Long Tail and one of many reasons why old, big media are having such a rough go on the Net. Lots of niches, specialties, interests. The numbers of new competitors just keeps growing exponentially. Allbritton’s characterization also implies proximity, as we’ve been discussing it. On the Web, The Politico is just as close (or far away) to the reader as both the “national” and “international” sections of the Times, or anything else on the Web for that matter. Hypertext, RSS, tools of customization and good search mean that we no longer need omnibus publications that try to be all things to all people, or even most things to a lot of people.
I’m also interested in The Politico’s leveraging of old media to take advantage of the new. The new publication will have a weekly 30-minute cable TV program, a daily five-minute radio program, and its writers and reporters will appear on CBS News, write for Time, produce blogs and — gasp! — opportunistically promote themselves and the publication. This is entrepreneurism, and old media works very hard to erect and maintain high, thick walls separating editorial from the business side. This cross-platform, multi-channel coverage could really work in Northwest Georgia, which does not have TV stations between Chattanooga and Atlanta. A HUGE opportunity here for video.
So, here’s the exercise: You just got a big bag of money. Your charge is, like The Politico’s, to launch a journalism enterprise online that serves an audience very, very well. For the sake of this exercise, let’s say our audience is Northwest Georgia (not merely Rome, but not Atlanta, either). We have enough money to, as The Politico did, hire some really good journalists and put together a converged newsroom. We have enough money to not worry about debt . . . much . . . at least not yet. Describe your new venture.
(The first draft was so much better, but that’s always the case, right? Alas . . . Gotta start saving more often.)
January 16, 2007 at 9:12 pm |
My idea is an online multimedia newspaper that serves the NW Georgia community both traditionally with journalists publishing stories in written format online and also making stories available in a more technologically advanced format. In addition to the HD production video equipment, journalists use camcorders to get stories, and to record reactions to stories. These are imbedded in the articles online to add flavor. The articles also have a “chat back” feature” so that readers can react to what they read and provide “man on the street” perspectives. Readers could also submit videos or other recordings related to the articles.
All of this is part of a broader television based service that depends on digital cable access (if they have Comcast or satellite service, this could work). Here, the articles are provided over the TV (such as “On Demand” services) where people could choose news segments of interest to them, use their remotes to drill further for details, or provide feedback (though it would probably be multiple choice at this stage due to sheer volume of feedback and the necessity for brevity to ensure its usefulness.) For example, search for news just as you search for TV content by subject: sports, politics, local, weather, etc. You could click what you want to see and continue until you get the information you are looking for: Sports local Berry baseball. One could then select recent articles on Berry baseball and at the end of each article, there may be several feedback options: Was this article of interest? Would you like to see highlights from the last game? Would you like to view the roster and statistics for this team? In other words, it turns your TV’s cable or satellite interface into an internet browser with links to media and news.
Information is power, but only when it’s controlled by a few who dish it out as they see fit, but now, information is practically free, and more than plentiful. The problem is weeding through the junk to get to what you really want. Having feedback capability online, or through digital TV set boxes, allows the producer to continuously monitor what the subscribers are looking for, and refine the content to better serve the clients. The interactive nature not only allows the viewer/subscriber to react to the media, but to also contribute to it, which I think gives it a local flavor.
January 17, 2007 at 11:17 pm |
Emily, I’m not sure I understand the business model here. The first part sounds like a plan for online news that incorporates video and facilitates dialogue with readers. Is that right? So the opportunity here is the fact that there isn’t such a publication covering NW Georgia. The format is not new. (I do caution against using video “for flavor.” If the story is best told with video, and many are, then we should use video. If it is not, then I don’t think we should go out and get video to merely “add flavor.” We can talk about this.)
(it’s “embedded” not “imbedded”)
the second half of the post I think recommends TV-delivered news that could be surfed, viewed much as a Web site. Is this right? Would this be video or text-based or both?
I like your last paragraph, and I think whatever company we fund, we would want to include Digg-like rankings and leverage social networking to order our stories, at least as an option. We should discuss this, too.
January 18, 2007 at 12:19 pm |
While I do not have any experience building, or working at, a newsroom, I do have experience trying to find news that is relevant to me. And the experience that I usually have is difficulty. So in my model, I was trying to think of a way to find the thing most interesting to me, and most of the changes I would make in my own journalistic enterprise would be the way it was shown to the audience.
First of all, I would have a very small headquarters simply for editors, and the journalists would be of the traveling assortment. With these traveling reporters, I would sent GPS trackers so they could beam their coordinates while working on a story.
With the reports sent in by the traveling journalists, the editors would look over them and publish them to the internet, in whatever format the journalist reported in. But the major difference in my company would be this: searching the news by location. You could search for news within 25, 50, 100 miles of your home. Also, you could open a google map, scroll through your region and see all recent and past news stories plotted right on a GPS image.
More interaction, including downloadable and instantly syncing material like videos and podcasts, would be updated based on your preferences, both by the type of beat reporting you prefer and the location of the reports.
I truly believe this model is more in the direction we are heading. Not everyone wants to hear the same news, and this way everyone can hear what they want to hear, when they want to hear it. And it is automatically synced with whatever portable device they are using so they can read, listen to, and view the news while they are on the run.
January 18, 2007 at 1:15 pm |
Yes, it would be online news with video and interaction/feedback with readers. I agree, video shouldn’t be superfluous, but if there is video, it would be listed within the article.
The TV-delivered news would be viewed much like a Web site. It would be both video and text-based. I was thinking about this over the past week since there are often commercials with teasers of news stories, but you never know exactly when they will get to the story you are interested in. This way, you could bypass what doesn’t interest you and get the information you want much easier. Maybe there could be a “favorites” system if there are subjects you consistently view and search for.
January 18, 2007 at 2:22 pm |
When I first started brainstorming for this idea, I thought of the technology that would be needed. So the first part of my model is that somehow the computer and television would have to be physically combined so that the consumers only needed one piece of technology instead of having multiple. My reasons for having this one piece of technology is mainly for convience, you only have to go to one thing in your house for everything media related.
Now for what this new technology would offer. First it would by hyperpersonal (and yes I made that term up). The consumer would program everything to fit their needs. You would not have to buy bundles of channels, you would pick just the certain ones, each having an individual price. This would be especially nice here in northwest Georgia where we get multiple of the same channel. While the cable providers would still offer the local channels within 50 miles each individual would pick which channels they personally received at their home.
Newspapers and magazines would work the same way. Consumers would subscribe to either a whole magazine/newspaper that would be delivered electronically to them or they could just search through articles and individually pay to view them. Of course there would still be the free sites that consumers could get some of these things from.
Basically any kind of media a consumer could want they would download, whether free or paid, onto this one piece of technology that would then organize and provide some sort of search for consumers to know what they have.
I know this idea needs more developing and has a long way until it would be feasible, but since I have basically all the money I could need for this I figured I would dream big.
January 18, 2007 at 3:00 pm |
Well I think it is a well known fact that all print media (well most) of all forms are dying out slowly but surely. The internet has brought a few things. At the forefront of that is immediate gratification. I am awaiting news on whether or not Chan Gailey will be leaving Georgia Tech today and I expect to hear the news as soon as it is released. Not with the morning paper. In fact I would love to recieve a text message or another immediate form of it as soon as possible. Another area that the internet has brought is niche media. We don’t ask one media source to give us everything that we need and want. These are the two ideas that drive my media idea.
The network is called Omni Media. The key term in that sentence is network. Within this network you will find OmniWorld that delivers international news, OmniEntertainment that delivers, you guessed it, entertainment news, and my personal favorite, OmniSports which provides sports news. These are all parts of an online network that is run by the parent company of OmniMedia.com. The whole business will run from the internet. The internet is no longer tied to just computers so that will help our company more. We will have podcast for those on the go and with the new iPhone soon the podcast will be able to download staight to the phone and I am guessing that in the near future iPods will have direct download capabilities. We will strive to be the first group to report on any media because each area will have the sole purpose of reporting on only their niche. Hopefully in the future will also be able to break it down even farther and have an even smaller niche for our writers, reporters and bloggers.
January 18, 2007 at 3:15 pm |
OK, here’s my proposed business model:
We cover everything on http://www.northwestganews.com. A team of hired reporters is present in each major town, city and community in all the counties in northwest Georgia (let’s just say the 12 counties in the health district). Although our primary hard news stories and investigative pieces will come from this team of reporters, we will rely heavily on submissions, much like a small, weekly newspaper relies on them.
Obviously, anyone can access every feature on the website for free. Our revenue will come from advertisers all over northwest Georgia. Advertising representatives we hire will further be assigned to work with businesses and others in the Atlanta and Chattanooga areas because many in northwest Georgia shop and visit there. We won’t have popup ads on our site. Where we use writing as the primary means of telling the story, we’ll just have ads that are part of the pages themselves like on http://www.hometownheadlines.com. When we use video as the primary means of telling the story, we’ll have (very short) ads just before each news segment. We may even allow ads to scroll across the bottom of a newscast (although we’ll have to be very careful with this so that we aren’t, say, running an ad for a local chiropractor at the same time the viewer is watching a story about a murder in which the victim’s back was broken ).
To cut down on overhead, there will not be a “central office” of any sort. When editors and reporters and anybody else need to meet together in person, they will do so in a public meeting area like a library or at a coffee shop or restaurant or in each other’s homes. Face to face meetings will be rare anyhow. We can use Second Life, chats, cell phones, email and other forms of communication to carry out most of the assignments. Every hired reporter will be furnished with a video camera, a cell phone and a laptop equipped with Internet service anywhere you can get a cell phone signal (what is that service called?).
What will we cover? We’ll report on all the usual hard news stuff – fires, murders, city and county commission meetings, school board news, raising taxes, etc. We’ll also post community announcements (i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on Tuesday, PTO meeting Friday), cover community sports and do feature/human interest stories on lots of local people and events. We’ll do investigative journalism too. Obviously, we give readers/viewers the means to post comments on every story as well submit news items of their own in a special section of the site.
As for video, all of our news will be carried on cable and satellite television at regular showing times, but we’ll also post our newscasts online. Rather than posting entire newscasts online at once, we’ll post individual segments as we get them done. They’ll be available for viewing any time. Viewers won’t have to watch the entire newscast either; they can just skip around to what they want to see. Our television newscasts will promote our website and our website will promote our television side.
January 18, 2007 at 3:23 pm |
Hmm, some really good ideas here. James asks one of the more important questions driving news startups online right now: How do I find what’s interesting to me (and only what is interesting to me)? How do I filter the “too much” out there?
Digg.com, GoogleNews, Yahoo’s portal — many different possible answers to this question, but it is one of the more important questions, and problematic. Because you, sir, are changing. Your preferences today might not be the same tomorrow. How to hit a moving target. But excellent question.
Combining geo-positioning information with all sorts of other information, like restaurant information, real estate and, as James suggests, news, also is a huge trend online. I like his idea of using geo-positioning to help answer his first question regarding how to filter, how to identify relevant news. Excellent.
(the word would be “synching” not “syncing”)
Emily describes a sort of TiVo for Web news delivered via the television. This is worth exploring, because TiVo is very, very good at saving time and filtering.
Laura invents a wonderful new word, “hyperpersonal.” Let’s talk about the potential benefits of hyperpersonal news (and its drawbacks). She also recommends, as so many have, combining the TV and the PC. Because we look to these two appliances for such vastly different purposes, so far, the combinations haven’t done too well. But improvements in display screens and, the nuclear weapon here, digital movie downloads, it is inevitable, I think. She’s right to jump on this bandwagon.
(it is “convenience”, and “media-related” would be hyphenated — compound adjective)
Clay is on his way to branding his outfit — “OmniMedia”, which actually was the name of an Internet launch from Hearst back in 2000. It didn’t make it, so the name might be available. More importantly, his concept behind it, of organizing content by medium and by category. This, too, is a way of filtering or at least organizing, after which filters could be used.
So we’re locking in on some fundamentals:
Filtering
Combinations of media for delivery
Customization
Geo-positioning and mapping
MoJos to get the content
Hyperpersonal (to add to hyperlocal)
We’re on our way.
January 18, 2007 at 3:24 pm |
$25 million is a lot of money which would allow us many opportunities to reach the Northwest Georgia population. I really like how “The Politico” will reach an audience in multiple forms: cable TV, radio, newspaper, blogs, and other ways online. I propose the same method for Northwest Georgia. As always, our audience must be considered first. My goal would be to reach as many people of all ages as possible. Therefore, having several ways to find information is important (television, radio, newspaper, online, etc…) because we have to think about the means that people like to (and are able to) receive information. Some of our audience may not be able to access a computer daily. What are their resources? This is why we need to accommodate their needs in several different formats. For example, our elderly audience is more likely to read the newspaper or watch a newscast than to get on the internet (at least that is what elderly people that I know would do). Some people prefer the internet while others the television, or a combination of both.
Unlike “The Politico,” our journalism enterprise will not cover just one interest area. It will cover many such as religion, politics, local stories, health, weather, the arts, and national and international news. Our website would contain all of the information that television viewers and radio listeners would see and hear including video and audio clips. On the website’s home would be a general Northwest Georgia section with any major stories or information from any of its cities/counties. Also, each city/county would have its own link on the site with all sorts of information (religion, politics, health, etc…), any contact information for people related to the prospective subject areas, and additional links/ways to find more information.
The goal would be for our enterprise to be hyperlocal. We have to start locally before we can go bigger than that. We have the man power and technology to do a lot, to cover many topics, and truly grasp the essence of the Northwest Georgia area.
January 18, 2007 at 3:33 pm |
While I was responding, two more came in. Both good. Rachel recommends leveraging old media to cross-promote and to saturate our market, like the Politico. Good. Melissa recommends this, too. Of course, for TV, we would have to invent it. That’s the opportunity, but terribly expensive if we’re planning the broadcast model. If Web-delivered video, not nearly as expensive.
Rachel also recommends MoJos, with vidcams, Blackberrys and laptops. Small office. Meet in SecondLife, chat. Good. Both Rachel and Melissa recommend hyperlocal and covering all the major beats. We don’t have to worry about the Long Tail as much because there isn’t much competition.
Two questions for Rachel: You mention using “submissions”, like small weeklies. From whom? Of what kind?
And, you say “obviously, all would be available online for free. Why is this obvious? I ask because it is not standard. Many newspapers charge for access. I think this is incredibly dumb, but they do.
January 18, 2007 at 3:49 pm |
I think that the future of journalism is most definitely instantaneous and that the easiest, most accessible medium will be the internet.
With that much money, a completely internet based news program could be created. A large network of servers and technicians working with top notch journalists, photographers, videographers and designers could be orchestrated to provide constant, up-to-date information about everything from environmental issues to high school football scores with hopefully little interference from technical problems.
With the right advertising and a high enough number of hits, a free acess web page could easily sustain itself even when the “nest egg” has run out.
January 18, 2007 at 4:03 pm |
We would potentially accept submissions from anyone not working for the news organization.
Submissions would include (but wouldn’t be limited to) “letters to the editor,” cooking columns, announcements about upcoming spelling bees in schools, periodic reports on what happens in a particular community (i.e. there is a fender bender on Smallest County Road so you might want to use an alternate route, the Smiths are having a family reunion on Sunday, etc.). Submissions could include reactions to and supplements for major news stories but we wouldn’t rely on them to deliver the bigger stuff that is going to be of interest to lots and lots of people.
I said the content should “obviously” be available for free because I don’t think a news organization whose primary delivery format is the Internet can make money by charging for content. Few people want to pay for content from reputable established local news agencies (like http://www.timesfreepress.com, the website of the Chattanooga Times Free Press which charges $4.95 a month for people who haven’t subscribed to the print edition), let alone for content from a startup venture. They especially wouldn’t want to pay for it if we’re going to show the news on television anyhow. Our business model in this sense would be much like the television model — you have to pay for cable or satellite service and a television but you don’t pay for individual newscasts. This is the same idea. People pay for Internet service and a computer but not for the content they see on the site. We should be able to sell enough ads to cover the costs of making all our Internet content free.
January 18, 2007 at 4:15 pm |
The New Community: Online and Endless
What? I am creating a new media that provides extreme hyper-locality to the North Georgia Community.
How? I would hire journalists to cover every “area” of North Georgia and allow them to cover anything and everything in their area.
Why? We could offer North Georgia a media experience that is not available anywhere, just for the purposes of bringing connectedness, and convenience to the area.
The online application of this would be a map of the entire North Georgia area and all participating (meaning registered) members of the network could travel anywhere on the map (friend’s houses, stores, parks, churches, mountains, ect…) and chat with people, read blogs, ride their skateboard, or just simply find out the latest news. Everything in North Georgia could be covered, but not featured. People could get the information they want and wouldn’t get the things they don’t want. The people would have total control about what they see. The premise of this is not new, it is similar to Warcraft and Second Life, but the difference is that it is a real place with real people.
So Johnny, age 15, could go over to his friend’s house and leave a message, or stop by his High School to read about his new English teacher. While at school he may find several news articles about the new Gym being built, or the parent/teacher conference that turned violent, He could then quickly view this week’s cafeteria menu, and then check out that research book he needs from his school’s online library, and be home in time for dinner.
Now this new network is not just for kids and socializing, it is also for business deals, advertising (of course), public awareness, and just to find out the phone number of the cute Italian Restaurant down the street. It is for everyone, because everyone has an input. There would be blogs everywhere and bulletin boards to insert your own videos or pictures, movie theaters to watch the cable show that doesn’t reach your area, and personal filing cabinets to keep whatever you want.
Of course there could be all sort of parental controls built into the system and of course this would be very controversial.
This new media would eliminate traditional phonebooks, take-out menus, and among other things, printed newspapers.
Each community would still have their own newspapers, but they would just publish them online.
I think the most important functional aspect of this new media should be its “user-friendliness.” Secondly I would like to be able to eliminate the technological rules of the internet in order for the users to be able to do anything and everything they want. .
There are many other ideas for this new media, my brain hurts.
January 18, 2007 at 4:24 pm |
I imagine Blackberry devices and Smart Phones will be on the rise soon so first of all I think it will be important to take advantage of those products. Sorry to say, but the iPhone isn’t all that great, except for the fact that it’s Apple. But anyways, I know that digital is in and will be in for a long time. Expanding on what we have and innovating the way we receive news will be the only thing different in the next 10 years.
With $25 million, a lot could be done. I think first of all the internet bandwidth needs to be drastically improved. I think it’s safe to say that even consumers such as you and me have an at home internet connection of maybe 6 mb? This enables a maximum speed of say 500 kbps down and about 80-120 kbps up. If we want our news as fast as we demand it, that’s going to have to change.
I think a lot of people might want to receive instant video and audio news on their iPhones/Smart Phones/Blackberries in the future. I think mobile is where we are headed. I think a distribution network collecting these broadcasts from around the world will be beneficial.
I’m having trouble collecting my thoughts right now, I apologize, but I hope you can see where I’m headed. I would use the money to research faster internet and create a company to distribute the news via video to phones and devices used by consumers.
January 18, 2007 at 4:28 pm |
I would use the $25 million to fund a NW GA highschool sports website. As football seems to be the predominant sport in the area, I’ll use it for examples. The basis of the website would be articles written by (well-paid) highschool students attending games, watching practices, etc. which would be posted on the site. The format of the website would not be unlike a “live” coverage page found on the BBC. A section that is particulary interesting to the die-hard highschool sports fan would be an “as it happens” update, similar to the BBC’s “clockwatch”. This is where live updates are posted by journalists as they watch the games. For example, if Armuchee is playing Rome highschool and scores a touchdown seven minutes into the first quarter, seconds after it happened a reader could see something like, “7 minutes Touchdown: Armuchee quarterback Wilson rolls out of the pocket and eventually decides to go on a mazy run to score a hard-fought six points.” Updates on the climate of the game could be provided as well, something like, “11 minutes: Rome’s pressure is telling as linebacker Simmons sacks Armuchee QB Jenkins.” Information about player fitness and team selection could be updated as well.
Distribution of information would include Really Simple Syndication for those who have read feeders, podcasts for those with iPods (the site could have a talk show or just read some of the articles aloud for this), and articles and “as it happens” pages on the website.
To me, the most attractive aspect of the site is the readily accessible, rapidly-updapted information. If the site could recruit writers for each sport at each school, it would be the place to get NW GA highschool sports updates. (That’s where the majority of the $25 m would be spent, along with the technology needed at each school for this.)
January 18, 2007 at 4:30 pm |
In response to Andy’s comment, my father did some contract work for Verizon a few months ago and says that live video on phones is not far away from the production board!
January 18, 2007 at 4:31 pm |
My idea for a new organization of the future is a subscription service that can be used by any news organization (local, national or international) as a portal for comparative and feedback motivated new packages.
The ” News Hub” is highly customizable and is more of a widget than a website. The hub acts as a frame for news perusal. When you first open the hub it displays the 10 top news packages of the day based on the rating system of members who have opened the story.
Members sign up for free and are taken to tailored individual based hubs where the news most relevant to them (based on past searches and a optional survey taken at sign up) is gathered. Much like what Amazon.com does but hopefully a little better and more sophisticated.
Members can have the site “remember” what their news tendencies are and/or they can fill their specific news interests (location, type, company, etc.)
Members can also request follow ups on stories they read and are interested in. The follow ups are flagged and stored in the members hub and can be easily retrieved or emailed to a portable device.
The “Hub” is highly user oriented. (borrowing a little from blogging and wikipedia) each story has a complex commentary ability so that users can leave comments, add video, images, links to other sources or stories and other information related to the story.
The Widget design of News Hub means that you can easily navigate off site without ever leaving the “hub.”
Commentary is also customizable by users and good comments can be nominated through a star system and which moves the story up the line. Three comments are visible when the package is first visible with a link to the rest of the comments.
Members can select other users who they feel have good comments and can flag their comments for perusal or email notification in all further stories of similar subject or on all stories commented upon. This gives every member a “blog” that can both be in a million places (attached to story packages throughout the “hub”) or combined into one customizable page (much like blogger)
NewsHub gives the local news more power. The power of the news hub is that it is a program that is attached to a huge network of other NewsHubs run by individual news organizations but that is controlled by the local news. The Rome News Tribune could set up a NewsHub where it would put up all of its news stories that could be blended with local TV news who also has a NewsHub. Stories from both can be viewed side by side in the users NewsHub with commentary and related stories that has been edited and ranked by other users for relevance, truth, one-sidedness and interest.
NewsHub gives citizen journalists more power and gives news organizations a format for comparison and competition. It allows a local news organization to focus on local news while allowing it to relate on a national/ international level. It allows hyperlocality combined with enormous selection. Individual Newshubs allows subscribing news organizations pace to place local advertising in combination with the ads that NewsHub Corp. places to keep up the network
January 18, 2007 at 4:46 pm |
I was thinking along the same lines as Melissa, with the seniors population out there. Of course, not just the seniors, but other families that don’t use the internet b/c of fear, lack or resources or otherwise. They are still a part of our audience, even if it may be a small part. I think that retaining this part of our audience is important. I know my grandparents don’t use a computer or watch TV, only print media. While increasingly this population may diminish, I think we should retain some print aspect of the media. Maybe just a local newsletter format would be simple enough.
We have been talking about “hyperlocal”. What if we really involved the community. Beyond the usual “letter to the editor”, let’s have some people in the community do some reporting, in addition to the journalists. Who better to talk about the things that are most important to those in the community than those living there? This could include prominent members of the community as well as the local librarian, business owner or teacher. keeping different locals writing all the time would peak the interest, of the target audience. If you heard that someone you knew would be writing, wouldn’t you read it? Just a thought.
January 18, 2007 at 4:47 pm |
$25 million and what to do?
My proposed idea is not what I would call a vision that lies within me. I hope you all can see where I am coming from and make sense of this. I can tell you I struggled with an idea and platform. Dr. Carroll please let me know if I have fulfilled the assignment. I am revamping some current techniques, not truly invented my own.
Northwest, GA is a very weird area for me, but it could be a profitable arena for a niche medium or media, thus, us brainstorming this very hypothetical platform.
The best venue is online and TV. I say TV because Northwest, GA is a retirement area, in my opinion, so let’s face it grandpa and granny are not going online for news and even some of our parents who are “baby boomers.” And we can’t exclude them from this.
I agree with Liz and others concerning hiring a reporter to cover every county. In fact, reflecting back on my internship at WTVF, they had reporters that covered different counties and on their website they had a section that was literally called “Covering the Counties.” It worked for them and allowed the news to be every more localized.
On the lines of “Politico,” I was also thinking of a niche “diet and fitness” online blog/ website where dialogue is exchanged. Many people would be interested in this site in Northwest, GA. I believe it will attract varies age ranges and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Features of the online website: streaming, interactive video.
The website and TV station will be converged under one roof, working from one assignment desk editor.
TV: I would incorporate some of Dr. Carroll’s suggestion of cutting the 30 minute newscast down. I am thinking of revamping the traditional news desk and make it a more inviting space for viewers to come in.
Also, reflecting on my NY1 News intern, reporters used blackberry’s to send scripts to the producers. There was no need for the reporter to come back to their desk…write the story and then submit. The producer was on stand-by and the reporter wrote the story on the scene and the news was instantly available online and as “breaking news” commentary for the anchor until the editor could edit the b-roll. This allows the viewer to stay tuned for 6 or 10 to see the entire story.
O.K…that’s my spill. Thanks for trying to understand:)
January 18, 2007 at 4:50 pm |
In creating a new enterprise, I am seeing a trend of personalization. People want to get the information about issues they care about and only the information about issues they care about. They don’t want any filler information about issues they do not care about.
I would focus on personalizing the news as well as making it mobile. It would probably all be Internet based, but available on mobile phones as well. I would use the money I have to create connections with the mobile phone companies to allow my personalized news to be available to their clients.
That would be a lot like the Internet that is already available on mobile phones, except that it will not be as limited. The Internet available on mobile phones already is basically what the phone companies want people to see, they can see their sports scores, but they cannot get information about the sports they are looking at. They can only see how the game went quantitatively, not qualitatively.
The news that would be provided by my enterprise would be interactive, so that someone can click on the game they are looking at, and see how the game went, who did well and who did not do so well. It would be the same way for other news aspects. The consumer could choose what they want to know about, and from there, get much more information about the subjects they care about. This would all be available on their mobile phone, as well as online.
Mobility and personalization is an area that I can see the news media traveling to, not a limit that I would put on the company. It would probably also have television and newspaper coverage.
January 18, 2007 at 5:05 pm |
I’m so uncreative that I have a hard time to come up with something and that’s probably the reason what took me so long.
I think it is very important to know what is going on in the world, but, nevertheless, sometimes one just doesn’t find the time to watch the news on the TV or go online. If I would have the capability to built a new organization I would make internet browsing on cell phones free and then provide an automatic service that sends news headlines, short summaries and maybe video streams to cell phones to keep everyone in the loop.
The idea behind this is that we think that everyone has an internet access, but I think this is not necessarily the case. What I think though is that cell phones are far more important and also rather available for some people than internet. Therefore, the availability of consumers is even bigger. It would take just a minute or two to read news on the phones and it could be done everywhere at anytime without much effort. Furthermore, going online still needs more effort than using our cell phones, even in the time of laptops. Cell phones do not need internet connection, thus it would be more convenient in, for instance, buses or trains.
January 18, 2007 at 9:05 pm |
Several more great ideas here.
Liz returns us to hyperlocality for, as she puts it, “connectedness.” I like that. She also really steps out there in proposing a sort of marriage between our first lives and a SecondLife kind of virtual mapping of our real world. Some serious privacy concerns here, particularly for our 15-year-old, but I like the big idea here.
Andy emphasizes mobility, portability and, therefore, ubiquity. I think he’s right. So his appliance of choice is the Blackberry, or something like it. Vanessa has similar sentiments, favoring the cell phone.
Jonathan lasers in on high school sports. I like the specialization. I’m not sure we want high schoolers writing it, but I do like the drill-down and the near-real-time blogging aspect he describes. Remind me to tell you of a student I had who does this at ACC football and basketball games.
Leslie lobbies for citizen journalism. A good idea, but certainly not a new one. Check out Backfence.com, and many others I will mention along our journey. Perhaps my favorite is New West Network, serving Missoula, Montana. http://www.newwest.net/.
Tametria is sticking with the television, but wisely ditching the 30-minute “program” concept that is a remnant of our radio days. (Each new dominant medium borrows heavily from the previous dominant medium, for better and for worse.)
Tricia emphasizes personalization and customization, echoing Laura’s “hyperpersonal.”
What I think I like best in all of this is your entrepreneurism. You guys are having seemingly little trouble thinking like startup capitalists. That’s good. What I need to you do is think outside the appliance box. Think beyond the appliances as we use them today. What’s next? Patrick gets at this by combining the functionality of Digg.com with the algorithmic recommendation system sites like Amazon use as features of his NewsHub concept.
Keep it coming. A wonderful froth of engagement.