SUMMER 2009
INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS Human Intelligence. Real Influence. INTRODUCTION
THANKS TO THE INTERNET, and wide. Anyone can read a piece of Then there’s Twitter, where anybody everyone’s a journalist. Or are they? news, dash off a diatribe about the can post whatever news they want We all certainly have the tools to get issue and share it with the world. But straight onto the update stream as long our message out, whatever that may does that make them journalists? as it’s no longer than 140 characters. be. But does such access make us a What of reporting standards, writing Yet despite its extreme popularity, it has new type of journalist? What does the skills, source-vetting, libel laws, no revenue model in place. future hold for a profession if anyone professional ethics, fact-checking can take it up whenever they choose? guidelines, copy editing styles—the How does all this affect traditional traditional building blocks of news organizations? Until recently, Your next-door neighbor may be a journalism? Will some of those tenets their core offerings were pretty big fan of “Law & Order.” But would be set aside in the future? From a standard and familiar; journalists you ask him to draw up legal reporting perspective, what’s the working with established processes documents for you? Or say your difference between an experienced delivering news to the public in nephew is a whiz with a crayon and photojournalist on the streets of printed or broadcast form. So what can build one hell of a LEGO Tehran and a protester with a camera purpose do those organizations serve mansion. Would you hand over phone and a Twitter account? Can when on-the-spot citizen journalists drafting duties for your garage they exist in harmony? get the scoops and feed them into addition? Or maybe you are worried interactive media instantly and for about recurrent pain in your stomach. It’s an idea whose time has come. free? What happens to news as we Would you be satisfied with a Grassroots citizen reporting and knew it when traditional news diagnosis from your hypochondriac everyman commentary via social organizations’ advertising revenue office mate? media and blogs are a fact of life. In and audiences are going online? some cases there’s an editorial There’s no talk of “citizen lawyers” process in place. For example the Over the past nine months nations or “citizen architects” or “citizen pioneering OhmyNews, based in around the world have watched in doctors.” Yet plenty of lip service is South Korea, gathers reports from bewilderment as the automotive paid to “citizen journalists” these international “citizen” contributors industry faces a massive contraction days. The implication is clear. There’s but employs a trained editing staff to in demand that’s affecting hundreds no need to spend time working fulfill many of the traditional of thousands of jobs and toward a journalism degree, or functions of a news organization. shareholders. Over a longer period, in climbing the newsroom ladder to OhmyNews has been a critical and the background, the news industry learn the trade. Via the Internet, popular, if not financial, success, has been facing its own slow-motion anybody can disseminate a story. since its launch in 2002. The pileup. In this edition of Intelligent Anyone can latch onto a piece of business model is struggling Dialogue we look at some of the key gossip or a shocking photo, slap on a however, and a second outpost, in themes of one overarching question: sensational headline and send it far Japan, has been shuttered. What is the future of news?
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 3
SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
It’s disruptive to business models, which is always terrifying to people in high-margin businesses. While the ability of anyone to be a journalist—and attract an audience—is noteworthy in itself, the serious threat is a financial one. And not because of digital copying or other such stuff. It’s the erosion of the advertising model that has supported journalism for so long. —DAN GILLMOR, author, “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People”
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BIG QUESTION 1
WHAT IS THE STATE OF NEWS TODAY?
IT’S WHEN UNDENIABLE change hits, Ordinary news consumers may not give (“content that attracts consumers’ attention like now, that we get around to asking the question too much thought. They and advertisers’ budgets”). fundamental questions about the things we simply want what they want when they take for granted. want it. News industry professionals, > HAS NEWS BECOME academics and news addicts are more Old patterns of news consumption have likely to have their own answers, ranging A PRODUCT? It’s a sign of the irrevocably shifted: Print newspapers and from idealistic (“information and an times that readers or viewers of the news are magazines are struggling and folding by accurate account of events”) to bottom-line commonly thought of as “consumers.” And the dozen; audiences for traditional TV while journalists may not readily accept this newscasts are drifting away. And that pace growing perspective, they certainly have will only quicken as Digital Natives some idea of whom they’re serving. (who came of age reading news News purveyors have always been and watching “TV” online) more or less aware of their typical populate more and more of the audience profile. Some of the more media market and become key populist titles have prospered by decision makers. A few nostalgic having a sharp sense of what their members of our old-media guard audience wants and delivering it; will surely survive this downturn, but they while loftier organizations have will no longer be the major players they employed a “know-better” attitude once were. So, getting down to brass tacks, and given the audience “what’s what is “news” now? good for them.”
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 5
SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. —THOMAS JEFFERSON
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However, as competition has grown and They have shifted somewhat, with the the influence of marketing has spread, addition of lifestyle pieces, Web presences and media organizations have increasingly even iPhone apps (Le Monde, El País, de come around—willingly or otherwise—to Volkskrant, La Repubblica). Even thinking of their titles as larger brands and publications as highbrow as The Economist their audience as consumers. They have get playful with punny headlines and engaged brand consultants, conducted captions, not to mention that magazine’s semi- market research and paid ever more serious Big Mac Index and Burgernomics. attention to what “plays” in an effort to But they are still demanding reads. And increase their appeal. how much detail are readers willing or dumbing down its content in pursuit of even able to absorb anymore, whether it’s ratings, taking a more populist approach. > HAS NEWS BEEN current national politics or environmental CONSUMERIZED AND issues, let alone treaty negotiations or long- A quick glance at newsstands and TV DUMBED DOWN? running border disputes? How interested schedules confirms that consumers have an Some are they? Should they be interested? insatiable appetite for celebrities and traditional outlets still cover news with a human-interest stories. News coverage of “long-form” approach, spending time Many providers have decided the controversial Iranian elections and (and money) producing pieces content needs to be “sexed up” street protests had begun to die down until that require time and with sensationalized angles the murder of a pretty 20-something attention from a reader or (the Rupert Murdoch- woman, Neda, was caught on camera and viewer; this is especially ization of news). Short, video and broadcast worldwide, putting a true of heavyweight punchy news moments captivating and tragic face on the events. newspapers that see are interspersed with News and social networking traffic themselves as being lighter lifestyle spots to spiked. Then Michael Jackson died and standard bearers for their keep viewers the world’s media suddenly switched industry, such as the entertained gears. The news of the King of Pop’s Financial Times, Le (descendands of USA shocking end triggered massive surges in Monde in France, El País in Today, which has been both traditional media and new media Spain, Frankfurter Allgemeine nicknamed the “McPaper” traffic. Security and media analysts were Zeitung in Germany, La since birth). Even the venerable concerned that the sudden loss of attention Repubblica in Italy and the Volkskrant BBC, Britain’s public service could give Iranian authorities the chance and NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands. broadcaster, has come under fire for to crack down more heavily on opposition.
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While news pros have always known that a story plays better when given a personal focus, has celebrity culture ever been so dominant? Maybe the easy, immediate access to breaking news amplifies our desire for it. But across the board, in print, on TV and online, celebrities sell. > IS DUMBING DOWN A GLOBAL ISSUE? Looking outside the English-speaking world in which News Corporation’s influence and uber-commercial sensibility is so strongly felt, the dumbing down of news is less pronounced. It’s striking that even the most downmarket, mass-appeal titles in continental Europe feel far more subdued than their counterparts in the U.S. or the U.K. commercial satellite broadcasters—much of ethos is less important than the money. mass media in the region is entertainment- And most ply their trade as best they can. Are consumers in those countries really focused and ad-revenue driven, similar to Can we trust that market forces and less interested in pictures of pouting the West. Yet entertainment programming consumer demand will continue to celebrities or stories of sexual shenanigans does promote audience participation (call- generate the cash that news organizations and greedy executives? What about school in shows or text-in votes), empowering need to do their work? After 30 years of shootings, swine flu, serial killers and citizens to make their voices heard. That “free market triumphalism,” there’s a terrorists (all serious subjects yet ripe for desire to engage and share opinions will mood of market skepticism; in many areas screaming tabloid headlines)? likely filter into other areas of interest of life (finance, health care, environment), besides celebrity, and audiences will begin Or is it that “serious” news is still taken free markets alone don’t necessarily serve to demand it. Already tech-savvy Saudis more seriously in countries that have a history the common good. Actions that are and Egyptians are bypassing official of authoritarian government (Germany, Italy, beneficial in the short term to an controls to express their opinions. Spain, former Communist countries)? individual or to a corporation may ultimately damage its fabric. Porter Novelli China President John > SHOULDN’T NEWS Orme observes that in China, the media’s The most prestigious schools of role is seen to be a social and political one ULTIMATELY SERVE journalism and news organizations inculcate (spreading information and knowledge THE COMMON GOOD? the principle that journalists and reporters rather than creating and selling stories for Worldwide we see public ambivalence serve a much higher purpose than commercial purposes). Might this be a about journalists and reporters. In the providing info-tainment and filling the space positive avenue to pursue for countries in U.S., there’s a long-standing complaint between advertisements. The ethos is which commercially produced news is about the media’s “liberal” bias. In the embodied in the annual prize given by the becoming devalued and publishers and U.K., critics cry “checkbook journalism” French-based organization Reporters journalists are losing public trust? and newspapers publish titillating stories Without Borders: “This award honors a journalist who, by work, attitude or In the Arab and citing “public principled stands, has shown strong belief Muslim worlds, interest”; even the in press freedom, a media outlet that investments in new BBC is accused of exemplifies the battle for the right to inform technologies are having an the public and to be informed, a defender increasing access to institutional liberal of press freedom and a cyber-dissident transnational bias. Other countries spearheading freedom of expression online.” television and are also wary of Whatever other purposes news serves, in a Internet news and press misreporting world of complex issues and difficult opinions that or misrepresenting decisions, news has a vital role to play; how simply weren’t the facts. Yet the else can citizens/voters/consumers make there before, traditional ethos of informed decisions about matters of reports the the journalism common interest? magazine of the European Journalism profession is more about exposing lies than Centre. At a conference held last year by inventing them. It’s about discovering and This is certainly the view of The the Centre for Arab and Muslim Media reporting stories that matter. It’s about International Center for Journalists, based in Research (CAMMRO), researchers finding and telling the truth. Washington, D.C. It describes itself as a discussed how political news is currently Some journalists get the chance to do nonprofit professional organization that covered only “superficially” by Arab that and make big money; some decide promotes quality journalism worldwide in the
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belief that independent, vigorous media are In the past, journalists could focus on crucial in improving the human condition. gathering the facts and assembling them coherently for editors to process and publish. > WHAT’S THE JOB OF Journalists didn’t have to think about attracting an audience or understanding A JOURNALIST TODAY? distribution; that was the job of the company For many journalists, it’s a bitter question; that paid them. But as media titles staff posts are being cut, experienced themselves are struggling to retain existing journalists are being laid off and the audiences and reach new ones, journalists prospects for up-and-comers in established can no longer rely on them for exposure news organizations look grim. Experienced or pay. This issue was highlighted in a live professionals talking to journalism school discussion on “The Digital Future” hosted younger journalists: “What impresses me students find it daunting to tell them by the Guardian in the U.K.—itself a pioneer is that there’s a whole new generation of honestly just what faces them out there. in opening its API (application programming students coming out of universities who’ve interface) to Web developers. got three times as many skills as I ever According to American Society of News had. People are learning to adapt very fast. Editors figures, U.S. daily newspapers According to multimedia tech journalist I’m meeting twentysomething journalists shed 5,900 newsroom jobs in Robert Scoble: “Old journalists didn’t who can blog, create a Web site, shoot 2008, reducing employment have to worry about … how their video, do audio and write.” of journalists by 11.3 news or their words or their TV percent to the levels of or their radio was going to get Whatever the “higher purpose” of the early 1980s. In the heard by people. If you’re journalists may be going forward, the job U.K., the picture is online, you really have to work of journalists is to create content in forms similar; the National at getting distribution, at getting that attract and connect with audiences. Union of Journalists people to pay attention to you. They may deliver their content through reports 903 confirmed And that’s a different skill than a established news outlets, or they may editorial layoffs in the lot of old-school journalists have.” create their own news outlets. That may regional press alone between Veteran BBC journalist Rory Cellan- sound like a tall order, but most of today's July 2008 and March 2009. Jones noted a big change in skill sets of established media started small too.
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 9
BIG QUESTION 2 WHAT’S THE NEW NEWS BUSINESS MODEL?
> IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A In the United States, even venerable newspapers have been MODERN DEMOCRACY scaling back operations in order to AND MARKET ECONOMY reduce costs, limiting their ability TO OPERATE PROPERLY to provide their own in-depth WITHOUT RELIABLE investigations. In other countries, the pressures are SOURCES OF NEWS? less intense but the long-term There’s a good case for arguing that news trends still apply. Can news is a necessary utility, as much as water, organizations be run as power and garbage disposal. Democracy is business conglomerates, based on the principle of informed citizens applying principles as if voting on issues that affect vital aspects of they were factories? life. Could citizens be properly informed It’s a tough call. without news?
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On one hand, Australian-born Rupert aggregators such as Google News, Murdoch’s globe-spanning News or public news services such as the Corporation has been doing it for decades. BBC or CBC (Canada), which are It’s an organization run by news industry in effect utilities. With most professionals and it makes money, although newspapers and many the quality of some of its products is often newsmagazines, consumers have a criticized. It encompasses 20 newspaper choice: Either pay the cover price for titles in Australia, several major titles in the the printed version, or access the U.K. (the Sun, the Times) and the U.S. (the online or mobile version for free. New York Post, the Wall Street Journal), as Only a few mainstream news titles well as Fox Broadcasting Company in the such as The Economist and the Wall U.S., Sky Italia in Italy and 39 percent of Street Journal bar full online access Sky TV in the U.K. without a subscription. Another example is Italy’s Mediaset News Corp chairman Murdoch (privately owned, by the investment recently said falling print circulations company of Italian Prime Minister Silvio and advertising revenues mean Berlusconi), which owns TV stations that newspapers must begin charging for command 40 percent of the Italian viewing online content in the near future; readers audience and a major share in TV will only get the main headlines and production company Endemol. alerts for free. On the other hand, the Tribune Group of property magnate Sam Zell has found > CAN NEWS the business a lot tougher. In June 2008, ORGANIZATIONS the debt-burdened owner of the Los SWITCH TO PAID-ONLY Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel told CONTENT? There’s a clear its newspapers that pages should be business case for news content originators reduced to bring the ratio of advertising to charge for their product. The crunch to editorial pages to 50:50. Six months question: How will they make it happen? later, the group filed for bankruptcy As it stands, anyone can freely access major protection. news titles in most any language in which they are distributed. If one of those titles David Simon, former Baltimore Sun decided to go subscription-only, would journalist and co-creator of HBO’s “The consumers pay up to access it, or would they Wire,” testified to the U.S. Senate just move on to the others? What would Commerce Committee: “When locally make paying the subscription seem based, family-owned newspapers like the worthwhile? Should online access cost less Sun were consolidated into publicly owned than the print cover price, since there are no newspaper chains, an essential dynamic, printing costs and barely any for distribution? an essential trust between journalism and the communities served by that journalism Common sense suggests that competing was betrayed. news titles can begin charging for content if they all start doing it at the same time and at “Economically, the disconnect is now a similar price point. They will need to limit obvious. What do newspaper executives in access to aggregators (such as Google News) Los Angeles or Chicago care whether or to ensure no leaks—although it’s a fine line not readers in Baltimore have a better because aggregators also serve to drive traffic newspaper, especially when you can make back to the news sites. Then they will have more putting out a mediocre paper than a to hope that new media services such as worthy one? The profit margin was all. Wikinews and OhmyNews don’t experience And so, where family ownership might the same sort of rapid maturation that saw have been content with 10 or 15 percent Amazon and iTunes overtake brick-and- profit, the chains demanded double that mortar outlets. And they will have to hope and more, and the cutting began—long that consumers won’t decide that a before the threat of new technology was combination of publicly funded news ever sensed.” sources (such as the BBC and NPR), free- One of the big problems for news distribution services (such as Metro), organizations is that the industry standard bloggers and social media don’t offer enough online (for readers) is “free”—as in zero between them to rival the quality of paid-for cost. This is not just the case with users of news services. It looks like a long shot.
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> WILL A DEVICE items to the consumer—a CD or a Amazon’s Kindle has deals with book newspaper. But online consumers can publishers and a range of newspapers (à la the iPod or Kindle) choose only the pieces of the package they available for subscription, although only in TURN THE NEWS GAME want—a song or a story—and leave the rest. the United States. The New York Times Once consumers have experienced this joined up early; it’s reportedly the best- AROUND? Through the 1990s flexibility, it’s unlikely they’ll take a step read subscription-based periodical on the and into the 2000s, the music industry saw backward and buy the whole package. current Kindle, charging $13.99 a month, CD sales fall while online file-sharing ahead of the Wall Street Journal, which soared. For millions of music consumers, Following the iTunes model, what are has reportedly sold 5,000 there was no contest; buy a whole CD at the chances of a subscription- subscriptions at $14.99 a full price, or grab a few selected tracks based aggregator for news? month. However, while online for free? The music industry reeled How might it work? those prices may amount and couldn’t get its act together to provide Back in the 1990s, to less than a few lattes a worthwhile alternative to illegal file PointCast Networks a month for a sharing. It took outsider Apple’s iPod in had a hot “push” consumer, will they late 2001 and the iTunes store in 2003 to model—a piece of be low enough to break the logjam. It aggregated music software that tempt a generation catalogs from various corporations in one downloaded news that is used to place, with a pricing model that worked content from major getting news for free? for the copyright owners and for players. News Corp consumers. offered $450 million In a piece for Wired for the service in 1997, magazine on the Kindle The news industry faces similar but the deal fell through: and the newspaper problems in dealing with the challenge of Bandwidth limitations, industry, former publisher online. It’s not just that consumers are intrusive advertising and other of HarperCollins’ business getting content free (though legally free in problems led to its decline and books Marion Maneker wondered most cases). In their old-media form, the disappearance. But the time may be right whether the Kindle or a similar wireless music industry and the newspaper for a third-party player now. reading device could do for the news industry presented a physical package of
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SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
Columnists such as Thomas Friedman (The New York Times) and Jeremy Clarkson (The London Times) are powerful “sub- brands” with their own pulling power; are they on the way to becoming media master brands in their own right? Both have best-selling books to their names. For a narrower but more devoted audience, tech luminary Guy Kawasaki is a bigger and more authoritative media brand than many mainstream titles. He has nine books and more than 150,000 Twitter followers, writes a regular column for Entrepreneur magazine and a biweekly column in Forbes. Virtually any print title or TV channel would make space for a Kawasaki piece if they could get one.
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business what DVDs have done for could soon make more money selling Hollywood; he imagines a scenario where iPhone app downloads than it does from popular pieces in the newspapers are the iPhone itself: “Who knows? The made exclusively available in a longer, only iron law here is ... that the digital more detailed “e-book” format on a age has so transformed the ways in wireless reading device. which things are made and sold that there are no iron laws.” In his new book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price,” Chris Anderson (Wired editor in chief and author of “The Long > HOW DID WE GET Tail”) says that the digital age is pushing FROM AP TO API? Like the down prices of all digital goods; that music industry, the news industry faces means written words, sound and images the problem of how to protect its assets advertisers happy. It’s not a money- in particular. He says success will and make money from content that making proposition. come from using free content to can be copied and distributed Some forward-thinking titles have cross-sell and upsell. On the infinitely at virtually zero cost. decided to open their API (application other hand, fellow pundit What the news industry has programming interface) to lure the Malcolm Gladwell pointed done differently is to make entrepreneurial geek community to help out in the New Yorker (in its content legally available them morph into the new news his review of Anderson’s online for free. Most news environment. They recognize that people “Free”) that the Wall outlets positively encourage outside the news business can provide new Street Journal has found consumers to copy, e-mail and thinking and help them do some of the one million people willing to link to their content. There’s heavy lifting. pay for an online subscription, precious little in it for them apart and that broadcast TV (free) is from keeping their name on the radar In March, the New York Times struggling while cable TV (paid) is doing and maybe attracting pageviews to keep announced the long-awaited opening of its well. Gladwell wonders whether Apple
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SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
We went round with mobile phones and left our cameraman behind in the car. We got some extraordinary pictures on our mobiles, just like the people of Iran have been doing. —JOHN SIMPSON, BBC world affairs editor
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SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
Newspapers as we’ve known them are doomed. The conditions which supported their business model have disappeared. . . . If experience is a guide, opportunities are more likely to be seized and defined by start-ups than incumbents. . . . New cost structures, new use of tools and infrastructure, new ideas about what content bundles are meaningful will all play a major role in what emerges. —MITCH KAPOR, founder of Lotus Development Corporation
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API, allowing access to updated news Guardian aims to do by opening its API. The fixed-line telephone infrastructure content and articles going back to 1981. A The Guardian is positioning its Open was installed for the purpose of carrying Times story summed up its hopes: “The Platform as a commercial venture, voice traffic. The Internet started as a Article Search API has been a long-held requiring partners to carry its advertising system for researchers to communicate goal for a group of us at the Times. We’ve as part of its terms and conditions. with one another. Now the telephone taken a winding road to get to this point, system is carrying far more Internet data It remains to be seen whether the open but it’s just the beginning and we’ll traffic than voice traffic. API route will do for these news titles what continue to make improvements. So it has done for Twitter and Facebook. Mobile phone operators virtually consider this a beta or 1.0 release, and Whatever happens, they’ll be learning. stumbled into the cash cow of text help us enhance it—go build something.” messaging. The facility for sending 160 In the U.K., the Guardian launched its > WHAT IF THE NEW characters of text wasn’t designed to be Open Platform in March, comprising two consumer-facing; it was a back channel for products for geeks and developers: NEWS BUSINESS technical messages. Content API and Data Store. Just as MODEL HASN’T BEEN And the founders of Google were Facebook and Twitter have rapidly INVENTED YET? The experience entirely focused on search as a means to expanded their functionality and appeal by of the last two decades shows that new- organize the world’s information. They opening up to outside developers (as Apple technology business models can be hard didn’t set out to create a new advertising has also done with its App Store), so the to predict. medium; it just evolved that way.
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BIG QUESTION 3
WHERE DO TARGETED, CUSTOMIZED 24/7 NEWS FEEDS LEAD?
IN A CRINGE-MAKING series of and choose the sources most in line with one. But the essence of narrowcasting isn’t interviews with New York Times editors, their political leanings, their preferred tone so much narrow as targeted. It’s about Jason Jones of news-satire program “The (highbrow, humorous), their interests delivering content to a section of Daily Show” asked, “Why is aged news (sports, technology, health, celebrity). consumers who have actively expressed better than real news?” While deliberately interest and are most likely to be receptive. provocative and crass, the point was apt. News > IS NARROWCASTING There are plenty of ways to do it. delivered on printed paper is at least a day old For example, with RSS (Really Simple in a world where the news cycle is 24/7, with THE FUTURE OF Syndication), consumers can subscribe to a several waves breaking each day. What’s BROADCASTING? specific type of news. So they get only the more, the whole package of the printed For anyone used to the big reach of content they want, and they can consume newspaper includes content many readers traditional broadcasting, the notion of it when they want without worries about don’t have the time or inclination to read. narrowcasting might seem claustrophobic. spam, phishing and other security issues. While print struggles, news feeds abound. As a general rule, reaching a broad RSS content can include text, audio and With so much choice, consumers can pick audience is better than reaching a narrow video, such as podcasts, and can be
18 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. delivered to a computer or a personal programmed DVRs to iPods. We even see mobile device. News outlets all over the the urge for control in something as world offer content via RSS feed. RSS simple as people’s choice to drive rather adoption among U.S. consumers was up to than take public transportation. 11 percent in 2008 from just 2 percent in Narrowcasting and customized news 2005. “While more consumers have made feeds are just another example. a habit of consuming news daily via RSS readers, it’s still a pretty geeky individual > WHAT’S NEXT FOR act,” says Stephanie Agresta, global director of digital strategy and social media at Porter 24/7 NEWS? Novelli. “The real power of RSS lies in For many people, CNN was their first exponential growth via simple, popular experience of a dedicated news channel hospital, hours before social networking platforms like Facebook, with around-the-clock updates. Well into major news networks confirmed Twitter and Friendfeed. You don’t have to the 1990s, at any hour of the day or night, the story via the coroner. By then the Internet be a super-geek to become a curator of the channel would recycle stories until new was buzzing, with usage overloads reported at news using these services. In fact, average news broke. News channels have TMZ, Twitter, Google News and Wikipedia, users have become citizen editors and the proliferated since then, but still it often among others. newsstands rolled into one. The ease of seems that over the course of a day, there’s Real breaking news is increasingly the commenting and hitting ‘thumbs up’ has only so much news happening. There’s province of citizen journalists too. When created an ecosystem for content to only so much potential to fill in gunmen launched terrorist attacks in Mumbai travel at a much higher velocity to the gaps with analysis and in November 2008 it was Twitter and photo many more people.” discussion and speculation sharing site Flickr that proved to deliver the regarding what has already eyewitness account. And just a couple of The specific technologies that happened. deliver opt-in targeted news are months later in January 2009 it was a Twitter still evolving, but the underlying In our hyperconnected user who scooped the first report and photos driver is clearly a long-term environment, chances are of the US Airways flight that made an trend: consumer control. If readers someone is reporting what’s emergency landing in the Hudson River. and viewers have the opportunity happening the moment it No news organization has sufficient in- and the resources to get what they want happens. And in many cases, it’s not house resources to be everywhere all the and avoid what they don’t want, they’ll traditional news organizations that get there time; in fact many are more likely to be take it. It’s human nature, and we see it in first. Celebrity news site TMZ first declared cutting back on presences right now. the success of everything from remote pop icon Michael Jackson’s death, citing However, with citizen journalists thick on controls to personalized home pages, from unnamed, unofficial sources inside UCLA the ground, news organizations can be
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 19 permanently tuned in to where news may All of this adds up to the rapid emergence Now, distribution is fairly uncontrollable— break. Before, they had to “watch the of a new news “ecosystem,” with new anyone has access. And it’s not just spies wires” (Reuters, AP, AFP) and watch one niches and new species and evolutionary using tiny cameras and dead drops to another closely; now they have to watch developments. However it’s still not clear spread secret information; anybody with a social media too. Before, they developed a what will feed the new ecosystem. In the camera phone can copy a document or network of stringers and paid them for old one, rivers of advertising brought in film an event and send it to one person or tips. Now they have access to a virtually floods of cash that enabled organizations to thousands in a few seconds. It’s infinite pool of potential stringers via social grow; now the rivers are drying up. Species frighteningly easy for confidential memos networks, each with better news-reporting that thrive will be those that can adapt to and e-mails to leak. They can be sent to equipment than most official news agencies surviving on less, or those that find new news organizations, raised in closed special had a couple of decades ago. ways of generating sustenance (cash). interest forums, posted on individual blogs or exposed on mass social networks such > WHAT DOES as YouTube. THE NEW NEWS The challenge for marketers is to ECOSYSTEM understand the nature of the channels and the way information and influence flow MEAN FOR through them. The difference between the PROFESSIONAL old news ecosystem and the new one is INFLUENCERS? like the difference between a temperate forest and a tropical jungle: The forest has The size of an organization relatively few species and goes through and its wallet no longer predictable seasons; the jungle has untold guarantees influence. species interacting at a furious pace A big, well-organized and throughout the year. Like field zoologists, well-funded PR department professional influencers in the new tropical once set the agenda—it had a news ecosystem have to be constantly on good chance of managing the the lookout. For example, the recent flow of news and opinions. It Domino’s Pizza case: An offensive video organized set-piece events, was posted to YouTube by an unhygienic cultivated the right contacts, prankster employee. Reaction and chatter conducted news briefings and spread fast and furious via Facebook and worked the phones. News was Twitter. The company was quick to act, fed in well-turned press releases but the video generated close to a million with contact numbers to field any views before it was taken down. In the questions. Distribution channels were tropical news ecosystem, things propagate limited and pretty self-contained. fast and far.
20 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
I do wonder why 24 news channels feel the need to ‘sex up’ and dumb down their content. Obviously one explanation can be the fact that they must fill the airtime they have allocated. Personally I have little to no interest in watching them pick apart an absurdly and questionably newsworthy topic in a vain attempt to “fill,” I would much rather just watch an actual news broadcast 30 minutes in length. Instead I find myself often confused, bewildered and traumatized by the events on my TV screen. —DUMBING DOWN THE NEWS blog
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 21 SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
Back home in India, things aren’t that bad. Circulation and readership numbers may not be galloping and keeping pace with rising literacy, income and urbanization levels, but they haven’t dipped dramatically either. . . . It is not television alone, but the combined onslaught of television and online media that our newspapers need to worry about. Online offers the immediacy of television and the tradition of print, plus the unique advantages of unlimited space, interactivity and commerce. What changes the equations now is that the Internet is accessible on the go on cell phones, and technology ensures that access levels aren’t a pain. —PRADYUMAN MAHESHWARI, group chief editor at exchange4media
22 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. BIG QUESTION 4 HOW DO NEWS CONSUMERS KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE?
EVEN BEFORE THE explosion of the soccer star David Beckham being untrustworthy (if he blogging phenomenon, it wasn’t always following a front-page report or she falls at the other easy to know whom to trust. Even in the U.K.’s Daily Star, and end of the spectrum): traditional news organizations can’t TV personality Sharon Conservatives are quick to guarantee 100 percent accuracy. Despite Osbourne won damages from spot bias in liberal news ethics training and editorial process, as The Sun. sources and vice versa. Bias is well as real risks of legal normal, but ideally there are In the short term, people may action and high-dollar enough competing outlets to offer a buy more papers, but in the long punitive damage balance; consumers do have access to term, can the publication really payouts, unscrupulous alternate views if they care to seek them retain any more credibility reporters do exist out. However, in than a citizen journalist (Jayson Blair at the countries where free with a cell phone? New York Times speech is not the and The New Add to Republic’s Stephen this, bias. Glass are famous Readers examples). Sometimes an and viewers editor’s objectivity will commonly falter, or he or she will run a perceive most any story in order to get attention, especially given news source as where politics or celebrity are concerned. having an ideological Libel damages were recently awarded to leaning, and therefore
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 23 norm, the news media generally toe the Now the old guard has been joined by government line or risk getting harassed or waves of user-generated content—countless closed down. Consumers in such countries points of view from right-wingers, left- become adept at reading between the lines wingers, paid news and anonymous and looking for alternative sources to find bloggers who may or may not be guided out what’s really happening. Even in “free- by their own set of editorial principles. speech” countries, traditional news media How can a reader judge whom to trust? may fall under the sway of a particular In the events that followed the contested interest group. election in Iran, Facebook and Twitter In Italy, for example, tycoon turned became channels for on-the-spot reports Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has from protestors; the White House even substantial media interests and exerts a lot asked Twitter to delay planned downtime of influence on sources outside his direct to avoid cutting daytime service to Iran. control. According to Alexander Stille, Many Westerners followed apparently writing in the Columbia Journalism Iranian Tweeters involved in the protests, Review, political news on Italian state but within a day there were warnings television (RAI) is required to present the about government agents using Twitter to government’s point of view, followed by a spread false information. How were those sound bite or two from the opposition and not on the scene to tell the difference concluded with a rebuttal from the between information and disinformation? government. Social scientists have found Alongside trust in traditional news that Berlusconi’s control of the media has organizations’ journalistic process, are been a major factor in gaining votes. there ways consumers can judge whether Nevertheless, all news organizations what they read is true? have processes in place to do the best they can to ensure accuracy and integrity of > DOES THE WIKIMEDIA journalists and the news items they produce. The processes may not always APPROACH MAKE FOR work as intended and they may not MORE TRUSTWORTHY guarantee balance, but they try. They have NEWS? a reputation to maintain, from an ethical, Like Wikipedia, the Wikinews format legal and commercial (the brand being encourages contributors to cite references acceptable to investors or advertisers) and sources, so readers can cross-check for perspective. themselves, ensuring credibility. The
24 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
If the searing image of Vietnam was the AP photo of a girl stripped naked by napalm, if the image of Tiananmen Square was a young man facing down tanks, well, the iconic image of Iran is a cell phone video of Neda Agha-Soltan dying on the streets of Tehran. And this time the message was in the momentum. The mournful video was passed from a cell phone in Tehran to an e-mail address in Europe, then to Facebook and YouTube and finally CNN. All in a matter of hours. —ELLEN GOODMAN, Truthdig.com
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 25 SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
Twitter trending topics have replaced CNN as the town crier for online citizens. Anyone can quickly scan the list for breaking news stories. But absorption of detailed, complete information usually requires a visit to another site or sites. Journalists and media companies, who exist to generate attention, can do a better job of using these new tools to tap into new audiences and spread their message as well or better than “blog celebrities.” Until they embrace all the tools and maximize the medium, of course the business model won’t find synergy. —STEPHANIE AGRESTA, Porter Novelli global director of digital strategy and social media
26 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. guidelines for contributors are extensive, doesn’t stand up as a reference on its own, we trust pharmaceutical companies to ethical and clear. Items either contain it’s a place to start for initial research that foster our health; and we trust financial original reporting (first-hand links out to primary sources. It’s institutions (some more than others) to reporting or interviews) or free and often more extensive look after our money. synthesis of various cited, than any single online As a Porter Novelli staffer recently already-reported sources. encyclopedia. asked, “Why not trust a brand to see and Wikinews’ So what of Wikinews? speak the truth on our behalf? Is this the verification procedure, While it may score on new summit for a trusted brand?” Of like traditional news accuracy, in a fast- course we can’t expect consumer brands to reporting, inevitably moving news market take responsibility for verifying news from slows the process, as with a lot of established the Middle East, or from criminal courts compared with Twitter, players, will the model or even celebrity shenanigans. But brands Facebook or other social work as well as it has done may find it worthwhile to work at media. Yet verification for reference information? Or becoming a source in their own area of ensures objectivity and clarity. will it succumb to lack of speed expertise. For example, Microsoft earned Although individual contributors and reader trust? respect in the highly critical development may or may not be trained journalists, community by hiring Robert Scoble as they are tasked to abide by established > CAN A COMMERCIAL “technical evangelist” from 2003 to 2006. journalistic standards. Scoble covered technical news via his blog, BRAND BE TRUSTED and despite assumptions, he was The Wikimedia brand itself should be AS A NEWS ARBITER? sometimes critical of Microsoft and reassuring; it’s a nonprofit foundation with sometimes praised competitors. the idealistic spirit of the open-source One way or another, we trust commercial movement. However, Wikipedia is far brands with significant parts of our lives. Could this be the simple formula in which from a trusted source; although it’s the We trust supermarkets to provide us with commercial brands become trusted news default encyclopedia on the Internet, it’s food that is safe; we trust automakers to sources? Respected expert(s) + privileged the butt of many negative comments. It provide us with cars that are roadworthy, access to information + branded platform + does have advantages, however: While it and service centers to keep them that way; editorial freedom = credibility + respect.
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 27 SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
In theory, journalists are accountable to readers: If they report crap, readers will stop reading the publications they write for, which is incentive enough for those publications to avoid the crap. The problem is that readers out there want crap. They want man bites dog, they want Match Ka Mujrim, they want heroes and villains in their narratives, blacks and whites, and so on. There’s no getting away from that. But such readers are everywhere in the world, and tabloids will always thrive. That is not the problem here. The problem is that here, we have little else. In England and the U.S., you have the tabloids, and you have the respectable press doing good, solid journalism. —AMIT VARMA, IndiaUncut.com, named by Businessweek one of India’s 50 most influential people in 2009
28 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. BIG QUESTION 5
HOW WILL TECHNOLOGY SHAPE THE NEW NEWS?
TECHNOLOGY HAS always shaped the Then came broadcast TV news, where constant news, photos, video and news—both literally (through its delivery the studio anchors became the central commentary via multiple online and format) and via consumers’ expectations figures—reading items, describing footage, offline channels. and experience. interviewing public figures. News joined the entertainment context of the living Through the 19th century and into > DOES TECHNOLOGY room. News was events of the day the early 20th, newspapers were explained in words and images MAKE IT HARDER TO the only method for mass by trusted, familiar figures. “CONTROL” THE NEWS? distribution of news: the printed word with some With the advent of The yang of new technologies is the at- graphics, mostly cable, satellite and times chaotic, overwhelming torrent of consumed in silence at Internet, broadcast news unfiltered news. In many cases there’s home. News was a morphed into today’s content (X is happening) with no context written narrative. 24/7 sexy anchors, (Y is the background to X). Getting catchy graphics, sound breaking news online can be like drinking Then came bites, live feeds, blogs and from a fire hose. newsreels, which Twitter feeds. News is documented events that The yin of new technologies is that whatever it takes to hold the happened within reach of a consumers have unprecedented access to attention of consumers who movie camera. News became the news and some measure of power to (are presumed to) have a low part of the collective entertainment change the news itself as a result. While it’s boredom threshold, a short attention span context of the movie theater. News was a not always a good thing, it’s truly and plenty of alternatives—including spectacle in which seeing was believing. revolutionary in places where news is
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 29 would argue that it’s better to have a well background information and to debate informed society than a poorly informed events. But for many who don’t have the society. The acid test of how well or badly patience, technology can become a informed people are is not how many kaleidoscope of disconnected words and factoids they can play back, but how well images flitting by on the edge of awareness they can interrelate and make sense of on TVs, computer screens and mobile them. In a media environment of tweets devices. Gone are old-style focused sessions and sound bites and news flashes, there’s a of news-consuming via the TV or risk that consumers get only the content newspaper. The emerging form is quick (headlines) without the context (the real sessions of grazing multiple sources. News story and background details) that gives the about a military coup may jostle for attention headlines meaning. That’s shallow news. with a text from a friend or a work e-mail or a Twitter update from Oprah. If Microsoft’s Just as it’s possible for people in an all- tightly controlled. BBC World Affairs Surface technology catches on, we could you-can-eat society to be overfed but Editor John Simpson, who was on the plane even see tabletops in diners, hotels and undernourished, they can be deluged with to Tehran with Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 waiting rooms delivering content alongside news but underinformed. While good as he landed to seize power, gave a menu options and interactive games. resounding and moving endorsement to the quality may be available, people potential of new media in 2009. Reporting lean toward easier, faster, For consumers seeking a from Tehran after the recent elections, cheaper options. broader, deeper Simpson said: “This is a revolution sparked understanding of news, An eight-minute Flash off by ordinary people with mobile phones. technology is providing the presentation called EPIC It is the most extraordinary thing I have means to get it. By the same 2014 succinctly pointed to ever seen and I have covered many token, for consumers who this risk of the new news. revolutions. They were all more ... prefer to confirm what they The presentation became a traditional. But this time photos and videos already think, technology is viral sensation on the can go instantly on YouTube to be seen by providing the means to avoid Internet, sketching out a millions and Twitter and Facebook can accidental exposure to alternative views; fictional time line of evolving media from allow the voices and thoughts of ordinary they can hang out in their preferred mind- 1989 to 2014. It posited a vast online web Iranians to be heard worldwide. It is the set compounds. As a Time Magazine of information called EPIC (Evolving most remarkable thing.” writer put it: “For many of us ... Personalized Information Construct), technology has actually lowered the odds devised by Googlezon (Google + What’s more, Simpson and his of bumping into inconvenient knowledge. Amazon). At its best, EPIC is “a summary colleagues decided to employ the ... When I’m abroad these days and have of the world—deeper, broader and more technologies used by the citizen journalists: to go without my newspaper, I often turn nuanced than anything ever available “The people don’t need broadcasters or to the most e-mailed stories on news Web before ... but at its worst, and for too reporters so much because they have sites, which are generally opinion pieces many, EPIC is merely a collection of mobile phones and can film themselves. (rather than news stories), from which I trivia, much of it untrue.” We were at the demonstration on Saturday cherry-pick arguments or facts that when that poor girl was shot and thought For consumers with the time and the comport with my pre-existing views. it would be too difficult to film with even a interest, technology offers multiple Reading this way, I rarely stray from the small camera. So we went round with perspectives, the chance to dig deeper for familiar and soothing.” mobile phones and left our cameraman behind in the car. We got some extraordinary pictures on our mobiles, just like the people of Iran have been doing.” As professional news organizations embrace consumer tools, the look and feel of some of their output have become rougher around the edges and more like citizen journalism. In a news environment where celebrities and slick presentation are the norm, along comes shaky and blurred video, crackly audio and occasional typos— now touches of authenticity. > DOES TECHNOLOGY MAKE THE NEWS SHALLOW? Nobody doubts that it’s better to have a well-educated society than a poorly educated society. And few
30 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
In principle, journalism should be in better shape than ever. The core competence of journalists is to generate attention. . . . There are today three business principles for journalism: one that sells content to the audience (e.g., newsletters), one that sells the attention of the audience (e.g., ad-based publications) and one that gets sponsorship for delivering information to the audience without biasing the message in favor of the sponsors (e.g., public service). All three business models depend on one thing: loyal attention from the audience. In order to draw loyal attention from the audience, the journalist has to be loyal to the audience. This is the difference between journalism and PR. Public relations works on behalf of the source. Journalism works on behalf of the audience. If journalism loses the attention of the audience, it will not have customers. It will not have advertisers. It will not have sponsors. —DAVID NORDFORS, founding executive director of VINNOVA Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 31
SIGHTINGS from the ZEITGEIST
YouTube is starting a Reporter’s Center, for which I’ve revealed all of journalism’s secrets—which boils down to how to cover a crisis and not get shot. The center goes live in the wee hours Monday morning, and I’m looking forward to seeing what colleagues in the news biz have done for it. You can also see my video on my YouTube channel. Lemme know what you think. —NICHOLAS KRISTOF, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and journalist, New York Times’ On the Ground blog
32 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE.
IN CONCLUSION
THE ADVERTISING-BASED news even then costs are an issue at a time news sources can be trusted and which industry model is destined to shrink even when many countries are grappling with can’t. However, the contraction of more over the coming years. For decades, the economic crisis and facing a spending traditional news organizations means that advertisers have in effect been subsidizing crunch on health and welfare. Even in there are plenty of trained reporters and newsgathering and distribution in order to countries with state-funded broadcasting, journalists looking for ways to apply their reach end users; now they can reach end the mainstream print news industry is skills. And in specialist areas, as the open users at lower cost without relying on the predominantly reliant on advertising. source coding movement has shown, there audience pull of the news. And consumers are plenty of people willing to accumulate The emergence of interactive tools and now can get their news for free on the experience and share it. citizen journalism has disrupted both the Internet or via ad-driven free-sheets, or at news industry’s business model and its The potential “news ecosystem” that’s low cost on cable TV. relevance. It’s an exciting development shaping up is one in which new news This situation is at its most extreme in that has become a major news story in brands based on expertise and/or the United States, where the news itself. However, the fact that virtually reputation can emerge. They may be industry is almost entirely commercially anybody can upload words, audio, individuals, groups of individuals or based. It’s less drastic in countries where pictures and video to the Internet makes it organizations. They won’t have the legacy broadcasting is funded by the state, but a free-for-all, which can all too easily costs of printing presses, pension schemes, become a supercharged rumor mill, an big buildings to maintain and shareholders echo chamber with little primary reporting to satisfy. They will have the expertise and no verification. and the credibility to source news stories directly and/or verify contributed Ordinary news consumers may not be sources. They will have the authority to equipped or bothered to identify which contract their services to traditional news organizations, to corporations and other organizations, or to market them directly. And they will have the skills and the savvy to attract the attention of people that matter to them, whether it’s niche audiences or the mass market.
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE. INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS 33
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34 INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE: THE FUTURE OF NEWS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. REAL INFLUENCE.
The Porter Novelli INTELLIGENTDIALOGUE Principle
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