The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism: Proceedings

VOL.3 NO.4 * MAY 29 2006 * ISSN 1549-9049 www.innovationjournalism.org

THE THIRD CONFERENCE ON

INNOVATION JOURNALISM

PROCEEDINGS

Tresidder Union Wallenberg Hall

STANFORD UNIVERSITY APRIL 5-7 2006

THE THIRD CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION JOURNALISM

PROCEEDINGS

APRIL 5-7 2006

David Nordfors, Publisher and Editor John Joss, Editor Turo Uskali, Editor Alisa Weinstein, Editor

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

Executive Committee

David Nordfors, Conference Co-Chair, Innovation Journalism Program Leader, Sr. Research Scholar, SCIL, Stanford University; Special Adviser to the Director General, VINNOVA, Sweden. nordfors @ stanford.edu, +1-650-804-5184 Annette Eldredge, Conference Coordinator, SCIL, Stanford University, U.S. Eldredge @ stanford.edu, +1-650-724-6483 Melinda Sacks, Conference Press Contact, Director of Communications, SCIL, U.S. msacks @ stanford.edu, +1-650-924-0139

General Committee Stig Hagström, Conference Co-Chair, Co-Director, SCIL, Professor, Stanford University, U.S. Peter Svensson, Visiting Researcher - Innovation Communication Turo Uskali, Visiting Scholar - Innovation Journalism Alisa Weinstein, Associate Editor, Innovation Journalism, www.innovationjournalism.org Adress: Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University. 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 95305, U.S.

Conference Blog Jan Sandred http://innovationjournalism.blogspot.com/

3 CONTENTS

1. Foreword 7 Curtis Carlson

2. Opening Address 9 David Nordfors

3. Keynote Address: How the Internet is Changing the Concept of Journalism 11 Vinton G. Cerf

4. Innovation Journalism Teamwork: How and why? 15 Erika Ingvald

5. Innovative Journalism as a Basis for Innovation Journalism 27 Amanda Termén

6. How to Write About the Future 41 Jyrki Alkio

7. The Role of Innovation Journalism in Business Journalism 59 Erik Amcoff

8. How to Integrate Innovation Journalism into Traditional Journalism 69 Eva Barkeman

9. Is Blogging Innovating Journalism? 85 Patrick Baltatzis

10. Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Innovative Startups – 97 and How They Could Contribute to Medici Effects Thomas Frostberg

11. Innovation Journalism and Corporate Environments 115 Violeta Bulc

12. Discussion Note: Innovation Journalism as a Tool… (V. Bulc) 125 Thomas J. Buckholtz

13. Innovation as a Topic for Media Reporting: Implications of Editorial Strategies, 127 News Value and Framing. Klaus Spachman

14. New Perspectives on Innovation Communication: Journalism and Public Relations 143 – Partners or Opponents? Findings from INNOVATE 2006, the 2nd German Trend Survey Simone Huck

15. Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines:Factors of Influence on 163 Innovation Communication in Special Interest and Specialist Media. Florian Kruger

16. Media Communication as a Marketing Strategy for Start-up Firms 177 Peter Svensson, David Nordfors

17. The role of PR in the Innovation Information System 191 Jan Sandred

18. Discussion Note: The role of PR… (J.Sandred) 215 Vilma Luoma-aho

19. The Innovation Journalism Course at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden 219 David Nordfors, Mats Myberg

20. Experiences from the Innovation Journalism Pilot Course in Jyväskylä 229 Turo Uskali

21. Innovation Journalism in Slovenia 239 Polona Pibernik , Violeta Bulc , Edita Kuhelj Krajnovi

22. Innovation Journalism, Competitiveness and Economic Development 247 Kevin Murphy, David Nordfors

23. Innovation Journalism as an Essential Element of the New Endogenous 253 Theory of Economic Growth Erkki Kauhanen

24. Innovation Journalism for Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Commercialization 271 Antti Ainamo

25. Discussion Note: Politicizing of Innovation Journalism 289 Antti Hautamäki

Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4, May 29 2006 Curtis R. Carlson: Foreword to Proceedings The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Foreword

By Curtis R. Carlson President, SRI International

The 2006 Innovation Journalism Conference at Stanford University addressed an important, emerging “beat” in journalism: innovation.

“Innovation Journalism”, a term coined in 2003 by David Nordfors, is journalism about innovation itself. Essentially, this new beat is writing about the future. Since 2003, Nordfors has led the Innovation Journalism program. I applaud David for spearheading this effort.

For their participation and enthusiasm, I also commend the broad community of international journalists and their U.S. sponsors.

As we have learned, innovation is now the primary means for growth, prosperity, and improved quality of life. This is a marvelous time for innovation and entrepreneurship—with many opportunities available in all major market segments. As journalists, technologists, entrepreneurs, executives, or venture capitalists, we all play key roles in the innovation process. Given today’s many opportunities and challenges, how can we continually expand the concept of innovation journalism and give this important area its due?

These proceedings take an important step toward addressing this important question.

Curtis R. Carlson was named president and chief executive officer of SRI International in December 1998. In 1973, Carlson joined RCA Laboratories, which became part of SRI in 1987 as the Sarnoff Corporation. As head of Ventures and Licensing at Sarnoff, he helped found more than 12 new companies. He started and helped lead the high-definition television (HDTV) program that became the U.S. standard and in 1997 won an Emmy® Award for outstanding technical achievement for Sarnoff. Another team started and led by Carlson won an Emmy in 2000 for a system that measures broadcast image quality. He has published or presented more than 50 technical publications and holds more than 12 U.S. patents. He has written a book (to be published) on SRI's unique, disciplined process for innovation, which is the base for the SRI Value Creation Partnership Programs offered to business and government clients. Carlson received his B.S. in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and was named in Who's Who Among Students. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from Rutgers University. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Carlson played the violin professionally at 15, and it remains his primary avocation.

Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4, May 29 2006 David Nordfors: Opening Address The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Opening Address

David Nordfors Conference Co-Chair

Welcome to the Third Conference on Innovation Journalism at Stanford. The conference is growing each year. We are making excellent progress.

This year Vint Cerf, AKA “Father of the Internet”—recruited by Google as “Chief Internet Evangelist”—opens the proceedings, the first time a news professional won’t open the conference. It’s appropriate, with radical changes spurred by the Internet that are affecting the news industry. Until now, the web played second fiddle to paper in mainstream news. This is changing—the tipping point is here. We face drastic and accelerating changes: large publishing houses are being sold, big news rooms are being stripped, weekly magazines are going monthly—while their websites generate news hourly. Journalists are losing jobs they thought were safe. But, as in earlier industrial revolutions, new jobs will emerge. The Internet offers not only paperless distribution but also a new medium for creating widespread awareness in new and old public sectors and readerships that will redefine the news industry in many ways, many unguessable. Journalism seeks readership attention and sells it to advertisers. Advertisers want to know what their money delivers. Publishers profile readerships, measure their publication’s penetration, then use the statistics to explain to advertisers what they are paying for. New Web tools, even free stuff for private blogs, reveal amazing potential. Statistics show which stories were downloaded, when, how long a reader stayed, where he or she lived, and so on. Every incident is registered and analyzed. Advertisers know exactly how much attention their ad gets. Such information will never be available for news on paper. Paying for trees to be murdered while not getting that readership information will be hard to sell to shareholders in future.

Web publishing has lower capital investment and margin costs. In news organisations, both drivers and controllers have incentives to move to the Internet and away from paper. It is no longer exotic to publish news on the Web—the question is not whether to publish on the Web, but whether the particular news story should be on paper at all. There are other reasons why the tipping point is here. I won’t explore them now. The bottom line: newspaper publishing has been a well-defined practice for over a hundred years but lacked R&D—it wasn’t needed. After listening to Vint Cerf, I think you’ll

9 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4, May 29 2006 David Nordfors: Opening Address The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

agree that news media will be transformed from a conservative into an R&D-intensive industry.

Let us move from innovations in journalism to journalism about innovations.

Today we live with constant innovation and change. Journalism must embrace and cover innovation. This is difficult—innovation processes are multidisciplinary. Traditional journalism struggles with innovation. Traditional beats—technology, business, politics—chop up innovation processes to fit established news slots, missing the bigger picture.

Our conference will focus on how journalism can report innovation, via four main themes: ‘Innovation Journalism,’ ‘Innovation Communication,’ ‘National Initiatives for Innovation Journalism’ and ‘The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems.’ We will address issues from how to report on innovation to spreading that knowledge, and how reporting on innovation helps and interests society.

In democracies and innovation economies, competitors form alliances, establish compromise, trigger conflicts. Winners in democracies implement societal ideas; innovation winners implement and sell their ideas. Journalists cover the interaction between the key influencers, their ideas, their conflicts, their technologies, their organizations, and more. They target and win readerships. Advertisers respond. The circle is complete. Innovation Journalism can help society by developing ‘clusters’ and innovation ‘ecosystems,’ reporting on key issues and events for all involved. It can help shift leaders’ mindsets and increase the competitiveness of innovation communities. To achieve this, journalists must identify readership clusters, determine the principals and key issues, attract audience attention, find advertisers to sell to or invent new business models. These skills do not come by themselves. Journalism is a conservative industry with few R&D resources. This opens the field for external funding—venture capital, foundations or research funding agencies. The issue needs a community and that’s why we are here. Our program goal is to co-develop the concept and the community of Innovation Journalism. In 1999, Vint, I and others in the Internet Society were discussing the Internet’s major societal effects. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) shapes Internet technical standards, like email and web protocols. We proposed a similar task force on society’s use of the Internet, a forum for best practices, standards and regulations. We tested the idea but the Internet pros were busy trying to become millionaires while the public policy people were still too inexperienced. Good Innovation Journalism will work similarly, a feedback mechanism for innovations in society. Thank you all for coming, especially those who travelled from other countries.

How the Internet is Changing the Concept of Journalism

Vinton G. Cerf

Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

11 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 Vinton G. Cerf: Keynote - Internet & Journalism The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

How the Internet is Changing the Concept of Journalism

Summary of the opening keynote address of the Third Conference on Innovation Journalism.

Technology is changing the economics of journalism. In radio and television time is limited. In print journalism space is limited. But on the Internet there is essentially an unlimited amount of time and an unlimited amount of space. The limitation is the attention span of the Internet users.

There are over a billion people on the Internet now. Although it sounds like a big number, there are still 5,5 billion to go. Those of us who are interested in spreading the Internet realize that we are only 15 percent done. China is now the biggest Internet user. There are more Chinese online than there are U.S. citizens. There are around 220 million users in U.S. and over 300 million users in China. Chinese spend more time on the net than average Americans. The PEW foundation suggests about ten hours per week on average for American citizens on the net. In China it is 15 hours per week. It illustrates how people who have been starved for information are grasping this opportunity to get more information in a very dramatic way. So this is part of the reason that Google concluded it should be providing information in China despite the constraints and restrictions that we are required to observe under the law in China about certain content.

The economics of the information and the way in which it is produced and distributed is having a significant impact on what I consider to be news and journalism. The impact is deepened by the increased availability of Internet and to that it has become really easy to publish content on the Internet. When the Web came, there were few web editors of the ‘what-you-see-is-what- you-get’ type. But the web browsers could already from the start show the HTML source that produced the web-page. People learned almost organically how to create web pages by copying the HTML code of others. That made all of us students of HTML, and later XML. The result was a virus-like spread of knowledge and understanding about how to use the medium, although some people in the intellectual property community were levitating above their seats. This speeded up the development of new applications that made it easier to publish on the Internet, leading up to web logs. Today there are a million or more people blogging. The text based web logs are rapidly evolving into audio and video. The iPod, originally intended just for downloading and listening to music, is being used for downloading and listening to peoples´ audio blogs. As memory gets cheaper and bandwith increases, videoblogging will be a very natural evolution. The iPods are turning into vPods. Blogging is branching out into audioblogging and

2 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 Vinton G. Cerf: Keynote - Internet & Journalism The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism videoblogging. We are being offered an increasing range of perspectives to choose among on various topics. Technologies like RSS make it possible for people to keep apprised of updates on the web pages of their interest.

Some feel that the Internet is overloading the ability of people to absorb and deal with information. But people have always learned very quickly how to deal with large quantities of information, whether it was radio, television, newspapers, magazines or books. This also applies to the Internet.

We don´t read every book that is published. We don´t listen to every radio programme, and we don´t watch every TV-show. We select among them and we find ways to get advice about which shows to follow. Sometimes we take advice from ratings, sometimes we turn to trusted editors of newspapers or other publications to get advice about what we should be paying attention to. Sometimes we ask our friends, and sometimes we even think ourselves and try to make our own independent decisions. We will find ways to find our ways through the blogs, just as we have in the other media.

The blogging world is interesting in that it is online and machineable, that is to say it can be read, indexed, and searched by computer programmes. That allows feedback that does not occur in other media. eBay introduced a feedback system for sales services, where customers have the ability to say whether they were satisfied or not satisfied with their purchases. It is easy to imagine feedback loops of that kind when the public reacts to the material that has been put online by the bloggers, giving a general sense of an average reader opinion.

Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, where he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies. Known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. In 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his partner, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award, often referred to as "Nobel Prize of Computer Science.", for their work on the Internet protocols. Vint Cerf serves as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), that owns the Internet root domain. Cerf served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and in 1999 served a term as chairman of the Board. Cerf served as a member of the U.S. Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001 and serves on several national, state and industry committees focused on cyber- security. Cerf is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum and the National Academy of Engineering. Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and was in December 1994 identified by People magazine as one of that year's "25 Most Intriguing People". Cerf holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Stanford University and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from UCLA.

3 13

Innovation Journalism Teamwork: How and Why?

Erika Ingvald

Elektroniktidningen, Stockholm, Sweden Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford, Hosted by PC World E-mail: erika.ingvald @ telia.com

15 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006

1 INTRODUCTION...... 3

2 THE WHYS OF TEAM WORK...... 4

3 IN HOUSE TEAM WORK – A LONG RUNNER ...... 5

4 IN HOUSE TEAM WORK – AN EXPERIMENT ...... 7

5 THE FREE LANCE TEAM– A LONG RUNNER...... 9

6 CONCLUSION ...... 11

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 11

2 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006

Innovation Journalism Teamwork: How and Why?

Teamwork innovation journalism makes it to the first page and gets readers attention. This paper shows journalists the ‘how’ and ‘why’. It gives examples from Sweden’s leading technology weekly and from a group of freelancers. My hope is that readers will find teamwork interesting enough to try it for themselves, as reporters or as editors charged with assembling teams or buying freelance material.

The reader is expected to have journalistic skills and to know how to do research, how to be critical, balanced and accurate and how to handle ethical dilemmas. Basic journalism is beyond the scope of this paper.

1 Introduction

The worldwide trend of the last decade, in which research is conducted with increasing ambitions of creating commercial spin-offs1 has called for a new concept in journalism: Innovation Journalism2 (InJo), using quality as the key factor driving this process3.

Applying InJo is a challenge both to journalists and editorial organizations. The challenges range from lack of adequate skills among individual reporters to fear among editors of losing audience by going outside the general readership profile4.

Using teamwork in InJo is one obvious way to overcome the lack of adequate skills among individual reporters. But teamwork faces challenges, too, such as newsrooms with firm section editors and rigid ‘beat’ structures or a culture of among reporters of working as single individuals. Overcoming these barriers

1 The Role of Innovation Journalism in Science News Media, by Marie Granmar, Innovation Journalism Vol.2 No.10, Jun 21 2005

2 D. Nordfors. “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it”, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, Oct. 2003. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf

3 Traditional beats - business, technology, science and political journalism - only cover specific aspects of innovation, but since innovation cuts across all the traditional beats, it needs to cover technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovation, how they interact and affect each other, D. Nordfors, The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems, Innovation Journalism Vol.1 No.7, November 8 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-7.pdf

4 Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index – Benchmarking the Swedish Market, by David Nordfors, Daniel R. Kreiss and Jan Sandred. Innovation Journalism Vol.2 No.5, May 4 2005

3 17 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006 should be worthwhile since the result is often a success, shown here by examples from the Swedish news.

2 The Whys of Team Work

Innovation is the core activity of many leading industries and a factor that affects many peoples’ lives. It is a main driver for economic growth. That makes it newsworthy. By covering innovation, media affects the players in the innovation systems5. These aspects call for a high standard of journalistic quality among those practicing InJo.

Covering innovation is a ‘skills’ game. Apart from standard journalistic skills—a nose for news and a gift for storytelling—it takes enough knowledge in broad fields of technology and sciences to understand how an invention works, and translate it to the readers. The understanding of business logics is also important, to see if the business model works. The InJo practitioner may also need to understand the process of policy making to predict the future of an invention—for example; will the government allow the use of the drug a researcher developed from stem cell research? The question: Is it really an innovation, not just an invention6?

For most people this calls for about three university degrees. It’s still not enough. Once the InJo concept is understood, implementation is the challenge.7 Superhuman persuasive powers are needed to sell editors InJo stories (unless the writer is lucky and has aptitude). Editors’ believe they know their readers’ preferences, their ability to handle multiple story threads, or are lazy. As any good salesperson will explain, knowledge in psychology probably helps, too. The problem: most journalists are only equipped with bits and pieces from the InJo tool box. That’s where teamwork counts. Assembling the right people helps

5 The work of Innovation Journalists may help competitor organizations to adjust their own product and marketing strategies. It may affect potential investors where and when to direct capital, it may channels of distribution, and also researchers, who often work in secret, as formulated on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation_journalism, on March 20, 2006. For deeper analysis see D. Nordfors. “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it”, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, Oct. 2003. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004.

6 Innovation journalism identifies and reports on key issues in the innovation systems, on the main actors, their agendas, and their interactions with each other. Common themes: science and technology trends, science and R&D policies, intellectual property, investments, standardization, industrial production processes, marketing of new technologies, business models, and politics as formulated on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation_journalism, on March 20, 2006.

7 In order for text to be “innovation journalism”, it has to cover both the invention and the market. While these two elements are sufficient and necessary for calling it innovation journalism, other elements, such as policy making, can be added to make the text even more useful or enjoyable for the readership. Magnus Höij “Components of Innovation Journalism”. Innovation Journalism Vol.1 No.5, September 17 2004

4 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006 practical InJo fast and with high quality. Done correctly, the team or news room will always be first with the news, and that’s what journalism is all about. It makes sense in the news business as well. Quality, to a certain degree, helps sell ads. And if increased quality can be delivered without extra cost, it is worthwhile.

3 In House Team Work – A Long Runner

Ny Teknik is Sweden’s leading technology weekly. A little less than a decade ago, when I was a Ny Teknik staff writer, lots of venture capital organizations and startup companies suddenly emerged, seemingly from nowhere.

These were signs in Sweden of the universal trend of commercialization of research8. But the question was how and where to report on these newcomers?

Ny Teknik had no business news beat. It had not been considered interesting to the readership, the Swedish engineers. The paper was full of news about inventions, but without stories on innovation. In 1997 Ny Teknik introduced a new beat, Frontlinjen – “The Front Line”, covering technology research news. Few in the newsroom believed that it would catch on with the readers9 but it soon became one of their favorite news sections. Encouraged by the success, believing that this new world of innovations was important to the Swedish engineers, then editor-in-chief Sten Haage in 1998 commissioned recently employed reporter, Marie Alpman, to spearhead a business beat. The traditional news coverage of Ny Teknik was typical tech reporting - optimistic and seldom critical. Technology journalists are generally positive to new technologies, cover issues they believe in and reject those they mistrust. Consequently, the technologies of start-ups were generally positively described in the paper. There was no analysis either of what these technologies would be used for or if the companies had strategies and business plans that would bring them successfully the market. Overcoming this style of reporting was a challenge10.

The result was a box-office success that endures: “Teknik i tillväxt” (Technology in growth) 11, covering start-ups, their technologies and their survival and earnings

8 The Role of Innovation Journalism in Science News Media, by Marie Granmar, Innovation Journalism Vol.2 No.10, Jun 21 2005

9 This beat was skilfully developed and driven by Ny Teknik’s senior editor Ulla Karlsson Ottosson, and I was the first reporter fully assigned to it. It was a wonderful journey for all of us involved, not least the response given to us from our readers. And it started generating information on patents and new start-ups we couldn’t cover properly.

10 Interview with Marie Alpman, Ny Teknik, for this study in March 2006, by Erika Ingvald

11 The whole series is collected on the web at: http://www.nyteknik.se/teknikitillvaxt.asp

5 19 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006 potential. Among the many readers are venture capitalists as well as representatives of smaller technology enterprises, and many became eager to be covered themselves. Exactly how much attention each story draws depends on the technology described, without regard to specific patterns in technology.

According to Marie Alpman, multiple entrances are a key to a successful story. One entrance for tech savvies, another for those interested in the business and corporate issues, including for example intellectual property strength. Her conclusion becomes particularly interesting in the view of 2004 InJo Fellow Magnus Höij’s suggestion that for a story to be labeled innovation journalism, it must include both the inventions and the market.12.

Due to the success, the editorial board decided to keep the series through the recession after the ‘bubble.’ “Then it was tough to find new candidates, as companies we had believed in went bankrupt,” Marie explains. The first in this long run series of articles was published in September 1999; since then ~20 have been published every year—one article every second issue. At first Marie Alpman produced them by herself. But it was heavy duty doing the writing, researching each article, visiting the organizations, finding and interviewing possible customers, competitors and financers, checking patent portfolios and company data, etc. Eventually, one of Marie’s senior colleagues, Erik Mellgren, started to contribute to the series. One of his strengths was that he had contributed to Frontlinjen (The Front Line), the tech research news beat, a job that supplied him first-hand information on research activities aimed at start-ups. The collaboration between Marie and Erik has been successful. They usually don’t use multiple bylines but collaborate in almost all other respects. They have alternated in being responsible for the series, they run approximately every second story, and together they seek and evaluate new companies, an important step when deciding what to cover, what to put in the basket. The present editor-in-chief Lars Nilsson also contributes to these discussions, as well as other Ny Teknik reporters. In Swedish newsrooms the tradition is strong to let whoever pitches an idea do the work and receive the byline. This is based on the widespread assumption that this person has the most knowledge and the strongest commitment among colleagues to break a good story. That tradition lets reporters dynamically enter other then their standard beats, through their own effort. On occasion the team of “Technology in growth” has benefited from this tradition. “We want other reporters to take an active part in this, not least since it’s easy after a while to get the feeling one has written the same article over and over again,” Marie Alpman explains.

Since the series started, Ny Teknik has visited and analyzed about 120 companies. They are followed up every year, and if newsworthy activity occurs, the team will report it. For this, Marie has built a database in Access. She maintains it but through the yearly update on account-closings the burden is shared. Discussions

12 Magnus Höij “Components of Innovation Journalism by. Innovation Journalism”. Vol.1 No.5, September 17 2004

6 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006 include issues such as what to do with last year’s bankruptcy now operating under a new name with the same idea and how to handle mergers and buyouts.

In seeking newcomers, the team has systemized the scanning for new companies, e.g. at Sweden’s technology parks, or in the diaries of agencies and foundations funding applied research and innovation. Together they attend investor meetings, set up further meetings and have informal discussions with venture capitalists with potential interest.

A spin-off to the Ny Teknik team work is a research project at Stockholm School of Economics, a PhD-work on the early development of an organization in newly started technology businesses13. The work is done by a graduate student, Ingela Sölvell, and her professor, Frederic Delmar. They support Marie Alpman and Erik Mellgren in judging the potential of different business ideas covered.

“In conclusion, the tough part is not to understand the technology itself but to review the commercialization critically and judge whether there is a market for the particular product. That’s where we collaborate.” Marie says. According to her the teamwork evaluation on start-ups shared the burden, having someone who can act as a sounding board, ask critical questions and contribute periodically with their networks when looking for people to interview for the complete story14.

4 In House Team Work – An Experiment

Some years ago, the Ny Teknik staff decided to benchmark Sweden’s growth regions: measuring the power of innovation and renewal of each of country’s eleven high-tech regions.

Marie Alpman was assigned to plan this series, “Power of Growth” 15, with another Ny Teknik staff writer, Helen Ahlbom, a highly regarded IT reporter. They had two weeks to plan the series and pin down the most relevant measures on innovation and renewal for a region. To obtain critical statistics, the team raised a budget to make database runs at two key Swedish government agencies on these matters, ITPS 16 and SCB 17. Reporters

13 Interview with Marie Alpman, March, 2006

14 Interview with Marie Alpman, March, 2006

15 The whole series is published at http://www.nyteknik.se/teknikITillvaxt.asp

16 ITPS, The Swedish institute for Growth Policy Studies, the Swedish Government’s agency for understanding growth and for evaluating government policies.

17 SCB, Statistics Sweden, is a central Swedish government authority for official statistics and other government statistics and in this capacity also has the responsibility for coordinating and supporting the Swedish system for official statistics.

7 21 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006 were sent to each region to perform so-called impacts—key interviews for the final report.

The result was a series of articles published in 2004 and 2005 describing the regions from four “C:s”; Capital, Competence, Creativity and Climate. Each region was given one big cover. The impacts were made by two reporters each, in a relay fashion.

The first impact, in a city called Luleå in the northernmost part of Sweden, was made by Marie18 and Helen who had developed the method, the second by Helen and a third reporter that had been taught the method; the third by that third reporter and a fourth person. Helen also participated in more than one impact; she was responsible for delivering the conclusions from the background research to the reporters visiting each region. The thought with using different reporters was to involve many people in the newsroom, training them in the method and getting them out to the regions.

The collaboration between Marie and Helen was a success because they complement each other. Helen has the journalistic, newsworthy drive; Marie is more of an investigator with statistical skills. At the same time, both have solid backgrounds covering technology news and trends. While being a success, the new process was burdening everyone involved, creating a heavy workload with planning the indicators and expanding the project to the extent where it became hard to handle, Marie reports. Over-all, the greatest difficulty was technical: the time it takes to get statistics from the different systems and sources. “We wanted our reports to be as fresh as possible,” Marie comments. One advantage with teamwork on the Power of Growth-series was the shared responsibility for evaluating an entire region. “Some regions graded very low. It would have been a heavy burden to present such an assessment alone,” Marie reflects. The editorial board expressed the pressure they were experiencing in an insecure and nervous attitude towards the reporters. They increased their control over the research and news material to unprecedented levels; and reporters in the relay felt that strain at the same time as they had difficulties in identifying critical issues and attitudes from coworkers19. But the series became a real success. No matter how well a region did, the team had decided beforehand to publish at least one critical aspect found during research, in a sidebar or in the main text, fighting the positive tradition of tech journalism. Theses stories measured something that touched people, the future of their regions. The effects were visible during the blockbuster regional panel debates set up by Ny Teknik, timed with publication of the respective regional reports.

18 The day after delivery of the first article, Marie delivered her baby and went on maternity leave.

19 Interviews with Ny Teknik staff members, March 2006.

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These events showed how important20 this kind of work can be to the innovation system and its (other) players, and how large an impact a newspaper has to the mindset of the system. It could be argued that using InJo methods—thorough research, accuracy and critical thinking, identical to those in mainstream journalism—contributed to that.

No pain, no gain. Whether this experiment will be repeated by Ny Teknik is left unsaid. But maybe it can be an example for someone else to learn from.

5 The Free Lance Team– A Long Runner

During the bubble years, before 2002, the demand for news on innovation was huge, as were the wells from which to pay for it. A Swedish senior freelancer, covering ICT systems got frustrated with all the pitches he never had time to complete and the money he didn’t collect. This senior freelancer had the nose for news and the drive for results. He decided to establish a news producing machine to beat all the newsrooms in quality and time. He had set up a research group of young people who scanned the globe and set up automated search of an innumerable number of news sources from a small town 200 kilometers north of Stockholm. He made agreements with a number of his former and new employers on buying articles in volume, and he built a network of freelancers21, from different places, skilled as well as freshmen, with different skills and talents.

Through the years, his network mass-produced front-page news and covered stories for many of Sweden’s leading news media, even publishing in international press for a short while. These stories were published under multiple bylines, which was new to most of the news organizations who were the customers. The procedure was as follows; the senior freelancer sold an idea for a story to a news organization, and then called the network member(s) he considered best suited for that particular job. If they had time they did the footwork, getting

20 E.g. from debates in the regions of Blekinge: http://www.nyteknik.se/pub/ipsart.asp?art_id=35976, Stockholm: http://www.nyteknik.se/pub/ipsart.asp?art_id=37655, Skåne: http://www.nyteknik.se/pub/ipsart.asp?art_id=36395, and Karlstad: http://www.nyteknik.se/pub/ipsart.asp?art_id=38251.

21 I became part of the network in the spring of 2000 and every article we made for Dagens Nyheter (mainly under the business beat umbrella, but also within the consumers beat), one of the leading Swedish dailies, made it to the first page, some became top stories too. Although the stories we presented were rather innovative to these beats.

9 23 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Ingvald: InJo Teamwork: How and why? The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism, 2006 information on what to do, reporting back when done, and getting new pieces of the assignments until everything was reported.

In this manner every story evolved fast and dynamically. If somebody got stuck, found a new track that had to be followed, or had to finish another assignment (we were all running our own tracks, having plenty of hungry news buyers to report to during those first years) someone else was updated and filled in. In this way we could beat any newsroom within our niche in speed, quantity and quality, without having to carry the costs of a huge, full-time news machine.

The process gave young reporters entrance to new, important and complex innovations in global markets, e.g. covering the telecom industry’s global standards and operations. Their bylines were seen on articles that made a difference in newspapers with maximum impact. This group wrote prescient articles headlined “2002 will be a black year for telecomm,” and “3G will be delayed for at least a year,” before anyone else dared.

There have always been buyers around viewing this method with suspicion, refusing to discuss collaboration because they did not understand the concept, questioning the multiple bylines, starting to defend their own newsrooms, wondering why they should buy from outsiders when they have their own IT- reporters, and so forth. These are often the same editors who will only publish stories that have been published by others before (what happened to the idea that it’s only news the first time you hear it?), implying that they are not skilful enough to judge whether they have overlooked news. This was however never critical to business.

The tough times started when the bubble burst and the market collapsed for many publishers so that they could no longer buy in volume from freelancers. Many buyers’ first (and natural) reaction was to slash the freelance budget to near zero. To most organizations such a work reduction would have been disastrous, and it was not fun. The young research team behind the large scale success was laid off. Some major buyers say they’ll buy if the group produces, since they appreciate the stories and the quality of the work. But at the moment buyers can’t guarantee volumes as they used to, making it difficult maintain the previous research activities.

The tough times have been—in my opinion—a period when the teamwork model has shown its strongest side. As competent freelancers, most survived. Those who didn’t stay around as freelancers, became staffers or started new titles – this at times when staffers were fired and titles closed down. The network can still assemble a quick and efficient news machine when needed. It still happens from time to time.

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6 Conclusion

Innovation Journalism will likely take you to the first page, done properly— using thorough research, accuracy and critical thinking, as in any mainstream journalism.

Innovation Journalism stories interest the readership because they concern matters touching and affecting many people. If presented correctly - ordinary story-telling skills apply - the stories are potential blockbusters, even if the individual editor may not believe so initially.

The coverage of innovation must combine technical reporting with business reporting and other key aspects in a single story. This involves covering both the invention and the markets, the competitive effect the invention has on the company and so forth. It is often faster, more efficient, more accurate and more fun to work in teams. The learning process engenders new collaborations or helps individual work.

7 Acknowledgements

I thank Harry McCracken, Editor-in-Chief at PC World, for taking me on for four months and letting me write my stories, my colleagues at PC World for their friendship, my fellow Fellows for being such good mates, Vinnova for financial support during my stay in San Francisco and Adam Edstrom, Editor-in-Chief of Elektroniktidningen for making this all possible. I also wish to thank Sten Haage, Marie Alpman and Ny Teknik staffers for taking their time, and the senior freelancer for teaching me the best of journalism and for our many nice bylines.

Erika Ingvald is a freelance reporter, affiliated with Sweden’s main news source for professionals in the Swedish electronics industry, Elektroniktidningen. She was an Innovation Journalism Fellow in 2006, hosted by PC World. For many years she has contributed to Ny Teknik, Swedens well reputed technology weekly. She has also contributed to Dagens Nyheter, one of Swedens’ largest dailies and to Process Nordic, an independent news journal covering the development within the process industry. She has a journalist degree from Uppsala University, Sweden, and a F.L. in Geology from Uppsala University, Sweden.

11 25

Innovative Journalism as a Base for Innovation Journalism

Amanda Termén

Business and politics reporter at the Gothenburg Post Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford Hosted by CNET News.com Phone: +1 415 425 9501 (US) +46 70 22 33 555 (Sweden) Email: amandatermen @ yahoo.se

27 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 A. Termén: Innovative Journalism for InJo The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

1 INTRODUCTION...... 3

2 NEWS OF CHANGE...... 4 ABOUT CNET NEWS.COM ...... 4 3 SPAGHETTI ON THE WALL...... 5 3.1 THE INNOVATIVE POLICY OF CNET NEWS.COM...... 5 3.2 INNOVATIVE FROM THE START...... 5 3.3 SEEING WHAT STICKS...... 6 4 "WE EAT OUR DOG FOOD"...... 7 4.1 PRACTICING WHAT YOU PREACH...... 7 4.2 FAST MEDIUM TO COVER FAST-MOVING INDUSTRY ...... 7 5 CONNECTING THE DOTS ...... 8 5.1 COMBINING TECHNOLOGIES TO EMBRACE THE INNOVATION PROCESS...... 8 5.2 VIDEO: GADGETS AND HOW-TOS ...... 8 5.3 AUDIO: STINKERS AND RUMORS ...... 8 5.4 LIVE BLOGGING: BOOS AND SURPRISES ...... 9 5.5 LINKS: THE SHOPPING MALL OF KNOWLEDGE...... 10 6 CONCLUSION...... 12

7 REFERENCES ...... 13 7.1 INTERVIEWS AT CNET NEWS.COM ...... 13 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... 14

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Innovative Journalism as a Base for Innovation Journalism

Modern publications do not only cover innovation. They increasingly become innovators themselves, making use of the technological developments that they write about daily. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how innovation within journalism can be used to do innovation journalism, showing the tech news website CNET News.com as an example. Why is it important to live what you write about, and how does it improve the coverage of the innovation process?

1 Introduction

After visiting the Bay Area host publications with this year’s Innovation Journalism fellows, ending up at CNET News.com felt like a jackpot. Even if all newsrooms covered innovation in one way or another, News.com was the one that truly seemed to practice what it preached. The website experimented with features like podcasts, vodcasts (video podcasts) and real-time reporting and seemed anxious to explore the emerging possibilities, offered by the Internet, to bring the news of innovation to its audience. I must admit that when settling into my cubicle and getting down to business, I realized that the willing adoption of new technology in the CNET newsroom is not always for the best – at least not for a contact-seeking new hire. The “live” collegial chit-chat has been replaced by Yahoo instant messenger, the spinal cord of the newsroom. Coffee breaks have been rationalized – those who bring sweets to the office drop them on a table, return to their cubicles and send out a mass email: “Carrot cake at the other end of the room, please serve yourselves.” Despite minor newsroom culture shocks, the willingness and efforts of News.com to change and evolve as a medium remains interesting. The expression innovative journalism in this paper’s headline refers to the adoption of new technologies and ideas on how to distribute news to an audience. At CNET News.com, this innovative approach forms the basis for doing innovation journalism1, in the sense

1 D. Nordfors. “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it”, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, Oct. 2003. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf.

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of journalism focusing on the process of technological innovation, studying the technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems.2 This paper maps some of the innovations and publishing techniques used by CNET News.com, examines the publication’s innovation climate and policy and explores how innovation is used to picture the innovation process in news.

Most of the work has been done through interviews with staff and management at CNET News.com, and by browsing the news site.

2 News of change

About CNET News.com

The News.com website is crowned by a logo saying “News.com – News of change.” The site provides breaking news, features and special reports about technology. Sections include business tech, cutting edge, communications, security threats, media 2.0, markets and digital life.

News.com belongs to CNET Networks, together with other technology sites for product reviews (CNET.com), software downloads (Download.com), technology shopping (CNET shopper), gaming, photo sharing etc.

CNET was launched in 1995 with the vision of becoming a 24 hour cable TV channel and online multimedia service about technology. News.com was born in 1996, claims to have published the first banner ad ever and calls itself “a

2 D. Nordfors, D. Kreiss, J. Sandred. “Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index”, Innovation Journalism , Vol. 2 No. 2. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-5.pdf

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recognized early adopter of online news-delivery capabilities such as Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.”3

In February 2006, News.com had 2,6 million unique users and 18,5 million page views4.

3 Spaghetti on the Wall

3.1 The Innovative Policy of CNET News.com

The first thing that meets morning grumpy staff entering the CNET building in San Francisco is the four corporate values in capital letters, on the wall of the entrance hall:

Passion – we care

Innovation – we find a better way Integrity – we are true to our word Teamwork – we succeed together CNET’s vision is to be a “different kind of media company”, pioneering the Internet media industry through innovation. ”We embrace innovation and celebrate it with everything we do,”5 is how the company describes its approach. The “finding a better way” means moving forward through “thinking beyond what’s merely possible to what people really want and need, and to innovate to those ideals,” according to the website of CNET Networks.

3.2 Innovative from the start

The first employees of News.com were to become backpack journalists. “We armed them with video cameras, audio recorders and notebooks. They did it all,” said Jai Singh, editor-in-chief and founding editor of the website.

He said striving for innovation was inherent in the company structure from the start, since CNET was launched the same year as the Netscape browser; the Internet medium was practically unexplored territory. News.com aimed to become

3 http://www.cnetnetworks.com/aboutus/brands.html

4 Nielsen NetRatings, Month of February 2006, U.S. Home and Work Combined Panel

5 CNET Networks Vision/Mission. http://www.cnetnetworks.com/aboutus/mission.html

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the biggest multimedia news site out there. “But we found out that nobody cared about video and audio,” Singh said.

Since broadband was slow and expensive, most home users couldn’t hear and see the audio and video news broadcasted on the site. In half a year, the multimedia effort was disbanded and the focus placed on written articles. Was it a defeat?

Not if you ask Jai Singh. CNET was just ahead of its time, and the striving for innovation continued. “If you fast forward to 2006, we are doing a lot of video and audio,” he said.

Once again, the company is focusing on developing multimedia elements on the site. Staff with competence in filming and TV has been hired to extend the video features.

Since July 2005, audio news podcasts are made daily and attract increasing numbers of subscribers who download them to computers, mp3 players and handheld units. The broadcasts are available via iTunes and networked TiVo video recorders.

The weekly audio round-table discussion was turned into a video podcast for the first time on March 10 2006, and a vodcast series on Internet security and threats was introduced one week later. An expanded on-demand video presence is part of CNET plans for the future.

3.3 Seeing what sticks Even if there is an incentive from the management for constant innovation at News.com, specific initiatives usually come from people on the floor. The news podcasts were initiated by Charles Cooper, executive editor of commentary, who read about and listened to the podcasts that started to pop up around the web. He didn’t like what he heard, and even wrote a blog post about how terrible most podcasts were, but came around to thinking that News.com could turn them into something useful. “I went to Jai and said: ‘I think it is something our users would like. I don’t know what I’m doing, I have no experience in radio, but I want to give it a shot,’ and Jai said ‘ok,’ ”Cooper said. “It is like throwing a plate of spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.”

Scott Ard, executive news editor, agrees. “We just try to do different stuff, we are always trying something new. We are in a big company but can always say ‘Let’s renegade. What the hell, let’s try it.’ ” The newsroom experiments go straight up on the website, no dummies are made, Ard said. “It just takes too long. We don’t need clearance. If it doesn’t work, no one is going to get his hands slapped over it. Some of it we stick with, some of it goes away.”

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4 "We eat our dog food"

4.1 Practicing What You Preach

To Jai Singh, the reason for innovation is a given. “If you don’t embrace innovation, you will die. Because the user wants it,” he said.

CNET News.com defines its readership as “people who need to stay ahead of the curve – people who are constantly exploring, evaluating and buying.”6 They are early adopters of technology, many of them professionals in the tech industry. Most are between 30 and 50 years old, male, well educated with a high income and feeling very comfortable with technology.7 These readers, interested in the news of innovation, also demand the medium which brings them the news to practice innovation. “The cliché here is ‘We eat our dog food,’ ” Cooper said, and Ard agreed. “Anyone can write a story, make a headline and put it on the web. You’ve got to show that you’ve got some experiment going. Our readers are techies, many are developers, they’ve seen tricks on other publications and blogs. They expect it. We need to add something different to the site so that we don’t just spit out stories,” Ard said. He points to the feature “trackback” as an example – a feature at the bottom of every article that allows readers to see which blogs and other websites have linked to and commented on the article. “It is very geeky, not many people use it, but it is easy to put it in there, to add that extra spice, to say ‘We know about trackback, there you go. It’s not rocket science.’ ”

4.2 Fast medium to cover fast-moving industry

Since technology is an industry where innovation happens fast, a fast medium is needed to follow the developments. Cooper compares News.com with monthly technology magazines.

“Covering the technology sector you need a site operation at par with it. A monthly magazine has a two-to-three-month cycle. An iPod is introduced every six months, and here you are working at a paper with a three-month delay. The technology has already passed you by the time you have finished the next edition,” he said.

6 CNET Networks Vision/Mission. http://www.cnetnetworks.com/aboutus/mission.html

7 Interview with Harry Fuller, executive editor of video content

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5 Connecting the dots

5.1 Combining technologies to embrace the innovation process

Covering the process of technological innovation, from ideas and rumors to the launching of a product on the market, CNET News.com uses many innovative means of communication.

The multimedia possibilities, interconnectivity and instant nature of the Internet are used to cover the technological, business, legal and political aspects of innovation, adding up to connect the dots of the innovation process.

5.2 Video: gadgets and how-tos

Harry Fuller, Executive Editor, was brought into CNET News.com last September to get more video on the site. Many of the video clips concern product information and new gadgets, where it is easier to show the physical product than to describe it in words. “A new version of Internet Explorer or new products from Apple – people want to see whether they want to buy it or not. We are part of the early decision process,” Fuller said. One of the video clips is attached to an article by Elinor Mills, senior reporter covering Google, about the new Google desktop. In the clip, Mills browses the desktop features and explains them to the readers. “Someone’s going to have to use it, I think people like video instead of reading a manual,” she said. “And they like seeing a face, someone that interacts with the technology instead of seeing just the product.” It’s not only the readers who learn from the video clips. “It forces me to learn more about the product, and it is a nice overall package – a story plus a video to go with it, plus audio. The more packaged stuff we do, the better the coverage,” Mills said.

5.3 Audio: Stinkers and Rumors Every Friday an audio podcast roundtable discussion is made where reporters discuss a hot topic that has been going on during the week, for example how Google legal problems affect the company’s credibility and business. Mills participated in this discussion and thinks that the podcasts are a good idea. “Reporters know the topics. They can give good analysis about the big picture, issues and reactions. It gets us away from just pure product stories,” said Mills, who feels that covering the appearance of new products on the market takes a lot of time as a tech reporter.

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“Often there is no time for a follow-up with more analysis about what happens to the market and what it means to the users. In the podcasts, you can speak at the top of your head.”

Cooper makes a daily podcast, summing up the latest news and interviewing companies as well as reporters. He feels that the podcasts add a perspective on innovation that often does not come out in writing. “This is a way for reporters to talk about issues, predictions and rumors that may not make it into news,” he said.

In Cooper’s opinion, the audio clips also help to make complicated technology reporting less dry and more personal, and make the story more alive to the users.

“When you get the reporters on tape, listeners can hear them express more analysis than they would do in a story. I can ask Ina (Fried, Microsoft reporter): ‘So this new product from Microsoft – a stinker?’ And she will say ‘Yeah!’ ”

5.4 Live Blogging: Boos and Surprises

Live blogging, or real-time reporting, is one of the most recent experiments at News.com. The first one was carried out during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Macworld in January. It was a running commentary, posted live during the speech that unveiled new Apple products. “It is great when there is going to be something big and new announced – surprises, visual events or big news,” Mills said. “You can put color to it that wouldn’t do in a story, like ‘He got booed’ or ‘Cheers from the crowd.’ ” Mills was the one to perform the second live blog8, from an analyst meeting at the Google headquarters, right after the company CFO had hinted at slowed growth and caused a sharp decline in Google shares. “Investors went crazy, we thought there would be more surprises coming up that readers would want to find out about right away,” she said.

8 http://news.com.com/Live+Google+faces+off+with+analysts/2100-1030_3-6045103.html

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Audio clips of controversial statements on Google’s censorship in China and CEO predictions about the future where added to the live blog afterwards.

No matter how innovative, however, one of CNET News.com’s partner Web sites in Asia, trying to translate the news, didn’t care much for the format. The reason: such a long piece of text is a nightmare to translate and doesn’t have the biggest news on the top, making a case for the trusted inverted pyramid.

To help readers through the massive record after the meeting was over, key parts were highlighted in yellow just like on a piece of paper.

5.5 Links: the shopping mall of knowledge Publishing on the Internet gives CNET the possibility of connecting different aspects of the innovation process for a wider understanding, through different types of links.

Stock quotes: With every story about a product or a company, there is a sidebar showing the stock quotes of all companies involved. Clicking on it leads to a detailed summary of the current stock market situation. The big picture: Another side bar feature is ”The big picture” (see below) which promises to explore how all news is related. It draws a visual spider web, similar to a mind map, between related stories, topics and competing companies around the object of the article.

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Links to other CNET pages and sites: During a patent lawsuit which threatened to shut down service for all users of the popular BlackBerry wireless emailing devices, News.com made a roundup page. It was called “Blackberry Getting Squeezed?”9 and collected all the news stories, columns, analysis and audio roundtable discussions made around the case, giving a complete picture of its history.

The page also linked to CNET video reviews of BlackBerry products and a comparison of models with ratings, price comparisons and links to shopping sites. Another link led to Blackberry software at Download.com.

“CNET is like a shopping mall. You buy some clothes, eat a pretzel and go to a movie. We own all those stores,” Ard said. He sees the same overall philosophy for the news, reviews and download sites: to give readers more information about the products and companies that they are interested in.

CNET Networks is currently working to integrate the News, reviews and downloads sites even further. Links to competitors: News.com Extra, accessible from the front page, is a section where readers are directed to technology stories from other websites: “Our reporters and editors handpick the stories that you shouldn’t miss, with the goal of expanding your knowledge.”10 Another feature is the Blogma, highlighting the most popular technology topics discussed in blogs across the web, and linking to the related sites. Aren’t these features playing in the hands of CNET competitors? “The readers are smart enough to know that we are not the only tech site,” Ard said. “We can’t do it all, we only have 20 reporters and the tech industry is so damn big. We thought that if the readers go through here, and we provide a little guidance, they will come back. We are providing a service; we want to remain a useful news aggregator.”

9 http://news.com.com/BlackBerry+getting+squeezed/2009-1047_3-6042243.html

10http://news.com.com/News.com+launches+Extra+edition/2030-9373_3- 5258814.html?tag=st.ne.xtra

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6 Conclusion

The two questions posed in the beginning of this paper were: why is it important to live what you write about, and how does it improve the coverage of the innovation process?

The CNET target audience is interested in innovation, early adopters who use new technologies in daily life. These readers want their news delivered through the channels they use – work computers, mobile phones, TiVos, iPods and other handheld units.

Apart from accessing the news through up-to-date technology, they also expect it to be created in an innovative way. News.com staff need to show that they have “some experiment going” to build confidence and interest with the users, to show that they practice what they preach and know the technologies they cover. If an experiment fails, it is okay – it is part of the process. Creative solutions like reporters guiding through new products on video are made to help users learn, but they also extend the knowledge of reporters. Journalists are forced to find out more about the innovations they cover, which improves the quality of reporting.

Widening the scope from pure technology, innovative journalism can bridge traditional beats like technology, law and business and give an overview of the innovation process. All the features on News.com are used to picture different aspects of innovation. Traditional articles cover technology happenings and developments, audio interviews provide opinion and analysis, roundtable discussions elaborate on business, legal and political issues, instrumental video demonstrations help users understand new products, real-time reporting breaks the fast-moving technology news when it happens, and sidebar links provide company stock information. Linking this wide variety of content together on the Internet, CNET connects the dots of tech reporting into a picture of the innovation process.

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7 References

7.1 Interviews at CNET News.com

Scott Ard, executive news editor

Charles Cooper, executive editor of commentary and podcasts

Harry Fuller, executive editor of video content

Elinor Mills, senior writer covering Google, Yahoo, MSN and Internet media

Jai Singh, editor-in-chief, founding editor and senior vice president of News.com

Matthew Sweer, analyst CNET Mike Yamamoto, executive editor of special reports

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8 Acknowledgements

Thank you Harry Fuller for all the effort you went through to take me in for six fun and challenging months at CNET News.com. Thanks also to my busy CNET colleagues who took the time to switch seats from journalists to interviewees for this paper, and to the entire newsroom for being so friendly and welcoming.

I owe my Swedish fellows a thank you for our Wednesday culture shock therapy nights (which should happen more often), and especially Thomas Frostberg who has been my coach and sounding board during the creation of this paper. David Nordfors and Vinnova – thank you for this wonderful opportunity to develop as an innovation journalist.

Last but not least, a big hug to my Norwegian friend and fellow journalist Miriam S. Dahl, who supports and encourages me through thick and thin, all the way from Estonia.

Amanda Termén is a 2006 Innovation Journalism Program fellow, hosted by CNET News.com in San Francisco. In Sweden, she works as a business and politics reporter at the Gothenburg Post, the daily newspaper of Sweden's second largest city. She has worked as a culture editor, web editor and reporter at several newspapers in Sweden. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and a European Diploma in International Journalism from the universities of Utrecht, Holland and Aarhus, Denmark, plus a supplementary degree in International Relations, International Politics and European Studies.

How to Write About the Future

Jyrki Alkio

Staff writer, Business and Economics Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki, Finland Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford, Hosted by Red Herring E-mail: jyrki.alkio @ sanoma.fi

41 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Alkio – How to Write About the Future The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

1 INTRODUCTION...... 3

2 STATE OF THE ART...... 5

3 TRACK RECORD...... 8

4 NEW TOOLS FOR JOURNALISM...... 11

5 RISK MANAGEMENT ...... 16

6 CONCLUSIONS ...... 16

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... 17

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How to Write About the Future

This paper points out the opportunities and threats in writing about the future. Different players in the innovation process have varied expectations about how and when journalists should write about innovations. These interests may conflict with media’s own interests of right timing.

I propose that journalists could learn from other professions working with the questions about the future. The uncertainty related to the unknown cannot be resolved with one universal solution or methodology, but can work as a tool to put new innovations into the right context.

An innovation journalist writing about the future should be aware of the risk related to his approach. The more future-oriented the writing the more risk that he or she may be wrong. Experienced colleagues recommend, in trying to avoid wrong bets, finding an independent evaluation in defining whether a new innovation, technology or startup is worth writing.

1 Introduction

Recently I have heard arguments claiming that journalism is about yesterday. Daily headlines tell readers what happened yesterday instead of giving an idea of what is ahead. In these arguments journalism is seen as a cornerstone for the status quo, providing stability and constancy in societies, a finding that several researches in communication studies have supported.1 It is risky to speak about journalism as a concept without putting it into a historical or geographical context, as it has changed constantly over place and time. Nevertheless we may say that by its nature the concept of news is mainly about something that has already happened. I would not, however, say that writing about yesterday is the whole picture of journalism as a lot of attention is paid to, say, proposals or decisions influencing our near-term future.

1 H. Luostarinen, T. Uskali: Suomalainen journalismi ja yhteiskunnan muutos 1980-2000 in Artikkelikokoelma tutkimushankkeesta sosiaaliset innovaatiot, yhteiskunnan uudistumiskyky ja taloudellinen menestys. Suomen itsenäisyyden juhlavuoden rahasto Sitra. http://www.sitra.fi/Julkaisut/Heiskala.pdf

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The introduction of innovation journalism2, a new concept, can be seen as an ambitious attempt to seek a better future for journalism.3 Innovation journalism, as I understand it, can also question the role and premises of traditional journalism.

By simplest definition, innovation journalism is journalism covering innovations; innovations in turn are market introductions of inventions. In a more sophisticated definition, innovation journalism covers technical, business, legal and political innovations and innovation systems.4 The definition of the concept is still ongoing, as conflicting ideas about its scope are put forward.5 I find the stricter definition of the concept as a satisfactory starting point.

Innovation journalism is, or at least should be, more future-oriented than journalism in general; the object of innovation journalism—innovation—is about change. Innovation journalism can study fields where new inventions revolutionize whole industries or others where new ideas transform slowly into innovations and finally come out as new gadgets. Nevertheless, innovation journalism is a field of uncertainty, so I think caution is needed. How can an innovation journalist find out what is really important or revolutionary, while others working with these questions have failed? The more future-oriented journalism becomes, the more risks of error, as will be shown later. The simplest solution for journalists willing to avoid risks is to avoid writing about the future and report only on the latest announcements or press releases. In my paper I intend to reveal tools and methods that could help us to write about future without moving into science fiction.

2 D. Nordfors. The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, Oct. 2003. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf

3 Turo Uskali. Paying Attention to Weak Signals – The Key Concept for Innovation Journalism. Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 No. 11, August 2005. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-11.pdf

4 D. Nordfors. The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems. Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 7, 8 Nov. 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-7.pdf. This definition was first suggested in the internal discussion between the Innovation Journalism Fellows 2004.

5 See E. Kauhanen: Innovation is much more than business and technology. The Finnish Innovation Journalism Research Program. Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 No. 4, April 2005. http://innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-4_split/INJO-2-4%20pp.147-164.pdf For Mr. Kauhanen innovations are not only technical or commercial by nature but also political, ideological, cultural and even artistic.

4 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Alkio – How to Write About the Future The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

2 State of the Art

If journalism is a key player in contemporary societies, journalism about innovations should be a driving force in technology development. Unfortunately, that seems overstatement, as journalism’s current role in innovation processes is, if not marginal, limited, according to people I interviewed for this paper. In Silicon Valley, the questions of technology and business seem to be more intertwined in journalism than in Finland.

”Compared to the financial and social importance that innovations have, journalists have left them relatively untouched. Articles focus mainly on a single product or a company and do not reveal the innovation process itself or how the innovation could be exploited. It is not uncommon that stories are based on the information by one company only,” said Jari Romanainen, executive director for activation in Tekes, Finland’s main public funding organization for research and development.6 He would like to see stories delve into cases more deeply, analyzing critically why an invention did not turn into a successful innovation, why markets did not develop as expected and what went wrong in the process. To improve the quality of innovation journalism, I will focus first on the timing of innovation journalism. Two sometimes conflicting ways exist of answering the question of when the time is right to write about innovations. For media, whether radio, television, web, newspaper or magazine, timing is crucial, as the media provide content that appeal to readers and viewers. Decisions within newsrooms are based on assumptions of what the audience (readers, listeners, viewers) of that particular media want. Consumer-oriented magazines focus on products in stores, while bloggers could write for weeks about new ideas that may change the world. Whatever the focus, every editor and journalist must decide what is a right ‘time to market’ for any story in his or her medium. Usually, in daily work, this is not an issue as publishing is an ongoing process with a steady flow of stories. In the news world, the question of timing with special stories is also simple: most editors want to publish a scoop as soon as it is available and verifiable.

The right timing in innovation journalism is not, however, always obvious; innovation processes are slow and sometimes unpredictable, something I learned years ago. I have covered telecommunication industry in my home newspaper Helsingin Sanomat for five years. Just before I started, a colleague wrote a thorough story about VoiP (Voice over Internet Protocol).7 The article was ahead of its time as the technology was then in its early stages. I concluded that we have

6 Unpublished interview with Jari Romanainen by email March 7 2006 for this paper.

7 T. Sutinen: Cisco myy internetin ideaa puheluihin. Helsingin Sanomat. 4. July 2000.

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covered VoiP well enough in the paper and neglected the topic for two or three years, then realized finally that I had missed the boat.

The worst thing for a newspaper or any other medium is to miss something big. That has happened often over the years, and will happen in the future (see comments from Fred Barnes in Turo Uskali’s paper)8. But the question is not only of being late or missing something totally, as my own experience demonstrates— we can also report too early.

The timing issue looks totally different when viewed from outside, from the players involved in the innovation process. While journalists are looking primarily for good stories, players in the innovation field have different goals.

The concept of innovation journalism has emerged from a system-level approach where journalism is seen as one actor in a complex structure. According to Nordfors, “Innovation is a primary driving force for economic growth in most OECD countries; its importance is increasing. Innovation systems must be improved and introducing innovation journalism can do this.”9 and “Business journalism has taught people to discuss the relationships between interest rates, currencies and stock prices. Innovation journalism is needed to enhance public debate through better common knowledge and understanding of productivity and innovation issues, including how innovation affects the national economy. We need to discuss how to become more productive.”10 Similar outlines can be found from Mr. Romanainen’s answers. The role of innovation journalism is essential as “the better the understanding of innovation, the more enlightened are the decisions related to it both in companies and in the public sector.”11 These kinds of formulations do not determine the time frame for innovation journalism but, nevertheless, contribute in creating an overall understanding of the question. The system-level approach has gained ground in countries like Sweden and Finland, where governments tend to boost innovations with well defined policies, while in Silicon Valley innovation is considered to be more market driven. I addressed the question of timeframe in innovation journalism to several people in different roles in the innovation process, both working in the Silicon Valley and outside of it. For a startup, the question of publicity is simple as public relations is considered one of the most cost-effective and reliable marketing channels, says Ari Backholm,

8 T. Uskali, see footnote 3

9 D. Nordfors, see footnote 4.

10 Same

11 J. Romanainen, see footnote 6.

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vice president of mobile email provider Seven.12 Many Valley startups operate in the ‘stealth mode’ or ‘under the radar,’—these companies try to avoid publicity. But as the startup moves to the next phase, any publicity is good publicity.

The right timing for stories depends on marketing needs. If the startup is seeking venture financing, it is good to be noticed in the business media and among analysts, Mr. Backholm said. If the startup’s market is a business-to-business market it is good to talk about the future openly while in a business-to-consumer market companies tend to do big launches where they could surprise the media. 13 Venture capitalists think more or less along same lines. “My object is to create awareness for my portfolio company,” John Malloy, a partner from BlueRun Ventures said.14 In any story involving companies in VC’s portfolio, venture capitalist firms should help make the technology understandable. Ideal timing for a story from private investor’s perspective would be the official launch or “post beta at commercial readiness,” according to Mr. Malloy.

I cannot say how well these answers represent the whole field of startups or venture capitalists as other respondents may have different opinions. Obviously, however, the strategies managing media vary remarkably within larger corporations. Every company has its own way to communicate. In a recent study by an international correspondents’ press club, Intel’s communication was considered most open of the big Silicon Valley corporations. But some corporations try to minimize all information related to their innovations and limit the communication to product launches only, not hinting of what would be coming in the future. Intel’s strategy is to talk early about general developments, to signal the direction to the industry. In some technology fields, the company keeps a low profile until patents have been filed; and in the case of new manufacturing methods or processes, the company must keep the technology secret even longer. Finally, when a new technology transfers from R&D to business units for final development, Intel will not break the silence until the product is launched.15 Nokia is moving along the same lines as the world leading handset maker communicates its long-term vision openly while in product launches its policy is strict.16 Yrjö Neuvo, Nokia’s former chief technology officer, would like to see

12 Unpublished interview with Ari Backholm February 21 2006 for this paper.

13 See footnote 12

14 Unpublished interview with John Malloy March 3 2006 for this paper.

15 Unpublished interview with Agnes Kwan, Manager, International & Marketing Programs at Intel, by email March 13 2006 for this paper.

16 Unpublished interview with Arja Suominen, Communication Manager at Nokia, by email March 9 2006 for this paper.

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articles about new innovation even in their early stages.17 “When journalists write about innovations they are involved, one way or another, in defining the hype curve (see Ch. 4, page 12-13). Despite that, I would like to see stories from the early stages of the innovation process, knowing the potential overexcitement. While writing, journalists should have the understanding of realism.”

For public funding organizations, the question of goals and timing are more complicated than for a single startup or a VC company. The current time frame for innovation journalism is “pretty much here and now,” according Mr. Romanainen, though there may be a more future-oriented approach taking help from science.18 “A future-oriented writing, with a realistic ground and evaluation of different evolution paths could serve better the needs of companies, research and political decision making, as well as individual citizens.” For him, the ideal timeframe of innovation journalism would be a balanced mix with stories looking to the future, to today’s issues as well as to the past.

These answers may be a snapshot rather than a whole picture of ideas and expectations. Most likely they do not surprise anyone involved in the innovation or journalistic processes but, hopefully, provide understanding of the scope of different expectations. Different players have different and sometimes also conflicting views and ideas how and when journalism should come into picture. The outcome, I would argue, an article published in a paper or magazine or web site, is a result from journalist’s work but also a reflection of how successfully different players were able to articulate their interests. In the end, the journalist is working primarily for the reader, not marketing a new product, helping a startup get more financing, promoting a venture capitalist’s portfolio company prior to an IPO, or improving the quality of national innovation policy. Nevertheless, he or she might end up doing all that.

3 Track Record

Before introducing a new school of journalism I would like to consider the achievements so far in the field of future-oriented journalism. Unfortunately there has not been that much evaluation of what has gone right or wrong in writings—a pity, as such reflections might help to avoid repeating the same mistakes. The Economist, however, took a self-critical approach in its recent The World in 2006 issue where the magazine asked Niall Ferguson, professor of history in Harvard University, to evaluate previous The World in… issues.19 The World in… is

17 Unpublished interview with Yrjö Neuvo by email March 9 2006 for this paper.

18 J. Romanainen, see footnote 6.

19 The Economist: The World in 2006. Niall Ferguson offers a historian’s perspective on our record.

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an annual magazine predicting likely events of the coming year, avoiding more future-oriented visions.

The accuracy of these predictions cannot be compared simply—no other magazine or newspaper has done such work. So one cannot say that the magazine did better or worse than others. For this paper’s purposes, that kind of result would be irrelevant.

The journalists working for The World in… got many things right over the years. The magazine foresaw in 1988 major changes in central Europe, especially in East Germany, anticipated the non-violent end of apartheid a year later and predicted post-Soviet chaos in Russia in 1991, to name a few of their correct predictions.

However, The Economist has also missed several significant political and economic events, like the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the descent into civil war in Yugoslavia. The Japanese stock market crash of 1990 came out of the blue for the magazine, as well as the crises in Mexico, Asia, and Russia later in 1990’s.20 Financial crises are by their nature hard to predict, Mr. Ferguson admitted, but The Economist had difficulties in noticing bigger macroeconomic trend as well. The magazine’s Asian experts were pessimistic about China’s prospects both in their 1989 and 1991 editions but changed this view a year later. The World in… missed the Internet revolution as well as its potential, fully realized in the 1995 edition but not earlier. In the first edition of the magazine in 1987, one contributor predicted that Nomura Securities would take over Merrill Lynch. Currently that writer is an editor of The Economist, which for Mr. Ferguson is a proof that getting your predictions wrong is no obstacle to success in journalism. My aim in spotting hits and misses of The World in… is not to show how beautifully or badly The Economist has done but to show how difficult it is write about the future. The magazine should have all the resources but despite that they went wrong at least as often as they got things right. What, then, about others?

As I am not aware of other analysis of this kind, there is not much to add to observations made by Dr. Ferguson. Nevertheless, a study by Heikki Luostarinen and Turo Uskali (researchers in communication studies in Finland), made interesting remarks related to the writing of Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest daily newspaper in Finland, more than a decade ago, when the country hit its worst recession since the 1930s.21 The newspaper could not anticipate the recession well in its top stories though the business and economics section followed carefully different symptoms of the recession’s development.

20 See footnote 19.

21 H. Luostarinen, T. Uskali, see footnote 1.

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Moving from politics to business and technology, it can be argued that most visible and influential predictions come from investors. The share price of a given company basically reflects future expectations, as discounted cash flows are key valuation tools.

The valuation is an ongoing process. New information is available constantly because companies report their results quarterly and investors can change their views rapidly based on new data. Contrary to this, at the turn of the century there was a more profound change where old valuations—that is, old predictions—were found incorrect and irrelevant. There was a firm belief in a new momentum for business and technology.

The tech bubble flowed from unrealistic expectations as share prizes rocketed as investors changed suddenly their views about the future. Journalism had a role in this development as well, though I would not hold the media responsible for what happened. Nevertheless, I got the impression that many journalists working in Silicon Valley still have some kind of trauma from that time. They feel journalism was a key player in the bubble, as papers and magazines accepted the slogan of new economy without constantly asking enough critical questions.22 The reasons behind the bubble and the burst were not related mainly to technology. Many innovations made during the turn of the century are still present. The issue is that business models disintegrated as companies and investors had unreal projections about the future. “Journalism failed at that time as journalists forgot one golden rule of journalism, the need for scepticism and balancing things,” Tom Murphy, the editor-in-chief at RedHerring.com, said.23 The consequences from the bubble are still around us, Mr. Neuvo from Nokia said. “We are having a hangover from the Internet bubble, though it is over now. Information technology has moved forward regardless of the bubble.”24

The Red Herring magazine lived the highs and lows of the bubble. In its heyday, the monthly magazine had more than 600 pages in one issue in 2000. Three years later it stopped publishing and was sold at auction by the VC firms that owned the magazine. Red Herring started up again as a Web site in September 2003 and as a weekly publication in January 2005 under new ownership and management. In the old Red Herring there was too much enthusiasm as every enterprise was just great, Joel Dreyfuss, the editor-in-chief, said.25 “Now we are much more sober and careful.”

22 Unpublished interviews with Mike Langberg, technology columnist at San Jose Mercury News, March 1 2006, Tom Murphy, editor-in-chief at RedHerring.com, February 28 2006, and Lee Bruno, editorial director at the 451 group, March 8 2006.

23 T. Murphy, same.

24 Y. Neuvo, see footnote 17.

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4 New Tools for Journalism

Journalism’s goal is to serve readers, tell them something they didn’t know, or even didn’t know they didn’t know. To redeem their role, journalists should be able to write about something that helps readers understand where the world is going. The big question in innovation journalism is how journalists should handle the uncertainties related to the future and turn them into stories that would add value to the reader.

Science fiction writers take typically a lot of freedom and create realities of their own. At their best, the most skilful sci-fi writers can also give an input to researchers and stimulate the way of thinking with their visions. Despite that, journalism has not taken sci-fi seriously—journalists have more to do with facts than visions.

For journalists, the art of writing about the future lies in the ability to understand the past and make projections based on it while in the same time remain sensitive to new, disruptive innovations that may question old rules. But we could learn something from sci-fi writers as well, if we can put their visions into realistic perspective. I assume there are several lessons we journalists could learn from other professionals dealing with these same topics. So I have addressed questions related to their working methods to find out if there is something we could try to use (I did not, however, interview any sci-fi writers).

Over the years several people forecasting the future have developed sophisticated tools to analyze relevant trends. I have not been able to study systematically those methods used in future studies, so the following presentation is incomplete but it should give the reader ideas to consider. To understand where the world is going, journalists need a frame of reference in their work. A good starting point would be to spot relevant trends—mobility or globalisation just to name two obvious ones. The greenhouse phenomenon could be another megatrend because it will most likely affect our daily lives as well as businesses. A deep understanding of underlying trends could give journalists better tools to put new innovations in context. At their best, these kinds of analysis could help in understanding where future innovations likely will occur or are needed. The ability to put new phenomena into a context is essential but the context differs depending on the time frame, said Paul Saffo, Director at the Institute for The Future. In context, five-year questions are very different from 50-year ones. “We

25 Unpublished interview with Joel Dreyfuss, February 27 2006.

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need to reframe our conversation so that people understand that. Otherwise we are not going to make right decisions.”26

A collaboration of journalists and people doing future studies could improve the level of understanding about future trends. One tool that future research operates with is scenarios, usually providing at least three different visions of the future. Traditionally there has been room only for one scenario in a journalistic story, but in innovation journalism this could be different, Turo Uskali suggested in his paper about weak signals.27 I find his suggestion interesting but instead of putting all scenarios in one story I would prefer to see a series of articles where different scenarios are covered, realizing that this kind of emphasis may be beyond the resources of any newspaper, magazine or web site.

Within any trend or rather megatrend, several technologies and innovations are under development. One task for a journalist is to try to understand where they are going, to define where they are in the hype curve (a curve presented by Gartner in 1995, see below), said Mike Langberg, a technology columnist at San Jose Mercury News.28 Hype Curve

26 Unpublished interview with Paul Saffo, March 13, 2006 for this paper.

27 T. Uskali, see footnote 3.

28 M. Langberg, see footnote 22.

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If we can add sub-trends or different technologies in this picture, as I have tried to do in the following in the fields of Mobility and Internet, we may have a beautiful starting point in putting different new innovations and technologies in perspective. With the overall picture in mind, journalists may have better qualifications to cover any innovation or technology with a more realistic view.

Hype Curve in Mobility and Internet

Ajax, Mash-ups, Web 2.0 Mobile TV Voip with Wi-Fi, UMA, Fixed Mobile Convergence Mobile Linux MVNOs VoIP RSS Blogs RfiD

Handset Long tail Wireless email sensors Wimax Mobile music Mobile enterprise solutions 4G Mobile search

It is, nevertheless, unrealistic that any journalist could draw a picture like this on his or her own, even less in today’s media environment where there is more need for fast reporting and less demand for highly specialized journalists. So how can a journalist draw these pictures, adding relevant technologies and neglecting irrelevant ones, and know what are the most important stories of the day? The common answer from almost everyone I interviewed is about finding the right people, and that in turn is also about networking. We all have our own ways of finding the right people, sometimes with systematic work but often from people we happen to know or have heard about. In contrast to this Mr. Romanainen from Tekes suggests a much improved—and time

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consuming—way to find the true professionals in any field. Researches use strategies called co-nomination and sociogram where a group of specialists are given a questionnaire and asked to name highly rated scholars or professionals they themselves respect. The same questionnaire is given to these new specialists and this process continues until no new names emerge. The real gurus are those whose names are most often on the list.29

There is, however, a risk in this method as scholars representing different views may be omitted. If this kind of a systemic search for talent is taken seriously, there is a need to keep in touch with dissidents as journalism has the tendency to favour elites in societies, whether in business, politics, administration or culture.30 If dissidents can be found, the challenge is to put their view in the right perspective.

Obviously there is no simple answer nor one method or final solution, telling how to write about the future. “It is about getting multiple input,” said Lee Bruno, currently an analyst and previously an innovation journalist at Red Herring.31 Many tools are available to help to foresee the future, but they are only tools, Mr. Saffo said. “At the end of the day this is applied into intuition. Tools are there to create a discipline that gets you to where you can make intelligent intuitions. In one extreme, if you make just wild speculation, you go nowhere. That is bad science fiction. The other extreme is that you demand everything to be quantified but then you will not see the discontinuities and they are the hardest thing the to see.”32 When covering technology, Mr. Bruno would have venture capitalists, vendors, analysts and integrators as sources. They have their different ideas, their own biases and own objectives as well, but journalists should build an unbiased picture after talking to several sources. “It is dangerous if you are just making the calls of your own.” The task is challenging because one has only qualitative and no quantitative data to work with, Mr. Bruno remarked. Nevertheless, some tools may still be available. If new ideas come up, I want to have independent evaluation before writing about them, said Mr. Langberg from the San Jose Mercury News. Acceptable criteria would be that the company gets an investment from a big or a well-known venture capitalist firm or that the company gets a contract from a large technology corporation.33 If the journalistic focus is in technology’s early stages, the risks of going wrong are bigger as independent evaluation may not be available.

29 J. Romanainen, see footnote 6.

30 H. Luostarinen, T. Uskali, see footnote 1.

31 L. Bruno, see footnote 22.

32 P. Saffo, see footnote 26.

33 M. Langberg, see footnote 22.

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Unfortunately I have not been able to touch on the role of universities, research institutes and laboratories in this paper. All they are working with questions of invention and innovation in very early stages and would undoubtedly be valuable sources for information and evaluation for journalists.

Financing from a VC is not a guarantee that a start-up will make a breakthrough— nine out of ten startups fail—but an investment from a big VC is a clear message that someone with strong resources has found the company or its technology compelling. Venture-capitalist metrics are a good tool for journalists, Mr. Malloy, partner at venture capital firm BlueRun Ventures, remarked, but even with them the probabilities of hitting the next big thing are relatively low. 34 A new source for journalism (as well as a new way of journalism) has emerged within the last couple of years as bloggers have entered the field, some with codes previously unknown to journalism. Venture capitalists, nevertheless, pay attention to blogs as new ideas or business models may find their first way from them. Anders Cervanka, an Innovation Journalism fellow a year ago addressed the question of the meaning of blogs for more conventional journalism.35 Within a year the question has become more accurate. There is a lot of hype around blogsphere so the challenge in distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information is huge. On the other hand, it is fair to question whether bloggers are today’s real innovation journalists or blogs merely marketing tools creating hype around new technologies.

Innovation journalism—journalism combining business and technology—should be a good starting point in putting any technology into a business perspective. While majority of tools discussed so far have been qualitative, there are, however, quantitative ways to measure a company or a technology as well. Best practices from the traditional field of financial journalism should be used to measure the performance and prospects of any technology or company. Revenues are a good starting point in evaluation as they provide proven facts, not just promises or expectations. The relevance of the company or its technology becomes even more apparent when the revenue is put into the context of market opportunity.36 Writing with numbers is a way to avoid writing science fiction.37

34 J. Malloy, see footnote 14.

35 A. Cervanka: Roles of Traditional Publications and New Media in Innovation Journalism. Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 No. 4, April 2005. http://innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2- 4_split/INJO-2-4%20pp.121-134.pdf

36 J. Malloy, see footnote 14.

37 T. Murphy, see footnote 22.

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Journalists are—or should be—professional sceptics, as Mr. Langberg said.38

5 Risk Management

Innovation journalists are players in the same field as venture capitalists, start-ups and public financiers. Though everyone has his or her unique role in the game, there are, however, similarities as well.

Both venture capitalists and journalists are making investments. VCs study different technologies and companies before investing in them, to make profit. The same applies to journalists as well, though we invest different assets. Instead of money, journalists invest thought and words but, nevertheless, the purpose is the same, to invest in champions to get the best return on investment. Risk management is an important tool in every corporation and any journalist should consider it seriously. It is preferable to write an article about successful emerging technology, not waste words on something that is fake or turns out to be a failure. It is better to write a big story about something that will change the world than to invest a lot of words into something that will not make a breakthrough. Journalism, like venture capitalism or public funding, is a business of credibility. Right investments, money or words, build credibility, essential for journalist as well as financiers. Risk aversion is a good strategy not to lose credibility but not a good one if one is trying to get biggest returns. In context, just as financiers must put their money at risk to advance, journalists must put their words forward. “The worst thing that can happen is to be too early as then you are burning your cash every day. The second worst thing to happen is to be too late. The whole business we are in is all about timing,” Mr. Malloy said.39 I would accept his words but change the order: the worst thing that could happen to a journalist is to be too late.

6 Conclusions

With these remarks I have tried to demonstrate what kind of a task journalists have if they aspire to move their focus more to the future.

38 M. Langberg, see footnote 22.

39 J. Malloy, see footnote 14.

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The excitement in writing about the future is that no one possesses the secret information of what will happen. As shown in chapter 4, journalists have guessed wrong but they are not alone. Big corporations have spent billions on innovations that never succeeded, either because the technology was bad, the market was not there, then timing was wrong, or consumers just did not need new toys.

To write relevantly one should have deep understanding in the area. Future- oriented journalists must understand both technology and business as a prerequisite to evaluating the information provided and—essential—to write clearly.

To me the more future-oriented innovation journalism is like a mindset. The challenge is to be curious and sceptical simultaneously. How to keep these opposite attitudes in balance? It is easy to get (over)excited or even easier to be just cynical.

When writing about the future, journalism can also play an important role in influencing what the future will look like. The more future-oriented or active role a journalist takes in the innovation process, the more deeply he or she is involved in determining the outcome. That, in turn, begs the question of whether innovation journalism is challenging the boundaries of traditional journalism.

7 Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Tom Murphy, editor-in-chief at RedHerring.com, for giving me the time to prepare this paper, my colleagues at the magazine who must have wondered what I was doing, editor-in-chief Joel Dreyfuss and publisher Alex Vieux for taking me to Red Herring and Janne Virkkunen, editor-in-chief at Helsingin Sanomat, for providing the financial backing that made my four-month stay possible.

Jyrki Alkio is a staff writer in Business and Economics Section at Finland’s largest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. He is an Innovation Journalism Fellow in 2006, hosted by the Red Herring magazine. He has a M.S. in Political Science from Helsinki University, Finland.

17 57

The role of Innovation Journalism in Business Journalism

Erik Amcoff

Editor, Affärsvärlden, Stockholm, Sweden Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford Hosted by The Wall Street Journal, NYC, Spring of 2006E

E-mail: erik.amcoff @ afv.se

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1 INTRODUCTION...... 3

2 THE FACES OF BUSINESS JOURNALISM...... 3 2.1 INNOVATION JOURNALISM ...... 4 3 BUSINESS JOURNALISTS IN THE INNOVATION PROCESS ...... 5

4 CONCLUDING DISCUSSION...... 8

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The Role of Innovation Journalism in Business Journalism

In this paper, we take a closer look at one particular innovation process – a pharma company’s long and difficult hunt for a new medicine – and elaborate on where in this process different kinds of business journalists usually show up. Most business journalists, it is argued, tend to focus on the latter part of this innovation process. A discussion about whether the concept of innovation journalism in any way would change this ends in confusion. Instead of talking about labels, it is argued, more attention should be paid to the basic principles of journalism.

1 Introduction

Two questions are addressed in this paper: Q1: Where in a typical innovation process do different kinds of business journalists usually show up? Q2: With innovation journalism in mind, where should they show up? In the search for answers, we start with some definitions.

2 The Faces of Business Journalism

Business journalism isn’t the same in all business publications. In fact, at least three different kinds can be identified. In general, most papers and magazines with “business” as their niche try to cover all three of them but, nevertheless, they are all more or less officially devoted to primarily one of them.

The three different business journalism variants, with their respective typical questions, and some Swedish and American publications devoted to each one of them, are:

• Job and consumer issues. This business journalism focuses on questions like “My new toaster exploded – how can I get a refund?”, and “When is the new CEO going to stop fire and start hire employees?” People buy these papers not because they are interested in business, but because they want to be generally well-informed and get a little of everything from a paper that cover most issues in society.

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o Publications: Dagens Nyheter, The New York Times1

• Company issues. “This company’s toasters explode – is it because the manufacturing was outsourced to Sweden?”, and “What’s the new CEO´s plan for turning around the company?” Readers have a special interest in deals, companies and economics. o Publications: Dagens Industri, The Wall Street Journal • Stock market issues: “Exploding toasters made this company’s share price tumble – is now the right time to invest in it?”, and “What is the new CEO going to do to make the company’s lagging shares interesting again?” Readers want to read about the latest trends on the stock market. o Publications: Affärsvärlden, Barron’s

In reality, as well as in most publications, these three business journalism alignments are interconnected with each other. In the long run, no share price will climb and no staff will be hired if the company doesn’t show growth and profits. And profits, in the long rung, do not come without some sort of innovation.

2.1 Innovation Journalism

If innovation is the market introduction of inventions2, innovation journalism3 is the reporting on this introduction. And since innovation processes involve many different traditional beats, some have it that successful reporters should have “a thorough understanding of both technology and business matters”4. But to find the role of innovation journalism in business journalism, we first must find the role of business journalism – as we know it – in the innovation process.

1 Mentioned publications are just examples, chosen by the gut feeling of this paper’s author. Readers with other examples are free to erase and change.

2 D. Nordfors. “The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems”, Innovation Journalism Vol. 1 No.7: 8 Nov 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-7.pdf

3 D. Nordfors. “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it”, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, Oct. 2003. p. 3. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf

4 Ibid.

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3 Business Journalists in the Innovation Process

To do this, we will follow a classic innovation process, that despite a fantastic scientific development during the last decades to a large extent still looks the same: The long and difficult process that is the case when a pharmaceutical company seeks and hopefully develops and launches a new medicine. Perhaps other innovation processes are similar when it comes to the attention paid and not paid by business journalists.

The average time it takes to bring a new drug to the market is 12 years. The average cost for the development of this new medicine is $900 million. The average number of substances screened for each new medicine is 1,000,000.5 Not only is the scientific scope impressive; the pharma industry is also a huge business: The total sales of the world’s retail drug market amounts to $550 billion6 and the market capitalization of the 14 largest pharma companies alone amounts to $1,366 billion7. It is also a business of mega-deals; during the last 20 years, the 30 largest mergers and acquisitions in the pharma business have had a total value of $617 billion8. So, the pharma business arguably has something to offer all our three business journalism niches. But is the drug innovation process covered? A closer look at the innovation process of a new drug might give us a hint. The process of getting a new medicine to the market consists of three phases9.

• The pre-clinical phases on average take 4,5 years to perform and cost $335 million. It starts with a focus on areas of unmet medical need, the focus on unexplored commercial markets, and some 1 million substances. After several screenings and tests, the number of interesting substances is down to 17. After further tests, often on animals, it is time for the critical decision of whether or not to go further with the some 12 interesting substances that now are left of the 1 million.

5 Astra Zeneca: http://www.astrazeneca.com/article/502213.aspx#ow

6 The Economist, June 16th 2005

7 Ibid. $1366 billion was the case in the end of May 2005.

8 Affärsvärlden #47, 11/23 2005

9 Actually, there are seven phases: (target identification, hit identification, lead identification, candidate drug prenomination, concept testing, development for launch and launch phase (http://www.astrazeneca.com/article/502213.aspx#ow)). Here we use the more popularized three phases.

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• In the clinical phases there is a go for tests on humans, first on healthy individuals, then on patients. This is also when it is time for the preparation of a full business plan. These phases on average take six years to perform and cost $467 million. • The launch phase: During 1,5 years, on average, and to the cost of some $95 million, all the data from all the tests in previous phases are scrutinized by legal experts, while marketing experts produce their plans for how to release the drug on the market. 1 substance, of the once 1 million, is left. If approved by regulatory agencies, this is the new medicine that is offered patients.

The complexity of this particular innovation process can also be illustrated with all the different professionals that are involved. In the beginning of the 12 years long process, most work is done by molecular bioscientists and in the end, the light is focused on the marketing team. In between, however, contribution must be made also by medical chemists, integrative bioscientists, pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutical scientists, clinical researchers and legal experts. Now, back to the first of our two questions:

Q1: Where on this long and complex road to the launch of a new drug do business journalists usually show up?

Since there are at least three different kind of business beats, there are at least three different answers to the question. In the figure below, an attempt to give these answers is made.

Which phases are covered by what kind of business journalists?

Business journalism beats

Job/consumer Company Stock market

Drug development phases Time Price

Pre-clinical phase 4.5 years $335 million Yes No No

Clinical phase 6 years $467 million No No No

Launch phase 1.5 years $95 million Yes Yes Yes

(Post-launch phase) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

The pre-clinical and clinical phases, in general, are not covered by any business beat, although there are exceptions. A consumer journalist might write about what diseases that may be curable in the future, and what the companies are doing or not

6 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E. Amcoff: The Role of InJo in BuJo The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism doing to find these drugs. The focus, however, is on the patients, not on the drug innovation process.

“Company journalists” and “stock market journalists” are interested when pharmaceutical companies acquire or sign collaboration agreements with biotech research companies that specialize in these early phases. But the focus is on the deal and the potential harvest that may be reaped from a future drug, and not on the innovation process.

But, some 10.5 years and 999.999 substances later, most business journalists wake up from their hibernation and start showing some serious interest in the new drug. This is because the launch phase means serious hope of big profits for the company, which means that new jobs can be created. It also means a serious hope of relief for suffering patients, why job and consumer journalists now are interested. The same can be said about company journalists. The results of the final clinical tests are covered, as well as the evaluation made by drug regulation authorities. The closer the drug gets to a launch on the market, the more interested stock market journalists are as well, because the closer the drug’s launch, the higher the discounted value of its future sales. But even more interesting, for most business journalists, is the post-launch phase, a phase that does not even belong to the innovation process. Instead, the drug now is in a process of creating actual, and not only possible, growth, profits, new jobs, happier patients and happier share holders. Business journalists of different kinds now ask their questions: How many new jobs have been created, and where? How much of the company’s profits will go to new investments? How much will go to dividend and share buy- backs? Is the company now, with its new profits, ready for another take-over? Or is it itself, with its new profits, a take-over target for others? So, the answer to our first question (where […] do business journalists show up?), arguably is: late. Now to the second question: Q2: With “innovation journalism” in mind, where in this process should business journalists show up? One obvious answer could be “earlier”. Another could be “you should reformulate the question, because when is not as important as how: With innovation journalism in mind, how should business journalists act?” This begs for a discussion.

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4 Concluding Discussion

First of all, let’s remember a fundamental question that all journalists constantly must bear in mind: What are my readers interested in, what are they paying me to write about? When it comes to what we call business journalism, some readers are interested in consumer issues, some prefer reading about companies and deals, and others are looking for the cheapest stock or mutual fund. Most look for a little bit of all.

It is also important to remember that different labels on journalism are in the head of the journalists, not in the head of the readers. No reader says “I prefer business journalism” or “I like culture journalism” or “I want to read innovation journalism”. They might, however, say “I prefer reading about innovation processes/business/culture”. And they all want the stories to be good journalism, “the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials”10. This is a definition that most people can agree with, and it is a definition that is valid for all journalistic beats. Let’s take another look at our two proposed answers to the question at hand: “Earlier”: As mentioned, early phases of innovation processes are covered by business journalists, but to a much lesser extent than later phases. This is arguably a good balance, since the earlier the phase, the further away the product is from a possible launch. Talking of “earlier” coverage, some of us come to think about the so called dot.com boom of the late 1990’s and the lessons that should be learned from that time. Some people were happy to teach these lessons back then also. In an autumn 1999-memo to all his reporters and editors, Hasse Olsson, at the time editor-in-chief and CEO of Dagens Industri, a Swedish business daily, said:

“The ’Internet hysteria’ has made us forget about basic news evaluation in the choice and presentation of articles. Several times, we have published big articles about companies that really aren’t companies but only ideas in somebody’s head. Characterizing such articles is that everything fantastic will happen in the future.”11

The point is not that we never should write about companies and processes in their early stages, but that we always must stick to our journalistic principles. And if this is done, a plausible conclusion is that early stages in innovation processes seldom deserve as much attention as later stages. The second proposed answer to our question was in fact a reformulation of the question, to “with innovation journalism in mind, how should business journalists act?”

10 "journalism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 29 Mar. 2006 .

11 Resumé (www.resume.se) Oct 7th 1999.

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The answer to this question has been discussed above. The proposed answer, in short, was that journalists working with business journalism or any kind of journalism should forget about the first word in their titles and focus on the second; journalist. Maybe our tendency to put labels, old and new, on things just makes the issue at hand more complicated and confusing than it really is? Instead of focusing on labels and beats and possible differences between them, more attention should be given to basic journalistic craftsmanship. One example of how this can be defined comes from Dow Jones:

“[…] it is an essential prerequisite for success in the news and information business that our customers believe us to be telling them the truth. If we are not telling them the truth -- or even if they, for any valid reason, believe that we are not -- then Dow Jones cannot prosper.”12

Maybe it doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

News editor Erik Amcoff is the third Innovation Journalism fellow to join us from Affärsvärlden ("Business World"), Sweden´s largest and oldest business magazine. Previous workplaces includes Dagens Industri, the largest business daily in Scandinavia, and Ekonomi24.se, the first and largest independent internet-based business magazine in Sweden. Erik Amcoff holds a Master in politics from Uppsala University, and has also studied at Stockholm University, Exeter University, UK, and Moscow State University, Russia.

12 From the Dow Jones Code of Conduct. The Wall Street Journal is a Dow Jones publication.

9 67

How to Integrate Innovation Journalism Into Traditional Journalism

Eva Barkeman

Editor Aftonbladet, Stockholm, Sweden Swedish Research Council, Stockholm, Sweden Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford Hosted by Fortune eva.barkeman @ vr.se

“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there. “ Charles Kettering

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1 INNOVATION JOURNALISM ...... 3 2 COMPARISON BETWEEN PUBLICATIONS ...... 4 2.1 CASE: BIRD FLU ...... 4 2.2 CASE: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES ...... 6 3 READERSHIP – HOOK...... 6 4 LANGUAGE...... 7 5 CONCLUSION...... 8 6 FUTURE OF INNOVATION JOURNALISM ...... 9 7 DISCUSSION...... 9 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...... 10 9 APPENDIX: INTERVIEWS ...... 11 9.1 INTERVIEW: NY TEKNIK – TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE ...... 11 9.2 INTERVIEW: AFFÄRSVÄRLDEN - BUSINESS MAGAZINE ...... 13 9.3 INTERVIEW: FOKUS – MAGAZINE ON POLITICS...... 15

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How to Integrate Innovation Journalism into Traditional Journalism

This paper is written to elucidate innovation journalism and how to smuggle it into many kinds of magazines – “Stealth journalism”. I studied three types of weekly magazines in Sweden: technology (Ny Teknik), business (Affärsvärlden) and one on Politics (Fokus). A comparison shows that they all do innovation journalism, as far as content is concerned, although not all editors use the term – or even know about it. The editors agree that innovation journalism will grow, partly due to the accelerating cycles of innovation systems – the time it takes to go from idea to commercial product. Yet my conclusion is that Innovation journalism might initially benefit from being a beat of its own, but will eventually be integrated into traditional journalism. However, this demands that reporters and their editors develop an increased awareness of innovation systems.

Good journalism is always about the news, the angle and the language/writing.

1 Innovation Journalism

According to Dr David Nordfors1, who coined the term in 2003, “Innovation Journalism” is journalism about innovation. Innovation journalism covers technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems. Innovation journalism is quite a new topic at the news desk, as a term. Writing about new start-ups and their impact on market and society is not new. The following are reasons to do innovation journalism:

• Offer insight into new technologies and their impact on life. • Detect trends in science, business and society.

• Help policy and decision makers judge the future.

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• Help stock holders evaluate new start-ups.

• Encourage scientists in doing more research leading to innovations.

I looked at the following Swedish weekly magazines, each a leader in its own field with a well-defined readership:

1) Ny Teknik (New Technology) focuses on new technology. Its readers are mainly engineers.

2) Affärsvärlden (World of business) focuses on commercial companies and the stock market. Its readers are mainly decision makers in the trade and industry world.

3) Fokus (Focus) focuses, on a broad context, on the impact on society. Its readers are mainly highly educated people with an interest in social and political sciences.

2 Comparison Between Publications

It is obvious that they can all write stories on more or less the same topic – just in different ways, and sometimes at different stages of the topic’s development or impact.

2.1 Case: Bird Flu One recent example is the bird flu, that reached wild birds in Sweden on February 28 and has been a vivid news hype the last months. And coherently also bird flu vaccine and analysis.

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Affärsvärlden writes on January 3, 20062 that the stock price for the DNA company Alphahelix rose 70 percent after news that it had a revolutionary method for detecting the bird flu virus, but then fell 16 percent when The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control criticized the method. Angle: The venture capitalist behind, Affärsstrategerna, earned 3 million kronor by selling shares.

Affärsvärlden writes an article on January 18, 20063 about how the bird flu will affect different industries, with a list of the winners and the losers. In the short run losers are airlines, hotels and companies in economic growth. I the long run, the losers include oil companies, breweries and tourism. Winners are drug and healthcare companies, IT and telecom companies and home entertainment companies like Nintendo and Blockbuster.

Key: Figures and earnings.

Ny Teknik writes on January 19, 20064 about a new chip that can identify bird flu within an hour: ST microelectronics uses cheap silicon chips and PCR, polymerase chain reaction, to amplify the H5N1 virus. Ny Teknik writes on February 8, 20065 that Swedish biotech company SBL Vaccin may win a government contract to produce a flu vaccine for Sweden. SBL already produces many vaccines.

Key: Technology and market. On January 20, 20066 Fokus runs a comprehensive feature story on the bird flu epidemic, covering everything from the history of virus, to how the disease is spread, to graphics on the virus, to the need of vaccines, to other epidemiological threats. On March 3, 20067 Fokus produces another feature story on the bird flu epidemic, after the virus has hit Sweden. The story’s focus is on how infectious disease control works, what happens to chicken farms and ways to kill infected birds. Key: Impact on society

2 Affärsvärlden, January 3, 2006.

3 Anneli Östlund. Affärsvärlden. January 18, 2006

4 Erik Mellgren. Ny Teknik. January 19, 2006.

5 Monica Kleja. Ny Teknik. February 8, 2006.

6 Nils Johan Tjärnlund, Daniel Urey, Petra Hedbom, Torbjörn Nilsson. Fokus. January 20, 2006.

7 Nils Johan Tjärnlund, Johan Bahlenberg, Malcolm Dixelius, Christopher Labbé, Petra Hedbom, Torbjörn Nilsson. Fokus. March 3, 2006.

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2.2 Case: Alternative Energy Sources Another example is alternative energy sources.

On September 28, 20058 Affärsvärlden writes a feature story on “energy winners,” i.e., companies working on alternative energy – the green wave. Angle: Higher oil prices translate into a boom for green energy. Venture capital flows and stock prices for solar cells companies rise. The magazine lists the best solar and wind companies.

Key: Figures and earnings.

Ny Teknik writes on May 19, 20059, about a new type of solar cell using aluminium gallium arsenide in tandem for better efficiency.

On March 1, 200610 Ny Teknik writes an innovation story about a new solar cell factory, Solibro, to be built in Sweden next year. Angle: How absorbing glass sheets are made through steaming by adding copper, indium, gallium and selenium; the cost of building the factory; the competition from other solar cell companies.

Key: Technology and market. On January 20, 200611 Focus writes about green cars. Angle: More environment- friendly cars have been sold in the last few year, due to higher oil prices and lower taxes. Key: Impact on society

3 Readership – Hook

I interviewed editors from each magazine (see below). All were very concerned about their readers and created content according to readers’ needs. The readership rules the angle.

“Our readers open the paper to read about new technology. We can’t pitch a story on business or money. We always need a tech angle, always”, said Marie Alpman, editor at Ny Teknik. Yet, Ny Teknik doesn’t believe in writing about technology for its own sake. “We always want to give a broader context; market, costs, competition, problems. Who

8 Calle Froste. Affärsvärlden. September 28, 2005.

9 Håkan Abrahamson. Ny Teknik. May 19, 2005.

10 Marie Alpman. Ny Teknik. March 1, 2006.

11 Ulrika Hoffer. Focus. January 20, 2006.

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wants this? Are there other ways to go? What good does this do? Etc.,” said Alpman.

When they write about start-ups they cover both the tech and business angles (many of the engineers who read the magazine are also, at some level, decision makers in their companies). But Ny Teknik makes sure to choose new companies with a cool, intriguing technology.

“Thus, those who don’t care about the business part can enjoy the technology part”, said Marie Alpman.

Affärsvärlden seems to have a similar strategy, but the other way around. ”Our readers want to know about trends, stock and how their field will be influenced by the piece of news”, said Web editor Andreas Cervenka. “We focus on figures, but also on people since they are behind the figures.”

Affärsvärlden runs very few pure technology stories. When they do write about technology, it’s always from a market view, with a focus on revenues and the stock market, since that is what drives business. Fokus never opens with figures and hard facts. ”We always start from a person or a case on a current topic, to tempt the reader into the story”, said Karin Pettersson, editor and co-founder of the new magazine. ”We don’t go into details, but want to give a picture of the status, the process and the difficulties”, she said. Pettersson said she doesn’t fear hard facts, even if she prefers them as graphics. ”I am sure you always can explain any details in a simple way, but it often takes a journalist who knows his subject well.”

4 Language

Out of the three magazines Fokus is the least specialized. That also means that stories use unspecialized language that anyone can understand. ”The articles should be non-academic, without difficult words”, said Karin Pettersson. “The language used in preambles and headlines is closer to evening papers than many other weekly magazines. It’s cutting and vigorous on a sophisticated level”, she said.

”As a reader you won’t need previous knowledge, just an interest”, she added. “A Ph. D. in chemistry should be able to understand a movie review just as well as an intellectual should be able to understand a technology story. Good journalism is about serving difficult knowledge in a simple way”. According to Marie Alpman, Ny Teknik uses language any college student can understand.

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“We never use technical or scientific terms nor acronyms or abbreviation”, said Alpman. “But on the other hand, we don’t want to adjust to someone who doesn’t understand anything about technology.”

They use words like “pH value”, “mp3”, “3G” and “GSM” with no explanation. Those terms are considered common knowledge. But when new terms and expressions are introduced for the first time, they are explained. The term “stem cells”, for example, a very hot topic a couple of years ago, were largely explained from the outset in a separate fact box. Later, the box grew smaller and smaller. Now stem cells are never explained since Ny Teknik expects readers to have learned the meaning by now.

The same goes for Affärsvärlden. The language used should be comprehensible to everyone, but sometimes you need some pre-knowledge, like understanding the expression “P/E ratio”.

“We speak the language of company and market. Everyone must obey the investment plans, even the engineers who make up the content at a company”, said Thomas Peterssohn, editor-in-chief of Affärsvärlden.

5 Conclusion

All three magazines take a different approach to writing their innovation journalism stories, yet each magazine’s readers get well orientated on what is going on. They get more than they know they want.

A typical preamble in a tech story is hard scientific facts. A typical preamble in a business story is figures and money. A typical preamble in a social story is a person or a case. Starting from the readers’ perspective, you can sell most any story. It is all about packaging. Another striking fact is that, for each publication, innovation journalism is related to different stages in a developing start-up company. 1) Ny Teknik looks for early ideas at the labs that exhibit the potential to build a thriving company. They want to find the next Ericsson. 2)Affärsvärlden writes about early start-ups to analyze the commercial potential and make recommendations about stock. 3) Fokus analyzes the broad context, the impact on society. Why is this happening now and what will be the implications?

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6 Future of Innovation Journalism

All of the editors said they believed in doing more innovation journalism in the future.

“The innovation field will grow because the technological development makes the cycle from idea to commercial product faster and faster,” said Andreas Cervenka, Web editor of Affärsvärlden, which doesn’t use the term innovation journalism.

He argues that innovation journalism is common journalism and should be handled like any other stories.

At Ny Teknik they introduced a new Innovation section this month.

“The innovation process is the same, whether it’s about IT or biotech”, said Marie Alpman who runs the section.

But she also states that innovation journalism follows the business cycle. “During the dot com boom everyone wrote on the start-ups and the new economy. Then it went silent, but now innovation journalism will get a new life when there is a lot of money out there,” she said.

Karin Pettersson at Fokus agrees on the growing innovation journalism, but will never give it a label. “It’s not a topic of its own, but is included in everything else”, she said.

7 Discussion

So, innovation journalism exists and is growing, but does it deserve its own beat? I can’t help but draw a parallel to Aftonbladet, the biggest daily in Scandinavia, which started a special supplement called Woman in 1992 to highlight issues like women’s rights and workplace equality, in a nice mix with fashion and glamour. The supplement was very popular among both men and women, indicating the craving for the material. After a couple of years, Editor-in-chief Anders Gerdin, decided to integrate the supplement into the news section, under the head “Women”. Subsequently, he erased the labelling altogether, but kept the content and the news desk producing the material. He thought the readership, and the news desk, was ready to integrate the stories completely into the news section, thus introducing a new beat into the field of journalism. I believe it is the same thing with innovation journalism. When the beat is new, there is a point in having it be its own section to make people aware of the phenomenon – among the readers as well as within the walls of the news rooms. But the goal, eventually, must be to integrate it into traditional journalism.

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At the moment, innovation journalism is needed to integrate all compounds ranging from basic research to commercial products to its impact on market and society. But in the long run, there will be no need to label innovation in a magazine or news paper (unless it’s not a magazine dedicated to the field). Innovation is everywhere, just like women’s issues.

8 Acknowledgment

Thanks to Vinnova and David Nordfors for giving me the opportunity to be a Injo Fellow during spring and summer 2006.

Thanks to Robert Friedman, international editor at Fortune, for hosting me during the fellowship.

Thanks to Aftonbladet and Bengt Olsson for letting me attend the InJo program. Thanks to Vetenskapsrådet and Birgitta Myrman for letting me attend the InJo program.

Thanks to all current and former Injo Fellows.

Eva Barkeman is science editor at Aftonbladet, the largest daily in Scandinavia. She is a Swedish Innovation Journalism Fellow, hosted by Fortune. She has worked on science coverage for Aftonbladet since May 2000. She is taking a year off to start a Web magazine on Natural and Engineering Sciences (Tentakel) in conjunction with the Swedish Research Council, Eva Barkeman has a master’s degree in molecular biology, as well as studies in journalism. She has worked as science writer/editor for ten years, but has also done news reporting and desk top publishing.

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9 Appendix: Interviews

9.1 Interview: Ny Teknik – Technology Magazine Ny Teknik is a paper for engineers.

”The main topic is of course new technology, but it loses its importance if you don’t put it into a context. There are often economical aspects, like the amount of money needed for research, as well as issues like environment, society building and employment”, said Cecilia Laurén, news editor at Ny Teknik, located in the heart of Stockholm city.

In the last couple of weeks, Ny Teknik has gone through a major shake up, partly due to the diminishing staff. One of the new sections is named “Innovation”. Staff writer Marie Alpman, who proposed the name, is also editor for the section, formerly called “Teknik i tillväxt” (Technology in Growth.) She said she changed the name bacause the innovation system is a process that functions in the same way, no matter what field we are talking about. How do you define innovation journalism? “It is about covering the border line between new ideas at research laboratories, in universities as well as companies, and the translation into a commercial product – all of it from a user perspective. It’s about company building, from patents to marketing to stock market,” said Marie Alpman. In the “Innovation” section, Ny Teknik actively searches for the early ideas that have the potential to become a commercial success. Alpman looks for promising start-ups by regularly checking patents, incubators, venture capitalists, universities etc. She hopes to find the next Ericsson or ABB, though it is very unlikely, she said. Alpman only follows new companies for the first few years. “When they are established they are not interesting to us any more”, she said. “Then the business papers can take over.” As a technology paper, it is easy to get bogged down in a new, cool technology with the constant emergence of smaller, faster and lighter products. Alpman’s trick lies in always making three phone calls: a potential costumer, a competitor and an independent expert in the field. The resulting innovation story is more or less a review of the start-up, with grades like plus and minus, to give as balanced a picture as possible. “The hardest part is to point to out winners and losers in an early stage,” said Alpman. How do you consider your role as a player in the game of innovation system? Your words might kill a start-up.

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“I am kind; the paper is kind. We are very careful with small new companies who aren’t used to media when giving minus. Sometimes I have to go back and check if they really have patented the idea before I write. There is no reason to destroy a start-up as long as there are no improprieties.”

What do you think of the future of innovation journalism?

”Innovation journalism will get a new life. There are a lot of start-ups and lots of money out there now,” said Alpman.

But she implies that innovation journalism is ruled by the business cycle – it changes according to the market. “Before the bubble burst everyone wrote on the start-ups and the new economy,” said Alpman. “Then it went almost silent – until recently.”

Marie Alpman, editor of the new Innovation section, has a background in engineering. Name: Ny Teknik, weekly magazine, Sweden. Circulation: 146 100.

First edition: 1967. Nationwide. Price: 33 SEK per issue in a few news stands. 1 195 SEK per year by subscription. Type: Specialized magazine on new technology and its impact on society and business. 25-30 % Innovation journalism. Readership: Engineers, mostly men, age 40+ with a fairly high position as project leaders or decision makers in tech companies like Ericsson and ABB. Reporters: Fourteen staff writers, many on staff have an engineering background.

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Owner: The publishing company Talentum.

9.2 Interview: Affärsvärlden - Business Magazine Affärsvärlden is located in the same building as Ny Teknik, and owned by the same publisher.

I see more suits among the staff at Affärsvärlden than on the other magazines, but Web editor Andreas Cervenka, who was an InJo Fellow last year, is dressed casually.

How do you define innovation journalism?

”It is the link between innovation and commercializing. We do Innovation journalism, but we never call it that,” said Cervenka. “There is now discussion on Innovation journalism at Affärsvärlden.” He also notes that innovation is not necessarily about technology, but just as well about new business models like Skype, Metro and Google which offer free products and yet make money. The Internet is changing the way we pay for and distribute products. A rise in stock price is proof of success for a company. But what’s good for business might be bad for research in the long run. ”Perhaps we underestimate the readership’s interest in technology,” said Cervenka. “To do investments our readers must look into the actual product of the company, and the underlying technology to try to judge the future value”.

“We seldom write on things that don’t yet exist,” he said. “Ny Teknik has written about nanotechnology for years, but we started only last year.” At Affärsvärlden, staff members are economists rather than journalists.

“The journalists need a lot of knowledge to tell the state of a company and to do recommendations about the stock. Our job is close to that of an analyst. It’s about revenue, sales, future market, finances,” said Cervenka. “But… It is impossible to tell the future value of a company. That’s why the company’s value on the stock market is unstable. The verdict on a company with a lower stock development is hard.” How do you consider your role as a player in the game of innovation system? “It is good to play a role in giving recommendations about stock,” said Editor-in- chief Thomas Peterssohn, who is dressed in a suit and very proud of Affärsvärlden’s influence on the market.

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“We tell people which technologies will be commercially successful, we don’t go into details about how the technology works.

What do you think of the future of innovation journalism?

“It will grow, because the technology development makes the period from idea to company faster than ever,” said Andreas Cervenka.

Andreas Cervenka, web editor at Affärsvärlden, has a background in political science. He was an InJo fellow hosted by Fortune a year ago.

Name: Affärsvärlden, weekly magazine, Sweden. Circulation: 40 000.

First edition: January 1901. Nationwide. Price: 58 SEK per issue in news stand. 2 250 SEK per year by subscription. Type: Specialized magazine on business and stock. 10-20 % Innovation journalism. Readership: Decision makers in the business world. Reporters: Around fifteen staff writers. Many have an economic background, though not all have an education in journalism. Owner: The publishing company Talentum.

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9.3 Interview: FOKUS – Magazine on Politics It’s is close to deadline on Fokus’ news desk in Stockholm city. Karin Pettersson, editor and one of the three founders of the brand new news magazine, is only available for an interview after hours.

How do you define innovation journalism?

“?. That is an unknown term to me, said Pettersson”

After discussing the meaning, Pettersson said Fokus does do innovation journalism, though they don’t label it as such. Actually, they only have a few sections: News, Focus, International, Economy and Culture.

“We shouldn’t label Economy either, but since all the editors are economists, we feared that economy stories would take over. This way, we limit the economy stories to four pages,” Pettersson said, laughing.

She adds that many stories can fit into all sections. She gives a recent story about a new mobile phone with television function from the annual CeBIT exhibition in Hannover as an example. “It ended up in the News section but it could just as well be Economy or International,” said Pettersson. The story is a piece of innovation journalism – the focus lies on how the phone works, but the article also covers the political challenge of international agreements on the new technology. What do you think of the future of innovation journalism?

”It will grow. People are interested in how things work; you want to know how one thing influences the other. Problems and risks, taxes and interests, jobs and employment etc.,” said Pettersson. ”We will not dedicate a section to Innovation,” she said, before returning to her planning board at the hectic new publication. “It’s not a topic of its own, but is included in everything else”.

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Karin Petterson, editor at Fokus, is an economy journalist who formerly worked at a business paper. Name: Fokus, weekly magazine, Sweden.

Circulation: 22 000. First edition: December 2005. Nationwide. Price: 25 SEK per issue in news stand. 995 SEK per year by subscription. Type: Broad news magazine on society issues. ”There is a lot of politics this year due to the election this autumn.” The model is Time/Newsweek. Readership: People with an interest in news and politics/society, age 25-65, with an academic degree. Reporters: Around ten staff writers, around fifteen free lancers. Many in the staff have an economic background. Owner: Private venture capitalists (Johan Björkman, Ax:son Johnson foundation, Persson Invest etc.) Money is secured for three years ahead.

Is Blogging Innovating Journalism?

Patrick Baltatzis

Reporter at Tidningen Entreprenör, Sweden Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford Hosted by Business 2.0 patrick @ baltatzis.se www.baltatzis.se

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1 INTRODUCTION ...... 3 2 BACKGROUND...... 4 3 WHAT IS BLOGGING?...... 6 4 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BLOGS TO JOURNALISTS ...... 7 5 ISSUES IN BLOGGING ...... 7 6 WHY SHOULD NEWSPAPERS BLOG?...... 8 7 CONCLUSION ...... 9 8 RECOMMENDATIONS...... 10

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Is Blogging Innovating Journalism?

Journalism plays a vital part in a democratic society. Concepts like blogging and podcasting are presenting new ways of distributing journalism instantly and letting readers interact with the journalistic product. How can journalism benefit from these concepts? Innovations are important to society as well. As disruptive as they sometimes may be, innovations provide stability and economic growth in societies. Publishers of traditional media are trying to survive in a new business reality brought about by low-cost distribution through network technologies. But the traditional publishing business model, with journalism as a value proposition to its readers, is under attack. Will journalism survive? And is blogging a possible remedy? 1 Introduction

Last fall, at a meeting discussing innovation journalism, the editor-in-chief of Sweden’s monthly publication Axxess tried to describe innovation journalism. He suggested that it is a matter of quality—good vs. bad journalism, not a genre with its own methodology and characteristics. He asserted that innovation journalism is a professional pursuit using known approaches, techniques and skills.

David Nordfors, founder of the Innovation Journalism program, said that traditional media has structural problems. He argued that innovations cover different beats, and that traditional newsrooms cannot handle the style of ‘broadband’ coverage that supposedly is required by innovation journalism1. If Innovation Journalism is good journalism, not only in style2 and expression, but also in its effort to dig deeper and broaden its scope and perspectives, how is quality conceived and achieved in an environment of abundant, transitional and complex information? What qualities, skills and tools are required to assimilate, digest and then distribute relevance and meaning where attention is more valued than most physical goods? How does new media technology fit into all this? How do RSS-feeds and easy web-publishing tools (which have contributed to the growth of the blog) and podcasts contribute to interesting stories, good journalism and the future of publishing? These are relevant questions in these times of change and transition, when new publishing technologies are challenging the very nature of journalism.

1 Nordfors, David, The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme For Developing It, 2004 http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf

2 Höij Magnus, Components of innovation journalism, Innovation Journalism Vol 1. No. 5 – Sep 17 2004, p. 9. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-5.pdf

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By studying and interviewing Innovation Journalism practitioners who use blogs, I have drawn conclusions and made recommendations within this paper for newsrooms, editors and writers about to embark on a journey into the blogosphere to produce new stories, whether or not it is called ‘innovation journalism.’

I hope you find this report as intriguing to read as it was for me to write.

2 Background

Journalism is vital in a democratic society. Most of us say that without journalism, we would not have democracy. But democracy is a broad, abstract concept. From a Swedish journalist’s (cynical) point of view democracy is the legitimate struggle between powerful ideas to establish political, social and economic leadership in our societies.

Innovations, our field of interest as Fellows, whether social, political or economic, are powerful ideas themselves. These ideas enable different interests to gain leadership in society and thus are of special interest in the democratic discourse, or at least they should be. Spanish rifles changed the power structures in the Indians’ America, just as Silicon Valley’s latest innovation could overthrow regimes and change the power structures in their corresponding societies. Another example is innovation music television (MTV). MTV’s impact was substantial on youth in Eastern Europe in the 80’s. It gave young people a vision of what life could be without the Berlin wall, drafting people into resisting the established leadership and the Communist power structures. A more recent example is an SMS-service to be used in Iraq for civic reporting. It is a powerful idea if the letters in a text message are unlimited. Eric Sundlöf, a Reuters fellowship scholar at Stanford University, and his teammates have accomplished this.

If the Indians in North America had had a stringer in Europe in the 15th century who could have communicated with his tribe (Indian culture was advanced but unfortunately its NASA equivalent was still in its infancy) he and the Indians would have had advanced knowledge of the invaders’ arrival and could have played their game differently.

Most everyday innovations are less revolutionary, yet not unimportant. What, for example, will inexpensive telephony via the Internet (VoIP) provided by companies like Skype mean in financial movements and power transitions in a country like Sweden? Many Swedes hold stock in Swedish-Finnish telecom giant Telia Sonera due to a governmental campaign and push. Will Swedish citizens and stockholders adapt Skype in their homes and in businesses, thus lowering the value of their own stock? The fact that Skype’s founders became wealthy, overnight

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celebrities also added new power players in the telecom cast. How does that affect an industry?

Journalism, and free press committed to honoring journalism, enables different interests to participate and have an active voice in such power plays. Journalism prospers via reader and democratic advocacy. Hopefully, publishing houses also prosper.

But development of network-communications technologies, governed by Moore’s law, challenges traditional media and newsrooms with new formats and new players. What has been valid for 400 years, since Gutenberg’s invention and introduction of the mass reproduction of ideas, is now up for grabs via innovation—low-cost reproduction and instant distribution. Time-consuming print and audio journalism must compete in this environment.

“My worst competitor is not another magazine. It is readers attention and time,” said Josh Quittner, editor-in-chief of Business 2.0. My assertion is that papers and magazines must create new value to maintain readerships if they are to continue to play a pivotal role in society. One way is to approach and empower readers and create deeper relationships with them. Blogging is a promising concept and a new channel of special interest to publishers, as is podcasting. The latter will not be dealt with in detail in this paper, but the same reasoning applies. “Just because you’re a media publisher doesn’t mean that you should be in all media,” said Quittner. Innovation Journalism trying to get acceptance in newsrooms can benefit from the emergence of blogs and contribute to a needed paradigm in publishing and journalism.

Ongoing debate questions whether blogging is journalism. Though an interesting topic—sometimes blogs are journalism, sometimes not3—I will not contribute to that debate here. The ubiquitous question in this paper is this: How can concepts such as blogging and podcasting be assets for reporters and writers in a journalistic endeavor (covering different beats)? To answer this question, I’ve interviewed journalist who are blogging and their editors-in-chief, and searched the net for interesting perspectives on the subject.

3 Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over, jay Rosen, Pressthink.com, March, 15, 2006

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3 What is blogging?

3.1 Emerging technologies converging into new ones

The blog is a publishing innovation, a digital newswire that, due to the proliferation of the Internet, low production and distribution costs, ease of use and really simple syndication (RSS), creates a new and powerful push-pull publishing concept. As such, it changes the power structures in journalism, giving yesterday’s readers the option of being today’s journalists and tomorrow’s preferred news aggregators.

3.2 The roaming of ideas

Blogging is a concept whereas publishing text on the web is combined with its syndication. Users or other bloggers subscribe to these syndication feeds (RSS- feeds), which automatically appear on the subscriber’s website, blog or in a newsreader. “The central virtue of blogging, I've decided, is that in the proverbial agora, or online marketplace of ideas, bloggers are like Socrates on speed,” 4 wrote Chris Mooney, the 2005 winner of the Scientific American's Science and Technology Web award. Though Mooney calls the blogosphere a marketplace, blogging is also the roaming—as in cellular network—of ideas in marketplaces or networks. These roaming networks are growing and gaining importance. Blogs number 30 million worldwide, promoted by the often-free blogging service providers like Blogger and Wordpress. 3.3 Technology with at mission “Trying to engage audiences in conversation should be a primary goal for news organizations. It’s what a democracy needs and what news organizations are meant to support,”5 wrote the authors of Hypergene, a blog committed to furthering the concept of citizen journalism. Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and an Internet visionary, argues that as people become immune to traditional streamlined and broadcasted messages, blogging presents an opportunity for communities to arise, assuming that individuals must congregate around issues important to them if they are to act with power.

4 Post-Gazette.com, How blogging changed journalism – almost, February 2, 2003

5 Hypergene.net Not allowing conversations is immoral, March 9, 2006

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Lessig states “…the blog may be the first innovation from the Internet to make a real difference in election politics.” Blogs engage people to act, he concluded.

The marketplace for technological ideas is not dissimilar6 from the marketplace for political ones. Lessig’s reasoning applies, maybe even more so, to the technology arena where blogging is more common than in any other space, except maybe in politics.

But for Josh Quittner, who runs Business 2.0 magazine, blogs and bloggers are positive elements in media that keep journalism honest.

“I don’t think blogs are something that big media should get into. It doesn’t make business sense, attracting a few thousand readers, compared to the print version, we print 630,000 copies a month and blogs should be independent voices. It is a question of credibility,” he said. Yet Quittner promotes blogging among staff members. “It makes them better reporters. It widens their network and creates the basis for good analysis,” he said.

4 The Significance of Blogs to Journalists

Blogs are goldmines for journalists doing professional and crafted work. The blogosphere is a huge source to tap, using services like Tecnorati.com (a blog search engine) and Googlenews, for new ideas, arguments and leads to new stories and for follow-ups on stories on other sites. I had my first experience using blogs as a resource when I wrote a story on Pay-Pal for CNNMoney.com about how the company was about to enter the mobile- payment scene. Postings on jobsites revealed that Pay-Pal was hiring senior staff to lead this development within the company. After researching the company, talking to analysts and researching competition, it was clear that Pay-Pal was serious about it. The published story roamed the blogosphere and, within a week, received more than 500 posts. The sites that published the story were blogs, networks of communities with an interest in different aspects of the story—whether mobile payments, stockholders of Paypal or Ebay, who owns the company, news about the technology that evidently would be used and so on. One story became relevant to a variety of beats covering blogs.

5 Issues in Blogging

But there are snakes in this new media ‘Garden of Eden.’ Rumors seem to have a natural habitat in the blog world, as well as ranting and personal opinions. The

6 David Nordfors, 2006

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issues of trust and reliability are difficult. In a blogpost7 in The Spokesman Review, blog reporter Ken Paulman pinpoints the issue publishers must address:

“We hold all news to the same standards, regardless of whether it's online or in print. But that raises a question: do readers hold information they read on the Internet to a different standard? Do you trust a story more because it's in black-and- white on a sheet of newsprint, or does it make a difference? What about typos and grammatical errors?”

Siliconbeat.com, a blog issued by the San Jose Mercury News covering the startup scene in Silicon Valley, is attracting around 10,000 readers daily. The increased readership they’ve experienced is based on the information being relevant, not necessarily trustworthy in a way accepted in traditional print publishing.

“We pass information to our readers that wouldn’t have made the sheet” said Michael Bazeley, one of two blogging editors on Siliconbeat. “We’ve gained readership and interest, but we don’t process the information [the same way] we do for the paper, so it’s less of an effort,” he said. Readers apparently feel confident that they can decipher hard news and information from opinion, but it is up to those readers. Much of the success is also due to the blog’s more free tone of voice. “Journalists who blog the way they write in the paper is not interesting” Michael Bazeley says. “Blog responsibly, and you'll build a reputation for being a trusted news source. Don't, and you won't have a reputation to worry about," 8writes John Hiler.

6 Why Should Newspapers Blog?

Magazines and papers should consider blogging to build their legitimacy in targeted communities and societies. The transitional nature of business and media consumption must be considered if publishing houses want to prevail in their chosen markets.

By entering the blog world, papers connect to new readers via sites like Technorati. This is a way of building a new audience. PC World, for instance, being a big media player, is proud of being accepted in the blogosphere and referred to by other bloggers. This way, the magazine reaches readers it would not have otherwise.

Blogs can build communities, whether communities of interest or of best practice. Magazines and staff can aggregate not news, but also interests, establishing forums for dialogue among participants and strengthening the bonds to its readers.

7 Spokesmanreview.com, Do you trust blogs?, March 9, 2006

8 http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/blogosphere.htm, 2002

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Through blogs papers have a channel for niche content that otherwise wouldn’t have found its way to readers.

Communities breed on relevant and reliable information. A newspaper or blog can grow if it provides relevant and reliable information to leaders in its targeted communities. The differences between traditional papers and blogs are that the latter can be more ‘open’ to their audiences, letting readers participate in making stories, and, in extreme cases, letting readers publish their own stories.

Traditional printing is an expensive process, especially in metropolitan areas. And as sites like Craigslist.org, free after text ads, demolish the traditional revenue model for papers, the cost of printing will be harder to justify. Papers are slow and money-sucking operations, or as Shel Israel, author of the book Naked Conversations, put it “In the Information Age, the newspaper has become a cumbersome and inefficient distribution mechanism. If you want fast delivery of news, paper is a stage coach competing with jet planes.”9 By blogging some beats or sections that normally run in print, publications would expand their audience as well attract new readers through blogging using fewer resources. ‘ Blogs are also a way of using journalists more effectively. All information, given that it is relevant, that actually does not fit into the paper can be channeled through blogs, allowing the readers to choose what to read or not. This enables a dialogue, a sense of ownership and participation that is essential in creating communities. Traditional big media will not become obsolete. “Blogs add a new dimension to traditional publishing,” said Harry McCracken, editor-in-chief at PC World and the man behind PC World’s award-winning Techlog. McCracken means that blogs are a low-investment and low-risk enterprise, as opposed to traditional media projects.

According to Josh Quittner, big media is still ahead. Quittner’s vision is grand: “There is mass media today, and there will be class media tomorrow. The five dollars we charge today for a subscription does not even cover the distribution costs of the magazine. Ten to fifteen years ahead, when our paper is a luxury item and wanted by fewer, those that can will pay the $50 per copy price. Those that will be able to buy the magazine will be very attractive to advertisers”

7 Conclusion

Media as a shared experience and even a co-op between producers and consumers is a novel idea and presents new opportunities, as well as new challenges. Blogs can connect new readers to a publication and keep old readers loyal. By democratizing media in this way, readers have an opportunity to “vote” instantly on issues that are relevant to them. In that regard, blogs are better off serving their democratic legacy.

9 Merging Newspapers & Blogs March, 9, 2006 http://redcouch.typepad.com

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For innovation journalism, blogs present a tool for analyzing trends and current events faster by having fruitful, synchronous conversations with the market. In other words, to be in the loop and, in many cases, reclaim a pivotal point in communities.

8 Recommendations

• Magazines and papers should consider adding blogs to their offerings and doing it before media-rich content such as podcasting and Vlogs (videoblogs) become part of the mix. “Highshool kids (the iPod generation) do assignments in video these days,” said Josh Quittner.

• Journalists: Start blogging if you have something to say and you want to say it.

• Managers: Encourage staff to blog, or recruit bloggers that seem to be doing it right. “The best blogs I read are not made by journalists,” said McCracken. Do not force anyone to blog unless they are willing to engage and commit themselves to keeping the conversation going.

• Try a new beat as a blog. If it fails, try a different one.

Patrick Baltatzis is writer at Entreprenör magazine in Stockholm. He’s a former entrepreneur himself, running Ant Colony, a freelance manager service in Sweden, for 4 years . Now he’s back in the corporate loop and have been working for the Swedish managers union Ledarna and now at The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and their magazine Entreprenör. Patrick attended the Kaospilot university as an undergraduate student, and as part of that program had a tenure in San Francisco in 1996-97 working with Howard Rheingold and his webplay Electric Minds.

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Appendix Business 2.0 Gigaom.com | B2Day.com

Monthly Business 2.0 magazine, positioning itself as the playbook for the entrepreneurial-minded, has two blogs: Gigaom.com and B2Day. For a monthly like Business 2.0, blogging provides an opportunity to share daily conversation, deepening the relationship with readers. But mostly, blogging is a way for the magazine to develop its position in the fields it covers.

Gigaom, run by award-winning tech journalist Om Malik, targets the broadband industry and readers interested in developments in that industry. Malik presents information in a personal way—you can actually hear his voice, news, analysis and predictions of the developments in the broadband marketplace.

B2Day is a blog about new business and a forum for Editor-At-Large Eric Schonfeld. Siliconbeat.com (http://www.siliconbeat.com) Daily San Jose Mercury News has a technology-oriented blog called Siliconbeat. The blog, started in 2004, is an endeavor that was endorsed by the paper at a time when the paper did not have a blog strategy. Therefore, they separated the blog from paper and created a different brand for it. “Our readers do not read papers, so we figured we’d reach them with a blog,” said Michael Bazeley, who, together with Matt Marshall, runs Siliconbeat. The blog attracts 10 000 regular readers, and the two contributing editors write up to ten posts a day. PCworld Techlog (http:// blogs.pcworld.com/techlog) The Techlog is run buy PC World Editor-In-Chief Harry McCracken. He posts once a day about news in the technology sector. With more than 200 000 page views a month, his blog is the most visited feature on PCWorld.com. “When we started with blogs in 2004. We were afraid of putting unedited content on the Web. It has shown that this is what actually makes them work,” said McCracken. He added that many stories that have reached the paper edition of PC World started as unedited information on the blog.

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Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Innovative Startups

– And How They Could Contribute to Medici Effects

Thomas Frostberg

Editor-in-chief Rapidus news agency, Malmö, Sweden Innovation Journalism Fellow 2006, Stanford Hosted by San Francisco Chronicle E-mail: Thomas @ frostberg.se

Phone: +1 415 351 9221 (U.S.) or +46 70 773 88 47 (Sweden)

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1 INTRODUCTION...... 4

2 DEFINITIONS...... 5

3 THEORIES ...... 5 3.1 WHY INNOVATION JOURNALISM? ...... 5 3.2 WHAT’S NEWS?...... 7 4 METHODS AND MATERIAL...... 9

5 FINDINGS...... 10 5.1 WHAT COMPANIES DO THEY WRITE ABOUT? ...... 10 5.1.1 Berlingske Tidende ...... 11 5.1.2 Dagens Nyheter ...... 11 5.1.3 San Francisco Chronicle...... 11 5.2 WHY DO THEY WRITE ABOUT THESE COMPANIES? ...... 12 5.2.1 Berlingske Tidende ...... 12 5.2.2 Dagens Nyheter ...... 13 5.2.3 San Francisco Chronicle...... 14 6 DISCUSSION...... 15 6.1 WHY NEWSPAPERS DON’T COVER INNOVATIVE STARTUPS ...... 15 6.2 WHY SHOULD THEY? ...... 16 6.3 HOW COULD IT BE DONE? ...... 16 7 CONCLUSION ...... 17

8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 18

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Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Innovative Startups – And How They Could Contribute to Medici Effects

The purpose of this paper is to study how daily newspapers cover innovative startups and analyze why not more is written about these new companies. Is there anything in the rules deciding “what’s news”, that could explain why innovative startups don’t make it into the newspapers? Finally I will make some suggestions on how newspapers could extend their coverage of innovative startups, i.e. doing innovation journalism1.

1 Introduction

The last few years, I’ve been thinking a lot about why daily newspapers don’t cover innovative startups more often. These companies are often dealing with cutting-edge technologies and some of them could actually contribute to important changes in the way we work, live or do business. The most common arguments for not writing about innovative startups are that they are too small, there are too many of them and that they are not listed and therefore don’t interest the readership. A meeting with Frans Johansson, the author of the best-selling innovation management book The Medici Effect – Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts and Cultures2, helped me find the arguments for why daily papers, rather than specialized magazines, should cover this area in a much more extensive way than today. For the last 6-7 years I’ve been writing about innovative startups within ICT and biotech, reporting about their developments to the subscribers of Rapidus news agency, of which I am editor-in-chief and co-founder. Rapidus’ focus is on non- listed, small companies. We mix technology and business stories from different sectors of the industry, and also combine business and technology perspectives in the same story. The idea is that companies and their managers need information about what’s going on in their neighborhood, even if it’s about companies in other sectors. We also turned the

1 Nordfors, David, 2003. “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it”, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf

2 Johansson, Frans, 2004. The Medici Effect – Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts & Cultures. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

4 99 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T. Frostberg: Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism normal rule about “what’s news” upside-down, writing mostly about small companies in early stages, long before they do their IPO.

The interest for our news service was high from the very beginning. Many business executives are subscribing to our newsletter as a kind of B2B service, but also almost every important newsroom in Sweden reads Rapidus. Not only business and technology magazines, but also the business sections of many major daily newspapers subscribe and often cite our news – even though they normally don’t write much about small companies.

2 Definitions

The following expressions are used in this paper.

Innovation. Often used in Sweden as just another word for inventions or ideas. Here I refer to the more relevant interpretation: The introduction of an invention as a product or service on the market3 Innovation journalism. The concept of journalism covering innovation, in this paper referring mainly to the combination of business and technology journalism. In some aspects, journalism covering political issues could also be part of the mixture. Innovative. Has to do with inventions or new ideas. Se also innovative startups. Innovative startups. Small or new companies based on an invention or a new idea. Se also startups below. IPO. Initial Public Offering, the listing of a company on the stock market. Startups. An often used word with many interpretations. In this paper referred to as a small or young company.

3 Theories

3.1 Why Innovation journalism?

In his book on innovation management, The Medici Effect, Frans Johansson writes about how groundbreaking innovations are created. He points out the difference between directional ideas, which are just another step in the evolution of existing

3 Nordfors, David – Kreiss, Daniel – Sandred, Jan, 2005. ”Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index: Benchmarking the Swedish Market”, The Second Conference on Innovation Journalism: Conference papers, p. 71. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO2-5.pdf

5 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T. Frostberg: Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism innovations, and what he calls intersectional ideas, that could lead to the more groundbreaking kind of innovations.

In the introduction of the book he explains the concept of Intersections:

“It is a place where different cultures, domains, and disciplines stream together toward a single point. They connect, allowing for established concepts to clash and combine, ultimately forming a multitude of new, groundbreaking ideas. This place, where the different fields meet, is what I call the Intersection. And the explosion of remarkable innovations that you find there is what I call the Medici Effect.”4 These Intersections and Medici Effects do not only concern experts, top-level researchers and business professionals. Anyone placing herself in an Intersection could contribute to Medici Effects.

We, too, can create the Medici Effect. We can ignite this explosion of extraordinary ideas and take advantage of it as individuals, as teams, and as organizations. We can do it by bringing together different disciplines and cultures and searching for the places where they connect.”5

In his book, Frans Johansson argues that intersectional ideas, leaping in new directions, can only be achieved through the combination of concepts between multiple fields. Operating within one field only, you primarily generate ideas that evolve along an already set direction. In my interpretation of the Medici Effect, media also plays the role of an Intersection where ideas, cultures and disciplines meet and could lead to new groundbreaking ideas and innovations.

Applied on media, this would mean that specialized magazines tend to be more into the directional ideas, whereas broader papers could play the role of Intersections leading to intersectional ideas and Medici Effects. During an interview for this paper6 Frans Johansson said that media could play a crucial role in the system. He describes it as a “hen-and-egg-problem”. If media would write more about innovation and startups and if people actually would like to read about it, then it could have a major impact driving innovation and growth. “It could make all the difference,” he said, “but it depends on how the stories are told”. The problem isn’t new to him. As a student at Brown University, he started an interdisciplinary science magazine called The Catalyst at campus, aiming to

4 Johansson, Frans, 2004. The Medici Effect – Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts & Cultures. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Page 2.

5 Johansson, Frans, a.a. Page 3.

6 Interview with Frans Johansson in Stockholm, March 12 2006.

6 101 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T. Frostberg: Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism bridge the gap between researchers from different fields as well as explaining to the outside world what the scientists were working on. The magazine still exists and is published twice a year.

In the paper Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index7 Nordfors, Kreiss and Sandred give a democratic argument for extended innovation journalism. They mean that covering politics and innovation should be connected, since politicians are responsible for the education system, industry regulations and taxation in order to help the industry develop and the society to prosper. The industry, in turn, depends on the innovation system and has a strong interest in lobbying politicians.

“If there is not good information about how the innovation economy hangs together or the opportunities for and threats to businesses, then people make less informed decisions when they elect the politicians who will regulate these issues. It is also not good for the share-holders and employees of the innovation economy, who might be interested in voting based on their personal interest.” To provide the audience with answers to important questions about growth or the outlook for certain companies, it’s necessary to mix business, technology and politics in the reporting. “Innovation Journalism is about asking these questions with the goal of circulating economic knowledge and opening widespread debate about the factors of growth to society. Innovation Journalism focuses on the process of technological innovation, covering all the technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems.”

These arguments could also be used to emphasize that innovation journalism should not be left to specialized magazines alone. The very idea of innovation journalism is to reach out to a broader audience than just people in tech or business. This could be done through broader media such as daily newspapers, TV and radio.

3.2 What’s news? The easiest way to explain what makes it into the paper would be to say that news is something new, but that’s far from the whole truth. Some “news” is not even new; they are just recycled.

7 Nordfors, David – Kreiss, Daniel – Sandred, Jan, 2005. ”Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index: Benchmarking the Swedish Market”, The Second Conference on Innovation Journalism: Conference papers, p. 74-75. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO2-5.pdf

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What’s news also differs between newsrooms and countries. In the book Massmedier: Press, Radio & TV i förvandling8 (Mass media: Press, Radio and TV in transformation) the authors give some examples of newsroom rules.

The first and most basic explanation, provided by the American journalist Walter Lippmann in 1924, is that news should create a reaction in the audience and that they could connect to the story.

The Norwegian researchers Einar Østgaard and Johan Galtung extended this explanation in the 60s, saying that the story should be clear and unambiguous to pass through the news filter. It should also correspond to the expectations of the newsroom gate-keepers. The authors also point to the time factor as important; new and late news easier make its way into the paper. The same goes for stories that are exclusive.

The communication researcher Henk Prakke talks about closeness – the closer a story is in time, space and culture; the more likely it is to become a news article in a newspaper. Media researcher Håkan Hvitfelt sums up ten general news principles. According to Hvitfelt9, a story has the largest chance to end up on the front page if it deals with…

1. …politics, economy and crime or accidents and… 2. …if there’s a short geographical or cultural distance to… 3. …occurrences and conditions which… 4. …are sensational and surprising,… 5. …deal with certain elite persons and…

6. …are described in an easy way but… 7. …are important and relevant, 8. …take place during a short period of time, but as part of a bigger theme, 9. …have negative elements…

10. …and have elite persons as sources.

8 Hadenius, Stig – Weibull, Lennart, 1999. Seventh edition. Massmedier: Press, Radio & TV i förvandling.Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag. Pages 340-44.

9 Translation by the author of this paper.

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4 Methods and Material

I have read the business sections10 of the major daily newspapers in three high tech regions during February 2006, to study how often they write about innovative startups. The newspapers in the study are:

Berlingske Tidende, the largest daily newspaper in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It has a total circulation of 123,667 copies and 356,000 readers on weekdays and 145,346 copies and 471,000 readers on Sundays.11 Dagens Nyheter, the largest daily newspaper in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. It has a total circulation of 363,100 copies and 917,000 readers on weekdays and 392,200 copies and 910,000 readers on Sundays.12 San Francisco Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in Northern California. Last year it had a total average paid circulation of 419,358 copies (Wed-Sat) and 1,079,900 readers (Mon-Fri). On Sundays the total average paid circulation was 467,216 and the readership 1,231,700.13 I’ve read articles on specific company news, excluding overall articles on the national economy, general stock market reports, central bank rates etc.14 Technology articles and consumer focused articles are included, if the company behind the technology or the product has a role in the article and is not just mentioned by name. To measure the amount of articles dealing with innovative startups, all articles have been sorted into either of two categories: “Listed company” and “Non-listed company”. Articles covering both listed and non-listed companies are counted into both categories.15

10 Only the daily business sections are included in the study, not related sections like Jobs or Careers. On Mondays, the business section in San Francisco Chronicle is labeled Technology and it’s included in the study. From Dagens Nyheter, the edition for southern Sweden is used in the study.

11 The six months period ended December 31, 2005. According to Dansk Oplagskontrol and Index Danmark/Gallup.

12 The 12 months period ended December 31, 2005. According to Tidningsstatistik (TS) and Sifo Research International/Orvesto konsument 2005.

13 According to Publisher’s statement for the six months period ended September 2005 and Reader profile for the 12 months period ended July 2005, by Audit Bureau of Circulations.

14 Only the larger articles with an author are counted, not the shorter digest items. Sidebars are not counted as articles.

15 Non-listed companies that have a listed company as majority owner are labeled as “Listed company”. Companies that have been listed but are no longer, due to reconstruction, are also placed in the category of listed companies, unless they are bought and now owned by a private equity company. The same goes for companies heading for the stock market in a near future or are doing

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It could be discussed to what extent the category “Non-listed company” actually covers innovative startups, which is the aim of this paper. Within the time limit, it has not been possible to dig deeper into statistics, going through earnings to find the small companies or reading company profiles to find out if they are really innovative. Since the study is just a snapshot, the findings should be a sufficient base for the following discussion about how newspapers cover innovative startups. In the chapter “Findings” I will also discuss some of the articles in the group “Non- listed companies” that do not deal with innovation or startups.

Measuring the amount of articles about innovative startups provides the empirical ground for a discussion about how newspapers chose what companies to write about and “what’s news” in their business sections.

For this paper, I’ve interviewed the business editors of the three papers in the study: Finn Mortensen at Berlingske Tidende, Thorbjörn Spängs at Dagens Nyheter and Ken Howe at San Francisco Chronicle. The questions focused on…

…who are their readers? …what’s news in the business section? …what kind of companies do they write about and why? …why are there so few articles about innovative startups?

5 Findings

5.1 What companies do they write about?

The three newspapers in the study have a similar kind of coverage. Between 68 and 83 percent of the articles deal with listed companies. San Francisco Chronicle had the highest number. Berlingske Tidende had the lowest, but their figures were influenced by the fact that one single company among the non-listed made it into the paper several times, due to a political crisis. Many of the non-listed companies in the study are in reality larger corporations, for example companies owned by the government, co-operative owned companies or not-for-profit organizations in the health care sector.

Only a handful of articles in each newspaper dealt with startups during February and far from all of these companies could be described as innovative.

an IPO right now, they are counted as listed companies. Pension funds are counted into the listed category, since the interest of their value is similar to that of listed companies.

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5.1.1 Berlingske Tidende

Berlingske Tidende published 287 articles on company news in February. Out of these, 195 (68%), dealt with listed companies and 74 (26%) with non-listed companies. Another 8 articles (less than 3%) included both listed and non-listed companies.16 The number of articles on non-listed companies is higher than in Dagens Nyheter and San Francisco Chronicle, but one single company explains a significant part of the difference. Arla Foods, a co-operative owned dairy company, came into media focus during the boycott of Danish goods after the controversial publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Arla Foods stands for 4 percent of all articles in Berlingske Tidende’s business section during February.

A majority of the other articles on non-listed companies covered big, family-owned companies or companies owned by the local or national government. A series of articles dealt with companies that were bought out from the stock market by private equity actors. Only a handful of articles covered smaller companies and few, if any, of these companies are the kind of innovative startups that this study focuses on.

5.1.2 Dagens Nyheter

During February, Dagens Nyheter published 149 articles on company news. Out of these, 115 (77%), were about listed companies. 30 articles (20%) covered non- listed companies and 3 articles (2%) included both listed and non-listed companies.17 One out of five articles is about a non-listed company. That might seem like a lot, but many of them deal with government owned companies such as Vattenfall (Electricity), Bilprovningen (Motor Vehicle Certification), Apoteket (Pharmacy) and Sveriges Television (Public Television). A financial institution heading for bankruptcy counts for a large part of the non-listed company articles. The third large category among the non-listed companies are consumer focused articles about Ikea, supermarkets or travel companies. Only five articles are actually about companies that could be counted as innovative startups.

5.1.3 San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle published 141 stories about companies during February. Out of these, 117 covered listed companies (83%), 22 non-listed (16%) and 2 both listed and non-listed companies (1%).

16 The last 10 articles couldn’t be counted into either of the two categories.

17 For one article, it has not been possible to confirm that all the companies are non-listed, but that is most probably the case.

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Several of the non-listed companies are in the venture capital field, either investing or being invested in, including some buy-outs of larger businesses. A couple of the non-listed companies are not really companies, but rather not-for-profit organizations in the health field. Only five articles are about companies that in one way or another could be seen as innovative startups.

5.2 Why do they write about these companies? The three business editors were interviewed without having seen the results of the study. The interviews started with broader questions about readership, content policies and “what’s news?” in the business section.

Not surprisingly, they all focus on the bigger and listed companies, which is confirmed by the study of the content in February. That being said, there’s an important difference between San Francisco Chronicle on one hand, and Berlingske Tidende and Dagens Nyheter on the other hand. A few months back, the Chronicle decided to assign a reporter to cover innovation as a beat – not only typical business stories, but all kind of new ideas in early stages. This is still very new and had little impact on the coverage in February, since the first article in a series of innovation was published on February 26. It’s important to note that this is not a temporary project, but a long-term effort to expand the coverage of these issues. Both business editors at Berlingske Tidende and Dagens Nyheter think that they should cover startups more often, but don’t have time and space in the paper to do it. Other stories are more important. During the summer of 2004, Dagens Nyheter carried out an experiment with a series of articles on startups and entrepreneurship. It resulted in very much and positive feedback from the readership. Nonetheless, no efforts have been made to continue reporting on startups after that.

5.2.1 Berlingske Tidende

The primary focus lies on the largest businesses: big listed-companies, big family- owned corporations and the financial sector overall. There’s not so much focus on small and medium sized companies, even though Denmark is well-known for having a large share of SMEs. The business section writes about startups only occasionally and there is no reporter assigned to covering this area. Business editor Finn Mortensen thinks that up to 75 percent of his readers are business professionals. They are top or middle level managers. About 45 percent of the readers are female, which is more than the average for the paper overall.

Articles about private investments, interest rates and other “news you can use” are published on Saturdays. On Sundays there are bigger feature stories about people and international perspectives. These articles could also be about younger entrepreneurs, but more of them as interesting persons and the next generation of leaders, than about their companies.

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Berlingske Tidende competes with the business daily Dagbladet Børsen, rather than with other morning papers. Since they changed the focus of the business section in 2003 to more of a business-to-business profile, the advertising has grown, especially in the important B2B-segment.

The small amount of articles about startups is a deliberate choice, even if Finn Mortensen thinks they should write more about innovation or innovative startups. The reason they don’t is lack of resources. Since the readers don’t complain, there are no plans to change it.

“They want to read about the big companies and the personal stuff,” said Finn Mortensen.

The business section has 30 employees, out of which 20 are reporters. Only one of them has tried to run a business of their own, according to Mortensen.

5.2.2 Dagens Nyheter

Since Thorbjörn Spängs became the business editor three years ago, he has changed the focus of the business section from private economy and labor market issues to more of company stories. Today they cover the largest companies on the stock market, having influence on the economy both when it comes to national growth and value in pension funds. They also report about smaller companies on the stock market, for example when they do their IPOs; especially if these companies are well-known to the broader public, for example retail chains such as Hemtex or KappAhl. The business section doesn’t have a reporter dedicated to small business, due to limited resources. From time to time they write about startups, but it often depends on the personal interest of single reporters. For example, during the summer of 2004 Dagens Nyheter ran a series of articles called “The new entrepreneurs” and it resulted in a huge response from the readers, including the Minister for Industry and Trade. The idea to do the articles had been there for a while, but it wasn’t until some temporary summer reporters showed interest in it that it actually happened. This meant that when they left the paper, the reporting on new entrepreneurs went back to normal. The articles were also published during the low season for company news and more open space in the paper. The experiment was repeated last summer, this time by the profiled business columnist Bengt Carlsson, but didn’t change the reporting after the summer period. Dagens Nyheter tries to satisfy a broad readership, from small private investors to business professionals. Business leaders and policy makers are important target groups and if they are happy with the business section, the reputation will spread to the broader readership. This is also important for attracting advertisers. The major competitors are the business dailies Dagens Industri and Svenska Dagbladet Näringsliv, also the second national newspaper in Sweden.

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The business section has about 20 employees, including 15 reporters. From what Thorbjörn Spängs knows, none of them have experience from running their own business, except for some freelance businesses.

5.2.3 San Francisco Chronicle

When Ken Howe became the business editor six years ago, he wanted to change the way to do business journalism. At that time all the reporters had company beats.

“Business is not always about companies. It’s about trends, consumer and technology – and often about companies. We don’t write for investors, neither professional nor private investors. That used to be the readers of the business section, but it’s not true today and it’s not who we should be writing for. We write for the intelligent reader and that goes far beyond the investors. Lots of our page one stories are not about companies,” said Howe.

Today the Chronicle has a small business reporter, an innovation reporter and a biotech reporter. They all cover broader issues than just company news. “Biotech is an industry with a lot going on, that is more important than were the stock is going.” Howe also points out an important change in the way they write company stories today. Most stories have a foot in the company, but they also include technology, jobs, science and a lot of other things. On Mondays the business section is dedicated to and labeled Technology. (To compare the way stories are written with the other newspapers would demand a qualitative study of the articles. That has not been possible to do, due to the limited time. But from reading the Chronicle during February, I would say it’s true to some extent. Many articles still focus on revenue and earnings, though.) The new reporter on innovation, Tom Abate, is the only one at the business section with the experience of running his own company. He also has a background in covering science and technology. Ken Howe hopes to find new ideas in a much earlier stage than right before a company does its IPO. And he is not afraid of giving attention to the wrong technologies. “There is so much happening before the IPO or even before they have a company name on the door. I’m interested in the new ideas people come up with. We have to go to the universities and talk to the students to find out what ideas excite them. I want to find the next Sergey Brin. I don’t care about if we spot the right thing; I only care about what is discussed now. This is far from the investor-oriented business section, but the readers will be informed about the tech landscape.” This kind of articles will never outweigh stories about bigger companies, but Ken Howe could see the number of innovation reporters expanded with one or two in the future. It’s still a question about of space and resources, since the readers also care about interest rates etc.

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According to Howe, the Chronicle has no real competitor when it comes to overlap of readership. The San Jose Mercury News is often mentioned as the Chronicle’s main competitor, especially within technology news, but he thinks of them more as an intellectual competitor together with Los Angeles Times, New York Times and CNET, since there is not a lot of crossover in readership.

The business section at San Francisco Chronicle has 17 full time reporters and 30 employees in total.

6 Discussion

It is clear from the study that newspapers don’t cover innovative startups on a regular basis. According to the business editors, that is not their main focus, so there is a connection between theory and practice. The exception might be San Francisco Chronicle, where business editor Ken Howe has changed the way company news is covered. At the same time, the Chronicle is the newspaper with the highest share of articles on listed companies.

6.1 Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Innovative Startups

There are a few different explanations, but I would say that the primary reason for focusing on listed companies is that “Big is beautiful”. It’s easy to see how big companies affect the economy, all the way from shareholders to national growth. There is also something going on every day in these companies. With smaller companies, it could be hard to find the right time to write about them. It could be harder to explain to the readers why you publish an article on a small company, which may still have several years to a market launch.

In this way, it’s easy to explain why big, listed companies make it into the newspapers. They get better scores, when looking at the ten rules for “what’s news” by Håkan Hvitfelt (see 4.2). For example, these stories deal with elite persons, can be described in an easy way, are part of a bigger theme and are important to the many shareholders. This doesn’t mean that stories on innovative startups are not news worthy, but it will sometimes take an extra effort from the reporters and editors to explain it to the readers, so that they can connect to the story.

Another problem is of course the huge amount of small companies out there. Since the business sections can’t even cover all the listed companies, how should they be able to handle the endless field of startups? This links to the next reason for the lack of articles on innovative startups – lack of knowledge. Small companies don’t have PR departments, they might hide in a basement and consist of a couple of researchers working on totally new things, speaking a strange

15 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T. Frostberg: Why Newspapers Don’t Cover Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism language. You can’t sit around and wait for their next press release, but have to go out there and find them yourself. Often it takes extra work just to understand what they are doing, since no PR agency sends you a fact sheet on the company and their technology. All this requires knowledge and curiosity.

6.2 Why Should They? Every single reader has their opinion on what should be in the paper or not. It’s just not possible to satisfy every wish. Following the big listed companies is an easy way to satisfy as many as possible, since listed companies normally interest a lot of people.

What about innovative startups? Who cares?

The easiest way to put it is that every journalist likes to be the first on a story. No one would say no to finding the next Google, but only a few reporters are actually searching. The rest sits around and waits until there’s a press release on the IPO. Since that kind of stock market related information is available on the internet within seconds, there is no future for printed papers with a very narrow focus on the stock market. Actually, it’s an issue of necessary business development for printed newspapers to start telling more exclusive stories to their readers. It would give the paper a profile that differs from the mainstream business news coverage. A more visionary statement would be that it’s an obligation for large newspapers to also cover what is going on in the small world. This connects to the theory of Medici Effects in Frans Johansson’s book. If you as an editor or reporter don’t want to report merely on what just happened, but also contribute to the development of your society, you should provide your audience with important information for them to make the right decisions. This could be controversial to some people, but I don’t mean that you should tell the readers what to do and how. You should just give them the information they need and can act upon, the most important information being the things they couldn’t find out of elsewhere. This way, newspapers could actually play the role of Intersections where different ideas and cultures meet, contributing to Medici Effects. That is not different from covering politics, where the readers get information helping them to decide how to vote in the next election. Broader newspapers have a role to play here, that specialized magazines can’t take on. The newspapers, together with TV and radio, have the most mixed audience. It’s this mix of different knowledge and experience that is necessary to create groundbreaking innovations and Medici Effects.

6.3 How Could it be Done?

This is a huge question. How do you change the culture of big newsrooms? It’s not possible to answer in depth in this paper, but let me give some suggestions on where to start.

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- Redefine the news rules. There’s nothing in the theory of Håkan Hvitfelt that says innovative companies can’t be newsworthy. Actually, several of the ten points better relate to innovative startups than huge corporations, for example conditions that are sensational and surprising and are important and relevant. But since the culture in a newsroom normally follows the regular path, it would certainly take some work and internal discussions to change this.

- Send all stock news online. When the business world is changing, the way of doing business journalism should also change. But still almost every newspaper spends several pages every day, just reprinting yesterday’s stock quotes. When the stock markets open in the morning, this is old news after a second. All three business editors in this study said space in the newspaper is a problem. The easiest way to solve this is sending all the short-term stock market news online, freeing space in the printed version of the paper for new and exclusive news. This could include both analyses on listed companies and articles on innovative startups. - Educate editors and reporters. None of the three business sections in the study have a lot of reporters or editors with a business background. I don’t say that you must have run your own business to be able to write about innovative startups. What these companies are doing is so brand-new that you have to learn it from the beginning anyway, but a better background knowledge on how small companies work and live would make it easier to find them and understand what is going on inside these companies.

7 Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to study how daily newspapers cover innovative startups and analyze why not more is written about these new companies. Three newspapers – Berlingske Tidende, Dagens Nyheter and San Francisco Chronicle – have been studied. All articles on company news in their business sections during February 2006 have been read and categorized into “listed” or “non-listed”. The result shows that large newspapers mainly focus on big, listed companies in their business sections. This is a deliberate choice, due to the perception of the interest of the readers and the available resources. When writing about non-listed companies, these companies are seldom innovative startups, but rather large companies owned by governments, co-operative organizations or not-for-profit-organizations. Only very few articles deal with innovative startups.

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One of the newspapers in the study, San Francisco Chronicle, has recently assigned an innovation reporter and their business editor tries to change the way the paper writes about companies. He thinks that the old investor perspective is out-of-date and that business journalism has to change.

The other two newspapers, Berlingske Tidende and Dagens Nyheter, seem to focus more on the traditional way of covering company news. Even if they sometimes talk about writing more about entrepreneurial issues, they have no intentions to change the focus from larger and listed corporations into also covering the innovative startups. This is said to be because of lack of resources.

Still, there are some good arguments for why newspapers should pay more attention to innovative startups. Nothing in the news principles says that these companies are not news worthy and it could also be a question of business development for the newspapers, when more and more of stock related news are available on the internet within seconds. A more visionary argument would be that daily newspapers have an interesting mixture of readers that could make the society grow faster, if they just got a chance to meet and mix their different knowledge and experiences. It’s not an easy path, but there are ways of changing the culture of the newsrooms, if desired. Rules have to be redefined, so that old ways of thinking don’t hinder more extensive coverage of innovative startups. Reporters and editors must be educated, so that they understand the mechanisms of innovative startups, since they differ from those of big, listed companies. Stock related material should also be moved online, so that the print version of the paper could contain new and exclusive news articles.

8 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ken Howe, business editor at San Francisco Chronicle, and my editors Alan Saracevic and David Tong, for hosting me during this spring as an Innovation Journalism Fellow at the business section. I’m also very grateful to my colleagues at Rapidus back in Sweden and Denmark – Kristian Svensson, AnnaKarin Nilsson, Keld Broksø, Lisa Kirsebom and Kristoffer Lindblad. They made it possible for me to go to San Francisco. Also, thanks to my co-founder of Rapidus, Jan Wifstrand, who believed in this crazy idea. Thanks to Frans Johansson, for taking the time to sit down during a busy week in Europe and listen to my thoughts and helping me see things clearer. Amanda Termén for reading all my different drafts, helping me structure the material and to keep focus on the relevant questions. Finally, great thanks to David Nordfors, Vinnova and SCIL for running the Innovation Journalism program.

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Thomas Frostberg is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Rapidus, an electronic news service covering business, innovation and research in the Öresund Region (Sweden and Denmark). During his Innovation Journalism Fellowship 2006, Thomas is hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle. Before founding Rapidus, he spent three years covering education and research at Lund University, both as a reporter at the daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet and as editor-in-chief at Lundagård, the major magazine reporting from the university in Lund. He has also been an editorial writer for Expressen. As editor-in-chief, Thomas Frostberg is often invited to panel discussions about research, innovation and entrepreneurship. Rapidus covers both technology and business, in particular commercialization of university research, with focus on innovative start-up companies, but also the political agenda for innovation strategies. Focus is on ICT and life sciences. Among the subscribers are executives in listed corporations as well as non-listed smaller companies, financial institutions, venture capital funds, politicians, media, PR consultants and lawyers.

Innovation Journalism and Corporate Environments

Violeta Bulc, Msc.

Entrepreneur and Director, Vibacom (www.vibacom.si);

Partner of the Institute for Business Growth and Creativity ( www.iprk.si);

Advisor to EU Commission (http://europa.eu.int/)

115 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 V.Bulc: InJo and Corporate Environments The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 3

2 EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS SYSTEMS ...... 4

2.1 “Thinking Environments”, the Realm of Creativity and Innovation ...... 4

3 THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS SYSTEMS IN SLOVENIA ...... 6

4 INNOVATION JOURNALISM – A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ...... 8

5 CONCLUSION...... 10

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Innovation Journalism and Corporate Environments

Business is people and evolution is the natural mechanism through which we function. In this process, creativity and innovation play a major role. Past experiences suggest that sustainable development of business systems appears in four main phases of business evolution: working environment, learning environment, thinking environment and conscious environment. The transition from a “learning environment” to a “thinking environment” comes from dramatic changes in the behavior of business systems on all levels of management, governance and leadership. Creativity and innovation are the primary drivers of these changes. Slovenian businesses are responding to the call for innovation on different levels and in different forms. Yet, they need more help from the environment, from the society, in order to fully transform into long term competitive players. Media and journalism itself play a major role in the creation of such an environment. Of special importance are external and internal journalistic contributions on innovation. Therefore, journalism should take a more proactive role in creation of the innovation society.

1 Introduction

The models and thoughts presented in this paper have evolved from my first-hand engagement with numerous business systems: small and large companies, high tech and traditional, successful and in transition, entrepreneurs and local communities. My experience confirms that regardless of an increase in time dynamics of business cycles, all changes follow a social-economic logic. Furthermore, they follow the sociological development of an individual. This proves the evolutionary alignment of the business world. It proves the correlation between businesses and the external environment. Business is people and evolution is the natural mechanism through which we function. In this process creativity and innovation play a major role. Since they require quite different conditions to flourish, strong forces of change in the (business) community are needed to be freely open to creative powers. Slovenian businesses are responding to the call for innovation on different levels and in different forms. They try to develop internal and external means and networks in order to allow the establishment of innovative technological and business platforms, to challenge the minds of their employees and managers towards creative thinking. One of the forces that has a strong influence on acceptance and understanding of the impacts, benefits, and the power of innovation, is media. TV stations, newspapers, radio stations, e-media, magazines, blogs, etc. are slow in catching up with this topic and do not give enough support to the promoters and devotees of innovation. A stronger general support and overall acceptance for this important and long term sustainable growth factor is needed, especially on the operational level. All the stakeholders need to work hand in

3 117 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 V.Bulc: InJo and Corporate Environments The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism hand in order to take faster steps towards an opened, dynamic and innovative society.

2 Evolution of Business Systems

Past experiences suggest that sustainable development of business systems appears in four main forms, e.g. phases of business evolution: working environment, learning environment, thinking environment and conscious environment. Although all four phases seem to be independent of one another, they are in reality closely related. Furthermore, they evolve in a logical sequence, from one phase into another. Each succeeding step is an upgrade of the previous one. Each new phase requires the vital forces of its predecessor.

Environments have their own means of creating added value. In the “working environment” it is the “hardworking” manner, in the “learning environment” it is the gained “knowledge”, in the “thinking environment” it is the engaged “creativity”, and in the “conscious environment” it is our “intuition”. Each of the mentioned phases has its own winning success factors. During the transition process from one phase to another the “winning factors” of the formal phase become the entry (commodity) factors of the new one, as they are soon engaged by competitors. In the working environment, the winning factor is “productivity”, in the learning environment it is “quality”, in the thinking environment it is “innovation”, and in the conscious environment it is “vital (life) energy”.

Winning (success) factors play a leading role in evolutionary positioning. and are in fact co-dependent. We cannot ensure long-term stable results with quality products as the key success factor only. We need the appropriate productivity already in place. Innovation, by itself cannot ensure the existence of thinking environment without the presence of expected level of quality and productivity. The speed of progress and the actual implementation of the success factors largely depends on the business condition of a company’s business sector.

2.1 “Thinking Environments”, the Realm of Creativity and Innovation In “thinking environment” people are already playing the essential role in value creation and market differentiation. Consequently, leadership techniques are moving from hierarchical structures to more network constellations: from management of operating processes to facilitation of thinking processes; from a material world to a more intuitive world. Managers are no longer focused on the external players, (competition, new entries, substitutes) But rather on internal strengths, such (core competences, values, intellectual and social capital). They start to manage from the inside out. They manage more the environment and the “rules of the game”, and less the processes themselves.

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Figure 1: Evolutionary phases of business systems

Evolutionary phases of business systems

Labor Knowledge Creativity Intuition

Working Learning Thinking Conscious environment environment environment environment

Productivity Quality Innovation Life-energy

Intellectual property of Institute for Business Growth and Creativity (www.iprk.si)

The transition from a “learning environment” to a “thinking environment” comes with dramatic changes in the behavior of business systems on all levels of management, governance and leadership. With these changes new challenges arise: how to lead the thinking process, how to ensure the development of innovations, how to facilitate creativity. The undisputed search for enhanced creativity leads us closer and closer to a human being and his/her potential. Only after creative processes are triggered, we can hope they will result in innovations, which turn out to be the new winning factor on the market. Internal teams are no longer adequate for complex problem solutions, intra-functional internal and external teams (including strategic customers and suppliers) are evolving and gaining recognition. Relationships among all stakeholders, e.g., public, media, customers, owners, suppliers, employees, are now in the spotlight. Relationships are the central point of observation, diagnostics and the source of business opportunities.

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Figure 2: “8+1” Core Business Relations

Towards the Towards mission and Mother Nature vision of the company

Among With customers employees With yourself Between With suppliers employees and management

Between With public management (including and owners media)

Intellectual property of Vibacom

3 The Role of Media in Evolution of Business Systems in Slovenia

The Slovenian economy has made great progress over the last 15 years. Most importantly, it has developed a critical mass of successful companies that have established vital forces of progress and development, as described in the evolutionary model, (competitive productivity and quality for selected markets). In short, Slovenia has managed the transition to the learning environment. The progressive businesses have already started the process of moving towards the innovation based economy, towards the thinking environments. Yet, in order to address the needed adjustments and transformations on a local level in a timely manner, businesses need additional help. Not only internally in the form of better management tools, knowledge, experiences, but externally as well. Externally, they need overall social and political support. They need potential

6 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 V.Bulc: InJo and Corporate Environments The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism employees that are innovation conscious. They need business partners and suppliers that understand the flow of the creativity and innovation process. They need customers that recognize the value of new solutions and are willing to pay for it. They need owners that value intellectual capital and understand the importance of innovation on stability and long term development. They need the current employees to understand the concept of constant changes and flexibility. They need access to advanced minded companies and individuals from different branches and areas of expertise that dare to think and look beyond the known and seen.

Figure 3: Interrelated external supporting forces of innovation

Media

(PR) agencies Innovation in media - establishment of collective consciousness of importance The support environment and overall need for innovation in Slovenia - prognosis for the future - media impact, especially the Chamber of Commerce new media

Universities Businesses Government

TIA (Agency for Technological Development)

JAPTI (Agency for Development of SMEs)

Media and journalism itself have a major role in the creation of such an environment. Yet the role is not as trivial as it might appear at the first glance. Media has owners and owners ask for results. . Profit is being made mostly by populist topics which deep and thorough business stories usually are not. So, how to cut this circle? In the last few months there have been many discussions about the challenges of innovation journalism in Slovenia. It seems that the only way to start making

7 121 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 V.Bulc: InJo and Corporate Environments The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism progress is by communication on all levels. Journalists need to learn not only about the products themselves. They need to understand the processes, the models, the consequences, the dependencies. One of the responses from media representatives was that they are not sure which information to trust. How to recognize true innovation? Where to get reliable data?. We need to build trust between the media and the business community. We need to establish open two way communication, training and education.

PR Agencies and PR Departments play an important role. Their messages hardly ever explain confidently the innovative products or business models. The level of available information hardly ever goes beyond financial data and marketing information. They have to learn and develop their source of information further. They have to be clear in their communication and need to pass information from the innovation perspective, as well.

The third important pillar are public institutions, Universities, government agencies and public administration. Journalists need to be trained to understand the cross- functional implications of innovation. They need to be able to see beyond the common rules. They need to be trained on what questions to ask. Our formal curriculum is not covering this topic at all. The University studies need to be adjusted. There are several paradoxes within the government actions and its administration system, as well. For example an innovative business, gains no credits when applying for financial funds at public tenders. Only references, the implementations matter. Yet, innovative products can not have many references. They are new. Another paradox is in the organization of the government itself. Innovation requires an open, non hierarchical environment to flourish. Yet, what we see in the Slovenia government is a tendency towards establishment of a centralized and hierarchical state with increased levels of control. If this process continues we might have a clash of two philosophies that neither in theory nor in practice can support each other.

4 Innovation Journalism – a Personal Experience

Media could help to dismiss this concern. They should, for the sake of the future, devote part of their space, air-time, etc., to professional writing on innovation. For several years some of the advanced thinking entrepreneurs have been, based on their own initiatives, systematically informing the public about the power and long term importance of innovation. A monthly electronic magazine called “Aktualno 1.0”, is covering topics that challenged the current state of mind of top and middle managers. It is mostly related to different aspects of innovation. It took almost two years to achieve noticeable effects with readers. It took the Chamber of Commerce ten years to give to the “Award for the best Innovation” a vivid recognition. It took the TV show “Business Rhythms” which talks about innovative leadership and Slovenian business success stories, one year to prove its model. Yet, this year the

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“Festival of Innovation” exceeded all the expectations. And the national media finally started to respond, with special radio shows, articles in national newspapers and magazines. They do not talk only about the products and services (which was the case before), but about the processes, models and implications. The Chamber of Commerce for the first time launched a regional campaign in favour of innovation. Entrepreneurs responded. Innovation as a concept has gained public attention. The spirit has been let out of the bottle. Now it needs to be supported and an on-going establishment of favourable “rules of the game” and social environments need to follow.

The strategy of the European Union has also had an important influence on the positive response towards innovation The EU declared innovation as one of the basic pillars of future growth and prosperity. So, at least formally, the word innovation found its way to all strategic papers and in public speeches.

Internally, businesses can make important changes as well. Due to the evolution principles, in order for innovation to become a winning factor, a non hierarchical, employees’ conscious environment needs to be established. Firstly, an open flow of information among employees and between management and employees is needed. Secondly, platforms for cross-functional problem solving of operational and strategic issues have to be in place. Creativity and innovation need to be recognized as the core values of the business environment. A spiral participation model proved to be one of the most effective and powerful tools to use to achieve the stated business conditions. Yet, in addition, all the efforts need to be supported by media tools. They need an effective reporting in internal, company based newsletters, magazines, whiteboards, displays, reward systems, etc. Figure 4: Correlation between internal and external innovation journalism

internal business environment

internal innovation recognition internal journalism

external journalism external innovation recognition

external business environment

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Of special importance are external journalistic contributions on innovation to the existing internal systems, (presence of external articles in internal newsletters). They bring a fresh view and confirmation of the value model, an exchange of views and a sense of interrelation with the social environment. National and local media need to talk about innovation on a daily basis. Only then will it get into the subconscious of people and really become the pillar of overall socioeconomic progress.

The primary goal of innovation journalism, external or internal, is to give support and recognition to innovation processes. To bring confidence to people that creativity and innovation are values. That they build a better world. Innovation journalism should help to understand the interrelations and interdependencies between different industries, solutions, teams. It should help to think about the future, options, alternatives. It is a powerful tool to bring faith in development, to help people to understand what wonderful beings we really are.

5 Conclusion

Currently business systems are aiming to reach the “thinking environment” phase. The primary winning factors for business to successfully progress in such an environment are creativity and innovation. They are challenging not only to the individuals but to the entire management and leadership structures. They are challenging the society as a whole. They call for a change of the primary methods of development and operations. Therefore, they need broad support in order to be socially accepted. That is where and why media can and should play a vital role. Yet, even media can not do it on its own. They need open cooperation with drivers of change (managers, leaders, individuals, teams, politicians). They need reliable and prompt information. They need learning environments and training programs. They need networks to exchange views and best practices. Slovenia is making noticeable progress towards an innovative society. Yet, there are many ongoing challenges that call for innovative solutions on all levels and in all directions. Innovation needs networks of cooperation, open societies, self conscious individuals that are not afraid of sharing, exchanging, and improving. We all need to get involved in innovation processes in order to move forward.

Violeta Bulc, Vibacom, House for Business Solutions, is a recognized opinion maker for advanced technologies and innovative business models. She promotes change and the power of networks. She has received several awards for business innovations, as well as the Slovenian national FENIKS Award for Consulting Project of the Year. The European Commission has appointed Ms. Bulc to its Advisory Board for the e-Europe Action and Strategic Plans initiative for 2012 and 2020. She established the MPI business partnership (Power of Business Innovation) in cooperation with Mediade and TV PIKA, promoting innovation culture and the Slovenian way of doing business, and the Institute for Business Growth and Creativity in cooperation with additional experts, focusing on creation of advanced management tools for sustainable business growth. Ms. Bulc is the author of many professional articles on innovation, expert studies, electronic publications and a co- author of a popular business show called "Business Rythms«.

10 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T.J. Buckholtz: Discussion Note The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Discussion Note

6 Apr 2006 (Day 2):

Innovation Journalism for Innovative Thinking in Corporate Environments Violeta Bulc, Founder and Director, Vibacom, Slovenia

Discussion Panel Thomas Buckholtz, Business Advisor and Executive Coach; fmr Commissioner, US General Services Administration, USA Tony Perkins, Founder Always-On Networks Anders H. Pers, Business Angel, former Publisher Västmanlands Läns Tidning, chairman TT news agency and chairman TV4, Sweden

Comments by Thomas J. Buckholtz

Opportunities exist for journalists to report on tools to predict and invent the future. Innovation tools, programs, and journalism can provide people the following.

• Clarity – knowledge, insight, and implementation – about what works. • Roadmaps for introducing information and information technology into products and services.

• Stages of approaches to innovation.

Opportunities exist to build more synergy between intra- and extra- organizational communications and journalism.

• Corporate-internal newsletters can contain success stories which can be a basis for external coverage by journalists.

• Journalists find some successes indirectly.

o The software marketplace’s “enterprise license” was developed by a customer. Journalists discovered it as suppliers added the practice to their sales efforts and sought coverage for their products and new way of doing business.

o By covering the customer side of the enterprise license story, journalists discovered and began covering successes that corporate customers were achieving by using personal computers.

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• Journalists can be integral to progress. Journalists and their coverage helped build the early 1990s United States nationwide grassroots movement to improve governmental service to the public. At least one publication sponsored conferences regarding the subject.

• Journalists can miss significant publicly visible innovations. The United States General Services Administration created and grew a practice known as the “Government-Wide Acquisition Contract” starting in the early 1990s. Journalists did not cover the topic for several years. A 2006 article noted $290 billion in then-current GWAC procurements.

Opportunities exist to balance supplier-provided information with customer- provided perspective.

• Much information about the information technology marketplace focuses on “approaches” and “competitors” (to follow themes from Curt Carlson’s presentation). Most such information can be traced to vendors.

• Readers – including information-technology customers and vendors – can use and do need more knowledge about “needs” and “benefits and costs” (to follow more themes from that presentation).

o What are people achieving (or do people need to achieve) via innovation?

o How do they do it? How do they want to do it? How can they do it?

Dr. Thomas J. Buckholtz is a business advisor and executive coach. His ideas led to the creation of the Palos Verdes Estates (California, U.S.A.) Shoreline Preserve, Rotary International’s Donations-in-kind Information Network, two United States federal government procurement practices (including the Government-Wide Acquisition Contract), and the Republican National Committee's Grassroots Division. He had pivotal roles in the creation of multi-participant computer games; automated document libraries; hand-held computers; the enterprise software license; $100 million in productivity gains throughout a $6 billion company; and the early 1990s United States nationwide grassroots coalition of private-sector, news-media, academic, and government employees and organizations that spotlighted the opportunity to improve governmental service to the public. As a Commissioner in the United States General Services Administration, Dr. Buckholtz served as co-chief information officer for the federal government's Executive Branch, led a $1 billion telecommunications and systems-integration business unit, served as GSA's CIO. Also, he has led operations for high-tech start-ups. Dr. Buckholtz authored the books Information Proficiency: Your Key to the Information Age and Direct Outcomes: Think Well. Do Great. He co-produces and co-hosts a television program. He is an author or interviewee for more than 100 articles. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, Tom earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he received a B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology. He also completed executive business administration programs at Stanford University and the University of Michigan.

Innovation as a Topic for Media Reporting Implications of Editorial Strategies and Framing

Klaus Spachmann

Department of Communication Studies and Journalism, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart (Germany)

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1 PRECONDITIONS OF JOURNALISTIC WORK ...... 3

2 IDENTIFYING AREAS OF INNOVATION REPORTING...... 5

3 RESULTS OF AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY ...... 7 3.1 Perception of the Public Debate Regarding Innovations...... 7 3.2 Understanding the Role of Journalists and PR Professionals...... 9

4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS...... 11

REFERENCES ...... 15

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Innovation as a Topic for Media Reporting Implications of Editorial Strategies and Framing

In the German media system, there is no innovation journalism in terms of specialized media or specialized journalists, who deal with innovations as innovations. In several works on innovation journalism1, innovations as a topic of media reporting are settled within other fields of journalism such as technology, politics or business. Furthermore, there are two basic patterns of reporting: a specific and a popular approach. Both aspects determine the manner, journalists deal with innovations as a matter of reporting. The paper suggests framing as a basic framework for the analysis of innovation reporting. This perspective focuses on crucial preconditions of journalist’s work, drawn from the special area or reporting and influenced by activity of PR professionals and previous media coverage. The second part of the paper presents results of an explorative study on innovation journalism in Germany.

1 Preconditions of Journalistic Work

Journalists behave both in an active and passive way. On the one hand they are active in terms of selecting issues and events, putting them into a story and constructing news from it. On the other hand they are passive in terms of responding to given topics and using produced material e. g. PR. Organisational restrictions of time and money as well as task sharing influence the work of editors and reporters. Furthermore, factors outside the organisation form important prerequisites. Looking at the journalist’s workflow there are conditions on the input- and output-side of editorial work. Journalists consider the input-side of news representing the supply of topics and events. And they take the output-side into account when anticipating demand for information and news. In this respect journalists have two basic guidelines for their work. First: what happened in a special area? And second: what is relevant for my specific audience? News content is restricted by both factors. Editorial strategies put the aspects together and predefine the basic arrangement of coverage. In doing so, news organisations and editors are dealing in different ways with the two questions. Even given the same publication period, some establish relevance for their audience in a very direct and obvious way, while others focus on facts and events.

1 Nordfors, David: The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 (2004), No. 7, pp. 1-18 http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-7.pdf ; Kaukhanen, Erkki: Innovation is much more than business and technology. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 (2005), No. 4, pp. 1-17. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-4.pdf

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Certainly, journalists do not do their job autonomously. Instead, there are strong relationships in their work. Firstly, journalists refer closely to one another. Editors search for content in other media and access colleagues when researching stories. Thus, there are well introduced issues of reporting that are in place and can be updated. Secondly, journalists are not the only players in the game. PR professionals in companies and politicians also try to reach public attention to get their own messages heard. Journalists respond to these activities more or less passively. For example, they can accept the topic of a press release or even publish the given text.

The question how journalists deal with innovations and why they deal with them in a certain way refers to the circumstances and preconditions of journalistic work. The concept of framing provides a functional approach capturing these perspectives. Therefore, it is a promising theoretical framework for the analysis of innovation reporting. A common definition of framing goes back to Entman (1993): “To frame is to select some aspects of perceived reality and make them more salient in the communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral education and/or treatment recommendation”2 In this point of view, frames are not issues but background patterns of interpretation that structure the perception and evaluation of a specific issue. The three basic fields of journalism – politics, business and technology – can be seen as general frames that shape the way journalists deal with innovations as topics of reporting. They influence both the prominence which is given to innovations by the media outlet and the way innovations are presented and arranged in media coverage. These general frames are based on long time traditions and stable structures of journalism in our media systems. This framework of analysis allows questions that can be systematically answered by research: What are these frames and what are they based on? Which are the conditions for certain topics for the common frames? Important are certain patterns of argumentation, ideas and ways of thinking concerning the commonly focussed topics such as government and opposition, the struggle for power in politics and financial consequences as well as the logic of money in economy.

Going beyond these basic questions, it can be investigated how journalists deal with special topics in their everyday business. Topics appear on the public agenda and then the relevant players provide them with evaluations and tendencies. Next to journalists, especially PR professionals play an important role in the battle for public attention. Therefore we have to focus on the manner how the different players succeed in drawing attention to their topics and then use this attention by exploiting it for their own aims.

2 Entman, Robert M.: Framing: toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. In: Journal of Communication, Vol. 43 (1993), p. 52.

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Innovation can be analysed as a cluster of topics. Political, economic and journalistic actors use the innovation topic in a different manner depending on their individual aims and intentions of communication. Thus, journalists do not work in an empty space when reporting on innovations. The topic is already communicated from a biased point of view. Which special motives do journalists have when they take up innovations as a subject of their reporting? And how do they handle it, when political and economic actors suggest certain topics?

2 Identifying Areas of Innovation Reporting

Today, each of the three areas – technology, business and politics – contains special patterns of argumentation, ideas and ways of thinking for journalists: they are framed. Journalism takes these characteristics into account when reporting on a special area.3 The characteristics are reflected in topics and special perspectives of reporting. From the characteristics of these special fields of journalism, three, respectively four general frames that journalists apply to when reporting on innovations, can be derived:4 - science and technology progress (= the technical core of innovation)

- usability of innovations in terms of business administration and their consequences for the success of companies (= the management of innovations) - economic-political conditions for innovations and their economic consequences (= the role of innovations in the national economy) - the political debate on innovations and their societal framework (= the role of innovation in politics and society) Beside the various fields journalism is specialized in, there is a second dimension that determines the work of journalists: the basic pattern of reporting. This pattern

3 Marcinkowski, Frank: Publizistik als autopoietisches System. Politik und Massenmedien. Eine systemtheoretische Analyse. Opladen (1993), p. 117.

4 In a further step we can link these general frames with universal guidelines in journalism drawn from the news value approach, for example, conflicts, impact, individual proximity, cultural and societal relevance, negativism, surprise or currency. News values are general patterns of selecting events and constructing news (Staab, Joachim Friedrich 1990; Schulz, Winfried 1982). As universal patterns they are consistently applied across all fields of journalism. For innovation reporting news values suggest how complex information can be made newsworthy and attractive for special audiences (Zerfass, Ansgar/Sandhu, Swaran/Huck, Simone 2005).

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describes the way journalists construct news and stories by first selecting topics and secondly preparing them for specific audiences. In this regard two general patterns can be distinguished: a specific and a popular approach. The specific approach takes an inside perspective. Therefore, small audiences and professional contexts are in the focus of journalistic work. Journalists take their role first of all as a promoter of ideas. They want to deliver information and news to support processes within a special field. In contrast to the specific approach the popular approach holds an outside perspective. Assessing and discussing the general relevance of events is a key benefit of journalism that traces back to its historical roots. The outside perspective comes along with large audiences addressing people in everyday life roles. This perspective could apply to citizens, consumers, private investors or employees. In this field journalists understand themselves first of all as interpreters and translators, asking the question: what does news mean for specific contexts and situations?

When both dimensions are combined, the result is an analytical framework distinguishing various types of journalism in a two-way matrix (see figure). Each cell carries a special type of reporting, therefore handling innovations in a different way. There are special groups of journalists located in special areas of media. So we can try to discover and to describe these special characteristics in our media systems by empirical research. And we can examine the question how journalists in these special fields deal with innovations.

Figure: Areas of innovation reporting

Special fields of journalism eea atr of reporting General pattern Politics Business Technology

Specific Inside perspective -Small audiences Journalists as mediator -Professional roles and promoter

Popular Outside perspective -Large audiences Journalists as translator -Everyday life roles and interpreter

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The general frames form important prerequisites for innovation reporting. Starting from them we have to take a further step and focus on the manner how innovations come up as a topic in the public discussion: Who are the involved participants and in which context do they use innovations as an issue of reporting? Within the given general frames, activities of journalists and PR professionals form specific issues on the public agenda. They determine the conditions and starting points for the journalists who want to report on innovations. If we want to describe single areas of innovation reporting along the suggested matrix, we have to consider both the work and the perception of journalists as well as the activities of political and economic players. Journalists and PR professionals have a complex and mutual relationship when they put innovations on the public agenda.

3 Results of an Explorative Study

Special fields of journalism shown in the matrix are the focus of research. Therefore results of an explorative study on innovation journalism in Germany are used.5 The study arranged two focus groups, one consisting of business and financial journalists and one consisting of PR professionals and communication experts of companies and agencies. The journalists work for news agencies, newspapers, TV-magazines and specialist journals. In general, it was an explorative approach only covering some aspects of the research area illustrated in the matrix. The experts were asked to review the discussion on innovations in Germany: How do they perceive participants and arguments of the discussion in media, politics and economy? What about the prominence of the topic? How much is the audience interested in it? Furthermore, journalists and PR representatives should explain, how they deal with the topic of innovations in their work. How do journalists and PR experts consider their own role and the role of the opposite site?

3.1 Perception of the Public Debate Regarding Innovations

Those responsible for PR have generally perceived an appreciation of scientific and knowledge topics in recent years: “Suddenly, knowing something has again taken on a certain significance in society”, noted one participant. Knowledge magazines and quiz shows experienced a boom in the media and reached broad segments of the population. The subject of innovations also profited from this trend. Additionally politicians put the topic of innovations on the agenda and actively promote it. Those interviewed specifically cited the “Innovation Offensive” launched by the German Federal Government in 2004, as a significant contributor

5 Huck, Simone/Spachmann, Klaus: Innovationen als Gegenstand der Medienberichterstattung. Journalisten und PR-Fachleute im Gespräch. Hohenheim (2005).

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to the topic’s current popularity. A mere six years ago it would have been difficult to turn Germany as an innovation location into a “winning topic”. This has recently changed completely.

Consensus exists regarding the innovative capability with respect to Germany’s competitiveness in a globalized world economy. Against this background the current discussions, both among politicians and among the public, are critically perceived. The participants perceive an instrumentalization of the term “innovation” on the part of various players (politics, the media, the economy/PR). Thus, one PR specialist noted: “The whole discussion regarding innovation policy should be viewed very critically. In politics, the subject of innovation is currently being used to generate PR for the Federal Government and the Chancellor. There is no content at all.”

As a result of the “Innovation offensive” on the part of political communications, the media have treated innovations as a “hype” topic. Simply due to the political debate alone, there is suddenly a significantly greater demand for subjects related to innovations. Even though those responsible for corporate communications are currently not treating the topic of innovations any differently than in the past, the chances of being noticed by the media have increased. This new openness on the part of journalists is evaluated as being basically positive. However, one participant critically posed the question of the media’s independence. In addition, the quality of the reporting on topics related to innovation frequently leaves much to be desired. Those responsible for PR also view the role of corporate communications critically in this regard. “Technology and innovation” is among the most frequently used phrases and, just as often, there is little substance. “Everyone wants to be innovative and be a technological leader without having to provide arguments and facts to support their claims”, was the analysis provided by one participant. Communications experts recommend avoiding verbal shells such as “innovation” or “technology” entirely and, instead driving this message of dynamics and novelty home through a persuasive product or a credible story. All the participants in the journalists’ focus group agree that innovations are a significant topic which also plays an important role in the media. Innovations are seen as the “engine of a society”. Just as it is the case with the PR representatives, the journalists also criticize an instrumentalization of the topic. Most of the participants perceive the term “innovation” as being problematic and link it primarily to negative associations. The reasons cited are the lack of clarity and high abstraction level of the term. In addition, the term is used by politicians and corporations in an inflationary manner, frequently without content or substance. The word “innovation” is almost always used when reporting on a new product since it is assumed that this will grab the interest of journalists. As one journalist colorfully describes it: “Beautiful, new, innovative, modern – those are all Pavlovian expressions that make the dogs drool.” Press releases regarding innovations basically increase the attention level: “Instead of one second one spends 15 seconds reading the release”, noted one participant.

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There is, however, the risk that the term innovation will increasingly degenerate into a verbal shell and the use of the term in press releases creates defensive reactions: “There isn’t a single press release in which the word innovative or innovation doesn’t appear at least once. It’s getting to the point where I can’t stand the word innovation any more. It no longer increases my attention level, but instead increases my resentment”, noted one specialized journalist.

3.2 Understanding the Role of Journalists and PR Professionals

The participants in the group of journalists demand that innovations are integrated into a social context (e.g., its utility for society or individual groups). They expressly felt that this was also a task which must be assumed by PR. However, those responsible for PR primarily view such a function as the duty of journalists. Both groups assigned different roles to PR: The journalists’ perception of PR is at societal level, while the PR representatives themselves primarily view their work as a communication task and management function. How Do PR Representatives View Their Role?

According to PR specialists, the communications department within a company plays a decisive role in relaying innovations, since describing and communicating technology or innovations is not easy. The task of communications specialists is to prepare the subject in such a way that the customer or consumer utility becomes apparent. The improvement must be placed within a general context. In this regard, PR specialists see themselves as translators, because developers and engineers speak a different language than journalists. Most PR specialists see their contacts among the members of the specialized or scientific press. This is particularly true for the field of technology. Nonetheless it is sometimes expedient to appear in the broader media. Basically, due to the prominence of the subject in public discussions, it has become easier to place innovations in news and popular media. The role of PR in communicating innovations depends very much on the medium being addressed. The acceptance level for innovations as a topic is very high among the specialized press. It is the task of PR to adjust the information to be disseminated to the individual medium. This is because not every story is of equal interest to every medium. Aside from the material itself, it is also important to convince the journalists of a topic with reasoning. In the eyes of the participants it is the task of those responsible for corporate communications to determine just how innovative an improvement really is. This is important for the credibility of one’s own work. PR functions as a “reality-check” within the corporation. PR is the first filter and must decide whether an innovation can or should be communicated to the outside. As one communications expert elaborated: “This means that PR bears a great responsibility. It must deal very critically with information intended for the media. PR must determine whether or

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not there is even an innovation.” It is even frequently advisable to not even employ the term innovation in order to avoid reflexive defensive reactions.

How Do Journalists View Their Role?

Basically, journalists view innovations as an important topic which should be reported, even if they criticize the inflationary use of the term. According to the journalists participating in the focus group, before a subject is treated as being innovative, there must be a critical examination to determine whether the subject in question actually is novel. Innovation as an end in itself is dismissed. What counts are a development’s significance and its consequences.

Journalists see themselves as fulfilling the classic role of gatekeepers, as one who filters information, checks facts and develops subjects for his public. The journalistic duty of due diligence insists on information to be critically illuminated and a differentiation to be made between actual and putative innovations. Journalists take up innovation topics when these can be linked to a subject that has social or individual relevance. The economics editor of a daily newspaper explained: “The role of the journalist is not to celebrate actual and putative innovations, but instead, to provide proven facts. This implies maintaining a critical distance which, in turn, implies classifying and interpreting innovations and all that which this term carries with it”.

It is the consequences of an innovation which are crucial. The participants particularly pointed to the social implications as well as the consequences on employment, economic development or the day-to-day life of individuals: “We look at what is interesting, what is worth communicating, what is important in forming opinions, what is relevant to our viewers.” “It is the value of benefit that is important”, added another participant. At the same time he warned against a too narrow definition of utility: “Value of benefit does not mean: hey, there’s a new cell phone. I’m not interested in that. What interests me is: what are the consequences when companies start using digital instead of analog technology? What does this mean to a product, to production, to people, to the price, and so on.” In general, the journalists agree that they do not like to be used for the purposes of product PR. “If the PR people constantly call me to say they’ve invented something new, my response is: great, but what’s the subject? Don’t try to sell us products, sell us topics!”, one business journalist insisted. “We don’t report on innovations as such, we report on topics”, a colleague agreed. One business journalist included political PR: “Journalists quite rightly do not play along when politicians propagandize innovations in a one-sided manner or as an end in itself. This is the case when, for example, politicians concentrate only on the opportunities and fail to mention the risks of a development”. Handling innovations is frequently made more difficult for editors because of their journalists’ lack of background knowledge. “If something really is an innovation then it’s usually so specialized and technical that – being an business journalist – it just falls through the cracks. It’s more likely to be a topic for the scientific editor and I pass it on”, noted one participant. In general, greater technical knowledge on the part of business journalists is seen as being desirable.

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The journalists view the type of medium as representing a decisive factor in how innovations are dealt with. News and popular media address a broad audience. Complicated contents are translated into the public’s language and the background and opportunities of a development are clarified. As one television journalist explained: “Basic research just doesn’t stand a chance on television. We wait for the broader application of a technology. It is then that we can tell our viewers, for example, you can now buy this product, this is what it can do and this is what it costs.”

Innovations are frequently characterized by their high level of complexity, dubious utility and unforeseeable consequences. Specialized media will pick up those topics which because of these characteristics would simply not resonate with the general public. In addition to specialized publications and scientific magazines of the press and electronic media, the participants in the journalist group also note, for example, supplements in daily newspapers (especially science and technology). Specialized media treat innovation subjects in a completely different way. In general, they give them more editorial space and the contents are tailored to a clearly defined target audience. This results in topics receiving different emphasis and being presented in a different way.

4 Summary and Conclusions

Journalists and communication experts discussed in two focus groups the public debate regarding innovations and the role media and PR professionals play in this debate. Participants of the journalist’s round were business journalists, who are specialized in topics of company and business reporting as well as those, who include political (especial economic-political) aspects in their work. Technology and science journalists were omitted. All participants of the communication expert’s round were representatives of companies or agencies, while representatives of political communication did not take part. The discussion covered communication activities of companies and politicians as well as media coverage on innovations. The experts were asked to tell, how they deal with innovations in their work. Furthermore they should assess how the opposite group does work.

There are two basic levels of consideration: On macro-level we focused on the circumstances and preconditions of communication activities drawn from general frames. From this point of view, the public debate regarding innovation forms a crucial starting point for the work of both journalists as well as communication experts, providing them with introduced issues that are in place and can be updated. Second, on the micro-level journalists and communications experts deal with innovation topics in their given context of work. Thus, the action of journalists and PR professionals when communicating (or not communicating) innovations is the key focus.

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Based on the statements of the experts in the two focus groups, four theses can be formulated:

(1) When reporting on innovations, journalists are acting according to the general frame they are settled in.

The business journalist in the focus group emphasized relevance for business and, even more, consequences for customers, private investors and employees for their deciding, if an innovation is reported on or not. Due to the fact that most of the participants work for popular media, the focus on everyday life is not surprising. In taking explicitly political aspects into account, the economic editor of a daily newspaper introduced a further aspect. According to the political frame, he considers it important to focus on the meaning of innovation for political processes and societal life.

While popular journalists name precise conditions for reporting on innovation, specialized journalists are much more sympathetic to the topic. Generally they are attentive to innovations, reporting on the topic systematically, continuously and extensively. Furthermore, they hold a special perspective on innovations. First of all, they want to publish novelties in order to deliver information for experts and professionals of a special filed. By contrast, popular journalists make higher demands on innovations selected for reporting. As a consequence, most innovations fall through the cracks. (2) There is a basic difference between most journalists and PR professionals in the way dealing with innovations. While journalists focus on the relevance of innovations for audience and society when reporting on innovations, PR experts of companies and agencies have an agenda when they communicate the topic. PR representatives primarily view their work as a communication task and management function. They use the term innovation to increase the chances of their own messages being noticed by the media and the public. In contrast, political and business journalists working in popular media demand that innovations are integrated in a social context. Actually, they do so in their own work. Specialized journalist and – probably – technology journalists are closer to the PR professional’s understanding of innovation emphasizing technical and managerial aspects. Not surprisingly, participants of the PR group declared to focus their activities on specialized media.

PR activities of companies are an important starting point for innovation reporting. Journalists perceive the term innovation as inflationary and therefore being problematic. The term is primarily linked with negative associations. Most PR professionals agree and identify both positive (higher degree of attention) as well as negative consequences (reflexive defensive reactions) when using the topic in communication. Some pointed out, even to avoid therefore the term in communication activities. This leads to the third and fourth theses taking the macro-level into account.

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(3) The different areas of innovation reporting are not isolated, but influence each other.

Different frames and topics on the public agenda are related to each other. Therefore, a wide range of issues influence innovation communication as well as innovation reporting. The perceived appreciation of scientific and knowledge topics in recent years is a good example for a general trend innovations are profiting from.

Relating to the ongoing public debate this means, that for instance the way, innovation are communicated in the field of politics, biases the work of journalists and PR professionals in the fields of business and technology. Particularly, this is true for popular media. It can be supposed, that the more specialized a media outlet is, the less important these interrelations become and the more autonomous communicating activities and media reporting becomes.

(4) Especially the political debate regarding innovations affects activities in all areas of reporting. Experts in both groups noticed heavy activity of politicians on the matter of innovation in recent years. These activities are a significant contributor to the topic’s current popularity. As the PR experts stated, suddenly there is a significantly greater demand for subjects related to innovations. This is true for all types of media. At the same time, all journalists and PR experts identify high risks: If communication activities of politics and other groups do not deliver what the term innovation holds, the topic becomes negatively biased and provokes defense reactions. In the view of all experts, this is exactly what has already happened. This corresponds with results of the survey Innovate 2004: Almost all journalists and communication experts remark, that the tremendous use and misuse of the term are responsible for low media attention. Furthermore half of the journalists and four out of ten communication experts even agreed with the statement that innovations work as a mere label which benefits actors in the public debate.6

6 Mast, Claudia/Huck, Simone/Zerfass, Ansgar: Innovation Communication. Outline of the concept and Empirical Findings from Germany, p.5. In: Innovation Journalism Vol. 2 (2005) No.7, pp. 1-14. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-7.pdf

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Dr. Klaus Spachmann works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Studies and Journalism at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart (Germany). His research focuses on empirical communication research, business and financial journalism as well as commercialization of media systems. As an academic teacher, he is responsible for journalism education in Hohenheim, especially online journalism and media management. Furthermore he works as a lecturer in journalism at the University of Cooperative Education in Heidenheim and the Academy for New Media in Ludwigsburg. 2004 Klaus Spachmann completed his Ph.D. thesis on business reporting in the press. After his vocational training as a banker and financial assistant, Klaus Spachmann graduated in politics and economics from Stuttgart University.

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References

Entman, Robert M.: Framing: toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. In: Journal of Communication, Vol. 43 (1993), pp. 51-58.

Huck, Simone/Spachmann, Klaus: Innovationen als Gegenstand der Medienberichterstattung. Journalisten und PR-Fachleute im Gespräch. Hohenheim (2005).

Kaukhanen, Erkki: Innovation is much more than business and technology. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 (2005), No. 4, pp. 1-17.

Marcinkowski, Frank: Publizistik als autopoietisches System. Politik und Massenmedien. Eine systemtheoretische Analyse. Opladen (1993). Mast, Claudia/Huck, Simone/Zerfass, Ansgar: Innovation Communication. Outline of the concept and Empirical Findings from Germany, p.5. In: Innovation Journalism Vol. 2 (2005) No.7, pp. 1-14. Nordfors, David: The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 (2003), No. 7, pp. 1-18.

Schulz, Winfried: News Structure and People’s awareness of Political Events. In: Gazette, Vol. 30 (1982), pp. 139-159.

Staab, Joachim Friedrich: The Role of News Selection. A Theoretical Reconsideration. In: European Journal of Communication, Vol. 5 (1990), pp. 423- 443. Zerfass, Ansgar; Sandhu, Swaran; Huck, Simone: Kommunikation von Innovationen – Neue Ideen und Produkte erfolgreich positionieren. In: Kommunikationsmanager 1 (2004), No. 2, pp. 56-58.

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New Perspectives on Innovation Communication Findings from Germany’s Survey INNOVATE 2006

Simone Huck

Department of Communication Studies and Journalism, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

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1 INTRODUCTION...... 3 2 INNOVATION COMMUNICATION IN GERMANY ...... 5 2.1 CHANGING CONTEXTS FOR INNOVATION COMMUNICATION...... 5 2.2 CAUSES FOR THE LOW AMOUNT OF INNOVATION REPORTING ...... 6 3 CORPORATE INNOVATION COMMUNICATION ...... 8 3.1 INTERNAL BARRIERS IN INFORMATION FLOW ...... 8 3.2 EARLY INVOLVEMENT OF COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT...... 10 4 INNOVATION REPORTING IN JOURNALISM ...... 11 4.1 CURRENT STATE OF INNOVATION REPORTING ...... 11 4.2 SOURCES OF INNOVATION REPORTING...... 13 4.3 INFORMATIONAL NEEDS FROM CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS...... 14 5 CONCLUSIONS ON INNOVATION COMMUNICATION ...... 16 6 ABOUT THE INITIATIVE INNOVATE ...... 17 REFERENCES...... 19

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New Perspectives on Innovation Communication

The aim of this paper is to provide new perspectives on Innovation Communication by highlighting selected findings from INNOVATE 2006. This second German trend survey on Innovation Communication offers longitudinal data in comparison to the findings from INNOVATE 20041 as well as specific insights in journalist’s and corporate communication and marketing expert’s point of view. At the end of this paper main conclusions on the state of development of Innovation Reporting and corporate innovation communication will be drawn.

1 Introduction

When economies decline, the demand for more innovations is voiced instantaneously. The ability to innovate is a major aspect for economic growth and social welfare is widely acknowledged as fact. But examples like Germany – which has a leading position in the worldwide innovation ranking – show that the mere number of inventions does not necessarily result in favorable public awareness or in economic success. Different studies indicate that it is rather a lack of innovation communication than a lack of innovation itself that western economies have to cope with. Regarding the question of innovation diffusion2, the communication and explanation of an innovation to different stakeholders or audiences becomes relevant. What does “Innovation Communication” refer to? We define Innovation Communication as symbolic interaction between organizations and their stakeholders dealing with innovative products, services, technologies and ideas.3 It covers Innovation Reporting on the macro level, corporate innovation communication on the meso level and all sorts of micro level communication on innovation, like e.g. leadership communication on innovations.4 In order to learn about an innovation, the public needs to be informed by journalism as well as institutional corporate communication. Therefore, expert journalism is required which covers technical, business, legal, and political aspects of innovations5 – not only for a specialized audience, but first of all for a broader audience. Its task is to

1 for the findings from INNOVATE 2004 see: Mast/Huck/Zerfass (2005)

2 Rogers (2003)

3 Mast/Huck/Zerfass (2005)

4 Zerfass (2005); Zerfass/Huck (2005)

5 Nordfors/Kreiss/Sandred (2005)

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present innovation in a comprehensible way and to evaluate them regarding the value of benefit for the audience.6 At the same time, corporate innovation communication is needed.7 It communicates corporate innovations to opinion leaders like journalists as well as directly to stakeholders.8 In this context, the possible range of internal and external communication is broad: it reaches from customer communications, media relations or online relations to communication in the internal scope. Both groups require specific knowledge and skills to reduce the complexity of an innovation for a general audience. Additionally, the organizational contexts are important. First theoretical and empirical insights in how innovations can be communicated to different audiences only recently contributed to a body of knowledge. 9

The survey INNOVATE 2006 was conducted as a self-recruiting online survey. It is based on two different questionnaires which overlapped in some parts, but in other sections were specifically tailored to Innovation Reporting or corporate innovation communication. By keeping some questions of the INNOVATE 2004, longitudinal findings regarding the development of Innovation Communication in Germany are available for the first time. During January and February 2006, 346 communicators participated in the survey, 266 communication experts and 80 journalists. In PR and Marketing departments of companies, communication agencies, political institutions, science and research organisations, the questionnaire first of all reached decision makers: About two-thirds of the polled communication experts are in a leading position as communication executive, CEO or general manager. The biggest part of the respondents works in corporate communications (76.7%), merely ten per cent in marketing and four per cent in research and development departments. Nearly half of the communication experts work at private enterprises (47.1%). Another third works for communication agencies, ten per cent for research institutions, universities or educational establishments and six per cent in politics and public administration. Five per cent are employed in not-for-profit associations, non-governmental organizations or at competence and branch networks. Regarding the sample of polled journalists, one third of the eighty participants are chief editors or editorial leaders. Another third respectively works as editors or as freelancers. Like the polled communication experts, journalists in executive positions could be reached by INNOVATE 2006 to a proportionately greater extent. A total of 62.4 per cent works in the print media sector (thereof 22% for daily newspapers, 13.4% for popular magazines and 27% for professional journals) and about 12 per cent respectively work for broadcasting, online media and in freelance bureaus. 56 per cent of the respondents report first of all on science and technology, about 41 per cent on economy and business, followed by approximately 23 per cent working in a special field of reporting.

6 Nordfors (2004)

7 Höij (2004)

8 Mast/Huck/Zerfass (2005)

9 Zerfass/Sandhu/Huck (2004a/2004b); Mast/Zerfass (2005); Carrascosa (2005); Granelli (2005); Kalmi/Kauhanen (2005); Nordfors (2004)

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2 Innovation Communication in Germany

Innovation Communication plays a crucial role for an innovative company as well as for society: To inform people about new ideas, products, technologies or services, to position a company as an innovator or to foster a climate favorable to innovating are the main purposes of communicating innovations to a broader public. For the diffusion of innovations it is inevitable to make them popular, among the specialist community as well as within broader parts of society. In 2004, the first German trend survey on Innovation Communication revealed how journalists and communication experts perceive innovations as a topic for corporate communications and the media. The second German survey, INNOVATE 2006, shows that most of the perceptions and ratings regarding the innovation climate in the country stayed the same. On the other hand some significant aspects changed during the last one and a half years.

2.1 Changing Contexts for Innovation Communication Two thirds of the communication experts stated that the concept of innovation communication has gained more presence in organizational communication compared to 2004 (62.5%). Meanwhile, “only” 43.8% of the journalists who participated in the survey agreed that the topic is more present in editorial offices than before – a difference of almost 20 percentage points (see Figure 1). At the same time approximately one third of both groups agree to the statement that the media’s interest in innovations is still low.

The topic is on the agenda for us communication experts. / 62.5 The topic is on the agenda for us journalists. 43.8

Communication experts focus more on „how“ to communicate 59.8 innovations. 35.0

The topic innovation has become more and more „pep-talk“ without 49.6 real content. 47.5 There are more media formats that concentrate on innovations. 41.9 31.3 The topic innovation has been discovered by the general media. Many 39.5 publications give innovations more space in their coverage. 33.8

The media is still not so interested in innovations. 28.7 27.8 The political debate about the consequences of innovations constrains corporate communications. 25.8 27.3 It has become more difficult to pitch the topic to the press. 15.9 It has become more difficult to interest the recipients. Communication Experts 30.0 Journalists

Source: Trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 80 journalists, 264 communication experts, numbers in percentage („totally agree“ and „agree“); Question: The communication of an Innovation is vital for the success or failure of the innovation. How have the general conditions for Innovation Communication changed in the last one or two years? Figure 1: General conditions for Innovation Communication in Germany

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About 50 per cent of all interviewees regard innovations as a topic for corporate information or reporting as clearly mundane. Thus, innovation communicators should keep in mind the risk that innovation could become more and more a babble. Six out of ten communication experts declare that – compared to 2004 – they consciously pay more attention to how innovations are mediated (59.8%). Compared to the communication experts, only about half of the journalists (35.0%) state that they themselves pay more attention to the way of Innovation Reporting. The results show that communication experts in economy, politics and science are attuned more positively to innovations as a topic for their communication than journalists are.

Has it become more difficult to pitch innovation to the media? The results show a significant difference for journalists and PR experts. Again communication experts are more positive on the possibilities of Innovation Reporting that journalists are: 30% of the journalists seem to be convinced that their audience is more tired of the topic than it was one and a half years ago. They believe that it becomes increasingly difficult to get their readers, viewers or listeners interested in innovations. Communication experts are more positive on this issue: only 15,9% of the communication experts share this pessimistic view. Similar differences appear in the perception of the media’s amount of Innovation Reporting. While approximately 40% of the communication experts are convinced that innovation today play a more important role first of all in general media, one third of the polled journalists agree with this statement. Even if journalists tend to be less convinced of placing innovation in general media, the results clearly show: innovations have become an integral part of media reporting since 2004. Innovations went mainstream. Even the amount of Innovation Reporting has increased, say the respondents. In conclusion, innovation has become a topic for mainstream media. Although it still is and always will be a very special topic that will not anchor itself on the public agenda as a topic of utmost importance, it is more evident in the minds of communication experts and – to a lesser amount – of journalists. Thus, the general conditions for Innovation Communication and Innovation Reporting improved since INNOVATE 2004.

2.2 Causes for the Low Amount of Innovation Reporting

Journalists and communication experts state that innovation as a topic is still picked up comparatively seldom by the media. What are possible reasons? 87.8 per cent of the communication experts and 86,3 per cent of the journalists are convinced that the term innovation is overly used (see Figure 2). Comparing those findings with INNOVATE 2004 only marginal differences can be ascertained: Two years ago 90 per cent of the communication experts and 95 per cent of the journalist held this opinion. Another challenge is to present innovations customized to the media. While in 2004 52.6 per cent of the communication experts and 48.1 per cent of the journalists named the difficulties of communication, in this year’s survey only 41.9 per cent of the communication experts and 34.2 per cent of the journalists held the same opinion.

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These significant differences across time seem to show that the INNOVATE initiative which triggered discussion about basic conditions, applications and success factors of Innovation Communication helped to learn how innovations can be communicated. At the same time, the formerly predominant belief that innovations are too complex for general media does not continue anymore: Today only 17.6 per cent of the communication experts and 16.5 per cent of the journalists consider innovations merely as an issue for specialist media. In 2004, about 40 per cent – twice more than today – of both the journalists and communication experts held this opinion. Today most respondents take it for granted that is possible to communicate an innovation to all audiences and in all possible kinds of media. Only the way of communication can vary.

Reporting on innovations in different media the results of the survey show interesting longitudinal differences: Today only one fourth of the polled communication experts and therefore 10 per cent less than in 2004 is convinced that innovations cannot be edited compatible to every kind of media outlet. At the same time, journalists became more sceptical on this point. While in 2004 only about one fifth of the journalists agreed upon the assumption that innovations cannot be edited media compatible, today every fourth holds this point of view. However the interest of readers, viewers and listeners in innovations seems to be given. Almost all respondents completely decline the statement that the audience is not interested in innovations.

Figure 2: Main reasons for the constantly low media coverage

87.8 The topic “innovation“ is overly used and often misused. 86.3 Editorial offices have no specialists on this topic. 60.6 62.5 Journalists underestimate the importance of innovations for companies and 48.5 their performance. 31.3 Innovation themes are often presented as advertisement. Therefore they do 48.1 not meet the standards for press coverage. 71.3 44.3 Companies do not provide enough information about innovations. 48.8

It is difficult to communicate innovations to the broad public. 41.9 34.2 Meaning and consequences of an innovation are just known late. 39.8 55.0 Innovations are very difficult to be prepared fittingly for the media. 25.7 25.0 Innovations are a topic for the specialist media rather than mass media. 17.6 Communication Experts 16.5 Journalists

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 80 journalists, 264 communication experts, statements in percentage („totally agree“ and „agree“); Question: The media coverage of innovations is still on a low-level. What are the main reasons?

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The reasons for the comparatively low media coverage of innovations is not only due to the characteristics of innovation itself but can also be found in the contextual factors of organizational communication and journalism: About 63 per cent of the interviewed journalists named – by all means self-critical – the lack of skilled experts as one possible cause. The rating of the communication experts is similar with an approval-rate of 61 per cent. Compared to 2004 only little has changed concerning the material provided by companies. Again about 50 per cent of the journalists state that they miss appropriate material from companies. PR people know that their materials do not yet fit the needs of journalists. 44.3 per cent affirm this point of view. In the opinion of journalists it is first of all a question of the right format of the information for media reporting. Almost three thirds of all journalists do not publish material on innovations from enterprises without intensive editing. They state that most PR information on innovations is too similar to advertising. Hence they are not qualified for editorial reporting. With a percentage of 48.1 even the polled communication experts realize this “impression of advertising” of their press material.

Almost half of the communication experts accuse journalists of underrating the importance of innovations for companies and job situation. Only 31.3 per cent of the interviewed journalists share this point of view, revealing a clear discrepancy. Evidently the selection and coverage criteria in the context of the reporting of innovations are different from what communication experts expect them to be. From the journalist’s side there is a markedly high affirmation to the statement that the consequences of an innovation can be observed only over time (55.0%; communication experts: 39.8%).

3 Corporate Innovation Communication

Regarding corporate communications, Innovation Communication is an important aspect for positioning the company or non-profit-organisation as an innovative player. If journalists complain about a lack of appropriate material from corporations, how could media relations react? When comparing the results of the current survey to the findings from 2004, obvious changes are evident.

3.1 Internal Barriers in Information Flow Internal barriers are still the main reason for many innovations not finding their way from a corporation to the public (see Figure 3). Although the results indicate that in comparison to 2004 the flow of information from corporate divisions to the communication department has improved, 61.5 per cent of the communication experts are convinced that the information transfer from departments to the communication executives has to be improved (2004: 74.7%). This impression is confirmed by around 66 per cent of the journalists (2004: 74.1%). Nonetheless, there is one small comfort from a PR point of view: Only about one fifth of all interviewees complain about information reaching the public before the communication department is informed.

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Another reason for flaws in Innovation Communication has its source in the information policy of many corporations itself. About 70 per cent of the surveyed journalists (69.2% in 2004) and 60 per cent of the communication experts (57.1% in 2004) consider a restrictive information policy as a further reason. Closely connected to this aspect is the conviction that plenty of innovations would not be communicated because of fearing a competitor’s early imitation. 55.7 per cent of communication experts and 64.1 per cent of journalists share this opinion.

Another reason for the small coverage is seen in the communication policy of PR and marketing experts About 50 per cent of the interviewees are convinced that at present, corporations concentrate on other topics. The topic innovation already competes with other subjects like e.g. job losses, market crises or corporate change – topics, that often have a higher priority than innovation itself. In this context there is also a comparatively strong agreement on the statement that innovations would not be considered as an important topic for communication. While about only one quarter of the polled journalists agree on this statement, there is a stronger approval among the interviewed communication experts (30%). Without question this is a reflection of the experience of communication experts in their own organisations with management board, superiors and departments. As much as some communication expert may want to place this subject on agenda, as much he enters an area of tensions and has to consider other interests and requirements.

Figure 3: Reasons for the small proportion of Corporate Innovation Communication

The information transfer from special departments to communication department 61.5 does not work. 66.2 Many companies practice a restrictive communication policy. In consequence, 60.2 innovations are not communicated in an active way. 70.5

Regarding the competitors, innovations should not be communicated to the public. 55.7 64.1 The communication experts in the companies are focussed on other topics. 52.7 53.2 Innovations are not regarded as an important issue by corporate communication . 30.4 25.6 Innovations are too complex to be communicated in a simple way. 39.2 38.5 Information about innovations reach the audience before the communication 20.8 department becomes active. 22.1 Communication Experts Journalists Innovations are nowadays so self-evident that their value for corporate 19.9 communication is underestimated . 39.2

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 80 journalists , 264 communication experts, statements in percentage („totally agree“ and „agree“); Question: Although some companies have have departments for Innovation Com munication, only few practice an active Innovation Communication . What are the reasons?

Even if the communication expert wants to place the subject on the agenda, he or she needs to be aware of the overarching mission, office policies and management decisions. A broad gap however shows up in the last item of figure 3: Twice as many journalists (about 40%) than communication experts (about 20%) stick to the opinion that innovations are presently taken that heavily for granted that their value

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for communication is often not being recognized. Is it true that corporations do not realize the value of their innovations for communication at all? Whatever reason there exists for such differences in rating, the result indicates the basic interest of journalists for the topic innovation. The high rates imply that an innovation definitely has a value of reporting for them.

3.2 Early Involvement of Communication Management

Innovation Communication is dependable on with communication departments being informed about innovations. As in corporations, politics, associations or scientific institutes – an innovation can only be transferred to important stakeholders if communication experts in organisations know about it. As shown in figure 3 a defective internal flow of information from organisational departments to the communication section can therefore be the main reason for failed Innovation Communication. Besides that, the timing of an innovation being communicated internally and externally is important. In INNOVATE 2006 the interviewees are questioned to the “optimal” time of integrating additional stakeholders in innovation processes. In addition to this, the study focuses on media relations as they are the most important channel in addressing the public.

Figure 4: Timing of informing stakeholders

idea development manufacturing public introduction into announcement the market

internal

- management 87.5 11.3 0.0 0.4 0.8 - employees 12.5 55.3 29.8 2.0 0.4 - marketing 37.3 36.5 14.5 9.0 2.7 - public and media relations 31.9 37.4 17.3 9.8 3.5

external

- specialist media 4.8 33.2 24.4 35.6 2.0 - general media 0.4 9.1 18.3 42.9 29.4 -customers 4.4 17.5 15.9 48.4 13.9

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 254 communication experts, statements in percentage; Question: At which point of time of the innovation process would you propose to inform the different stakeholder groups about an innovation?

Regarding the percentage distribution of answers, the necessity of an early integration of management becomes clear. 37.3 per cent of the interviewees prefer an early integration of marketing during idea generating, while 36.5 per cent indicate the phase of development (see accentuations in figure 4). According to 31.9 per cent, public relations should be informed in first stage of the innovation processes. This seems to be wishful thinking of communication experts as –

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according to the result of failed information transfer – reality in German companies often differs. Concerning the information of external stakeholders one has to differentiate. While 33.2 per cent of interviewees prefer an integration of special interest media in the development stage, 24.4 per cent tend to assimilate them in the production and 35.6 per cent in the phase of market information. Certainly this is due to the fear of informing competitors too early. Besides that, the results state that special interest media are regarded as the most important target group concerning media relations. In comparison to public media, the communication experts queried indicate that they should be addressed two phases earlier. 42.9 per cent of the interviewees agree on taking public media and customers into account in context of market information at earliest. One third in contrary think that informing public media in the phase of rollout is sufficient.

An interesting aspect arises in terms of customers: About one fifth of interviewees prefer early information of customers in the stage of development respectively of production. Probably this is due to concepts like “open innovation” which integrate the important stakeholder “customer” in the process of developing an innovation already.

4 Innovation Reporting in Journalism

Reporting on innovation reflects the innovative power of a country and affects the prevalent innovative climate. It can promote the evolution of a culture of innovation by generating public interest for this topic in general and for specific innovations in particular. There is however the need of a good informational transfer from corporations, politics and associations to editorial offices for journalists being able to report on innovations. Furthermore, journalists have to actively investigate innovations themselves. Which editorial departments are perceived responsible for Innovation Reporting? Which sources are tapped to get further information about innovations? For what information and proposals of communications experts in economy, politics or associations are journalists longing for?

4.1 Current State of Innovation Reporting Even if only 30 per cent of journalists believe in an increased number of media specialized in Innovation Reporting, in Germany a trend in Innovation Reporting can be observed. Three quarters of all interviewees, both communication experts and journalists, report that Innovation Reporting benefits from a general interest in innovations, which can be presently observed in public (see Figure 5). The amount of magazines and broadcasts as well as dedicated columns focussing on the topics knowledge and innovations has increased tremendously over the last few years. However, Innovation Reporting is also important to general media. Both journalists and communication experts state that there is a trend for general media in covering innovations as well. At the same time 59.2 per cent of communication experts and even 66.3 per cent of journalists emphasize Innovation Reporting as a useful distinguishing mark to differentiate from competitors. Innovation Reporting then

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becomes a branding aspect of a medium. Both comparatively high ratings of journalists who require a broad knowledge to report on innovations and the allusion to a lack of specialists can disembogue in a demand for interdisciplinary qualification of journalists. There are hints indicating to Innovation Reporting being a transverse function in editorial offices. An ability to integrate innovations and their consequences in broader contexts is therefore postulated. As a consequence Innovation Reporting cannot remain in one special department but takes place in all departments.

When considering the assignment of Innovation Reporting to specific editorial departments, this aspect proves to be true. According to INNOVATE 2006 Innovation Reporting is prevailingly performed in the following departments:

Figure 5: Innovation Reporting in media

Innovation journalism is a 360° reporting and should consider technolo- 84.6 gical, economical and social aspects of the innovation. 87.5

The coverage of innovations benefits from the current public interest of 76.2 specialized media in scientific topics. 76.3

Innovations are not only a topic for specialist media. Also general media 59.5 give them more space in their reporting. 52.5

Innovation reporting can help to differentiate a medium from competitors. 59.2 66.3

Journalists reporting about innovations need to be all-rounders. 55.6 67.5

Innovation Journalism as a field is lacking professional standards. 48.7 53.8

Journalism gets a new specialization: innovation reporting. 36.5 37.5 Communication Experts Journalists A lot of journalists link innovation topics with unpaid advertisement. 34.1 This scares them away from reporting. 43.0

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 80 journalists, 264 communication experts, statements in percentage („totally agree“ and „agree“); Question: During the last years the topic Innovation has gained in importance in media coverage, be it a one-page summary in the daily press or specialized topical issues. In your opinion, what is the current state of development of Innovation Journalism?

knowledge and technology (67.9%), economy (50.0%), ensued by expert departments (32.1%), healthcare (28.2%), politics (25.6%) and services (25.6%). In local news desks as well as media, miscellaneous and culture departments on the contrary no or only small Innovation Reporting takes place. Do editorial offices have journalists assigned with Innovation Reporting more often than their colleagues? Two thirds of the interviewees confirm this question. 68 per cent of journalists remark that colleagues in their editorial offices frequently report on innovations. What is the reason for this phenomenon? Being questioned about possible motivations of these colleagues, personal interest in the topic respectively personal concernment is named by 76.5 per cent of all interviewees. 58.8 per cent furthermore mention specific expert about innovations respectively in concerned

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areas, whilst competence in department (47.1%), correspondent job profiles (43.1%) and a specific qualification (37.3%) are named in following order.

4.2 Sources of Innovation Reporting In order to get journalists reporting on innovations, information has to be given by public relations experts in economy, politics and society. In terms of press releases, background conversations or product demonstrations corporate communication informs journalists about innovative products of their corporations. How do journalists come to know about product innovations? Which informational sources act a role?

standardized information through PR department (e.g. press release) 37.5 40.0 fairs and exhibitions 15.2 44.3 conferences / congresses / presentations 18.8 38.8 road shows for journalists organized by a company 13.8 36.3 specialist media 10.1 36.7 online resources (e.g. newsgroups, weblogs) 16.5 21.5 colleagues of the own editorial office 7.7 24.4 personal information through PR department (e.g. telephone, round table) 8.8 22.5 employees of the R&D department 6.3 24.1 CEO / Management Board 1.3 26.6 customer magazines 6.4 19.2 general media 1.3 20.0 very often employee magazines 3.8 11.5 often

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 79 journalists, statements in percentage; Question: How do you come to know about a product innovation of a company? Please indicate, how often you get informed about an innovation from the following sources. Figure 6: How journalists come to know about product innovations of corporations

The accumulated frequentness shows that journalists are early informed about product innovations by standardised press releases. More than three quarters of the interviewees state that they are most often addressed by standardised written press releases (see Figure 6). According to 37.5 per cent this channel is “heavily used” by public relations, being followed by speeches, congresses and meetings. Trade shows and exhibitions are named by 60 per cent as “often” or “very often” used sources, which are ensued by already mentioned congresses, meetings and talks (57.6%) as well as informational events of corporations themselves (50.1%). About half of the journalists (46.8%) also mention independent expert media being a useful source of information, while online sources are often used by 38 per cent. Compared to this, hints of colleagues, personal conversations with public relations experts of the respective company and information from corporate staff (e.g. R&D department) are less important, although these channels are still named as often or very often used by one third of the interviewees. About a quarter of journalists often turn to customer magazines, while 20 per cent use general media and about 15 per cent staff magazines.

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As soon as an editor comes to know about an innovation, which sources does he head to for further investigation? Does he revert to written informational material of corporations, staff of specific departments or to independent sources? For journalists the most important sources for investigation are expert staff of corporation (91.0%), independent experts like e.g. researchers (73.4%) as well as corporate websites (67.1%, see Figure 7). Apart from that, the communication department of a company is also named in being an important source of information. Conversations with public relations experts are ranked fourth (63.3%), whilst 53.2 per cent of journalists use other media (e.g. special interest media). Contacts to management boards as another source are appreciated by 42% of the interviewees. Further, but less used channels are forums, newsgroups and weblogs (33.0%).

internal experts of the company 48.7 42.3

independant external experts (e.g. scientists) 32.9 40.5

website of the company 30.4 36.7 PR experts of the company 20.3 43.0 other media (e.g. specialist media) 16.5 36.7 CEO / Management Board 21.5 20.3

newsgroups or weblogs on the net 8.9 24.1 very important important

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 79 journalists, statements in percentage; Question: When you heard about a innovative product, which additional sources do you consult in the context of your investigation? Figure 7: Additional sources for investigations on innovation

These results eminently deny a mere impact of corporate public relations on Innovation Reporting. In addition to this, time exposure for further investigation also allude to an established, independent (post-)investigation of innovation topics. About 43 per cent of journalists spend between 31 to 90 minutes for it. One third even mentions a time exposure of more than 90 minutes to half a day, while a fifth spend more than half a day for getting more information about an innovation.

4.3 Informational Needs from Corporate Communications The results of INNOVATE 2004 indicated that journalists were unsatisfied with corporate media relations on innovations. Almost half of 84 journalists queried stated a lack of material, whilst 69 per cent scolded a restrictive information policy, which prevents an active communication of innovations. These results were the basis of questioning journalists about their need for information and support provided by corporate public relations this year. Which corporate material and support helps you in reporting on innovations? The result surprises: It is not written press releases or direct contacts to the board which are most important for journalists, but possibilities to test product innovations on their own, providing internal and external contacts as well as background and roundtable talks (see Figure 8). 81.3 per cent of the interviews state that application references provided by product demonstrations as well as explanations of how innovations are used are

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the most important need. Establishing contacts to external specialists concerning the respective topic (77.6%), background talks (76.3%) and contacts to internal experts (73.8%) are named as helpful or very helpful corporate communication instruments likewise.

product presentations and demonstration of the product‘s benefits 30.0 51.3 establishing contacts to external experts for the innovation 36.3 41.3 roundtable conversations / background dialogue 33.8 42.5 establishing contacts to internal experts for the innovation 33.8 40.0 building good personal relationships to PR executives of a company 43.0 30.4 visits to laboratories, production facilities, ect. 21.8 47.4 interviews 31.6 34.2 free samples of innovative products for testing 33.8 30.0 press releases 23.8 40.0 press conferences 15.0 28.8 periodical newsletter 11.3 32.5 12.5 30.0 very helpful establishing direct contacts to the Managing Board helpful

Source: trend survey INNOVATE 2006; n = 780 journalists, statements in percentage; Question: When reporting on an innovation, which information or assistance from a company helps you? Figure 8: Need for information and support provided by innovation public relations

Furthermore, journalists mention personal contacts to public relations staff and ordinary media relations as being helpful in maintaining appropriate information about innovations. In sequential order opportunities to visit laboratories and production plants (69.2%), interviews (65.8%), press releases (63.8%), press conferences and regular newsletters (43% respectively) are ranked. About 42.5 per cent of the journalists note that getting a direct contact to management board is at least helpful for their work on Innovation Reporting. From the journalists’ point of view, there are two distinct preferences: On the one hand journalists long for an individualized provision of information, as they do on every reporting topic. On the other hand there is an explicit need for support to get a contact to internal experts. Internal experts are much more able to supply journalists with specific contents than the communication department is. These specialists act a central part in Innovation Reporting, they even displice conversation with management board from top of ranking to its centre-field.

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5 Conclusions on Innovation Communication

The findings of INNOVATE 2006 highlight that Innovation Communication as a topic has become more apparent and important in Germany during the last one and a half years. It is no longer only a topic for specialized media. Nowadays, new products, technologies, services or ideas are communicated to a broad audience, in journalism as well as in PR. Several papers, programmes and shows emerged in print and audio-visual media which focus on knowledge in technology and science. Therefore, innovation as a topic is no longer bound to regular media formats like daily newspapers or newscasts only. Innovation communication can now address a broad audience interested in knowledge magazines.

In this context the awareness on the importance of the communication of innovations has increased in journalism, PR and Marketing. To communicate innovations, expert journalism is needed. Most respondents name Innovation Reporting as a task for all-rounders: to report on an innovations means to combine economical, technical and social aspects. Although many of the polled journalists state that special training programmes would be helpful to succeed in this “360 degree reporting”, ost of the respondents deny the emergence of a new field of journalism. They do not see themselves as “innovation journalists”. Innovation Reporting is seen as an integral part of editorial offices specialized in business, technology or science. To be able to fulfil this special task journalists often depend on information from companies, not-for-profit organisations or research institutions. One main allegation verbalised by journalists: PR information often is too similar to advertising. Hence corporate innovation communications needs to tailor their information to the requirements of Innovation Reporting in media. Questioned what information from which sources they require, journalists tend to expect “innovation stories”. Holistic outlined stories are stated to be more important than one-dimensional press materials like press releases simply naming the features of an innovative product. An “innovation story” composed by PR departments does not only contain information about an innovation or statements of management board and communication department, but also provides contacts for further investigation. Establishing contacts to internal experts is a classical instrument in public relations. Linking journalists and external (independent) specialist constitutes a new and exceptional aspect of communication supply, especially as it is the heart of journalistic work to find and contact independent third parties. Investigating information – especially from external experts and third parties – is a core task in journalism. The possibility and dimension of outsourcing the formulation of “innovation stories” to PR departments remain to be seen. Especially if corporate communications tends to euphemise new products, technologies or services of the organisation, independent journalism is crucial for verifying and assessing innovations. At the same time, taking on the journalists’ point of view it is not withstanding desirable to receive contact information from

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the corporate public relations. During the last years German media has lived an enormous commercialization and an ongoing downsizing of staff in editorial offices. Money and time have become strongly limited resources for many media outlets. The lesser the number of journalists a medium relies on, the stronger the impact of media relations input. However, investigating information from internal and external experts as well as editing articles about an innovation, journalists will never pass over to public relations staff. When PR experts provide contact data toexternal experts, it is still the journalist interviewing the expert and evaluating his or her independence. Thus, even if some parts of formerly journalistic investigation seems to have passed over to corporate innovation communication the impartial and therefore credible reporting on an innovation still is an individual duty of quality journalism.

Regarding corporate communications, innovation gains more and more importance. On the one hand, it is the question how to select and edit information on innovation to meet the journalist’s requirements. On the other hand, corporate innovation communication currently is emerging as a new field of strategic public relations. Especially corporations in dynamic industries like telecommunication or communication technology increasingly realize that innovations as a special issue need to be addressed in the context of strategic corporate communications. Thus, organizational innovation communication needs to be integrated in strategic decision making of a company: Many communication experts claim that PR departments should be informed about an innovation in the very first stage of the innovation process meaning that there is a direct access to decision makers of the organization, the topic itself is of crucial importance for corporate reporting and all relevant stakeholders should be addressed specifically in the context of an integrated innovation communication.

6 About the initiative INNOVATE

INNOVATE is a joint initiative of the Department of Communication Studies and Journalism at the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart) and MFG Baden- Wuerttemberg (Stuttgart), a center of excellence for IT and Media run by the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. It brings together experts from business, research, and media to discuss the meaning of innovation for corporate communications and media reporting. Apart from the German-wide trend surveys INNOVATE 2004 and INNOVATE 2006 the researchers in charge – Prof. Dr. Claudia Mast, Dr. Ansgar Zerfaß and Dr. Simone Huck – investigate best practices and publish widely on Innovation Communication. In winter 2004/05 the initiative has conducted a series of public lectures dealing with the topic that have been attended by more than 600 experts. At the University of Hohenheim a course on Innovation Communication research was taught and several master’s thesis were written on different aspects of Innovation Communication and Innovation Reporting.

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More information including presentations and publications are available on the internet: www.innovationskommunikation.de

Dr. Simone Huck works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Studies and Journalism at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart (Germany). Her research focuses on innovation communication, organizational communication and the internationalization of public relations. As an academic teacher, she is responsible for Communication Management and PR education in Hohenheim. Besides, she works as a lecturer at the International University Concordia Audentes in Tallin (Estonia) and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). Simone Huck graduated in Communication Sciences. During her studies, she worked as a freelance journalist and communications consultant. E-Mail: [email protected]

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References

Carrascosa, José Luis (2005): Cómo mejorar las fuentes informativas. In: Comunicar la Innovación: De la Empresa a los Medios. Madrid: Fundación Cotec, pp. 13-16.

Granelli, Andrea (2005): Communicare l'innovazione. Perché il successo del nuovo dipende dalla capacità di spiegarlo. Milano: Sole 24 Ore.

Höij, Magnus (2004): Components of Innovation Journalism. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 1-14.

Kalmi, Panu / Kauhanen, Antti (2005): Workplace Innovations and Employee Outcomes: Evidence from a representative Employee Survey. In: Helsinki School of Economics, Working Papers, W-395, November 2005, pp. 1-32.

Mast, Claudia / Huck, Simone / Zerfass, Ansgar (2005): Innovation Communication. Outline of the Concept and Empirical Findings from Germany. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2, No. 7, pp. 1-14. Mast, Claudia / Huck, Simone / Zerfaß, Ansgar: Innovation Communication. Outline of the Concept and Empirical Findings from Germany. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 (2005), No. 7, pp.1-14. Mast, Claudia / Zerfaß, Ansgar (Hrsg.) (2005): Neue Ideen erfolgreiche durchsetzen. Das Handbuch der Innovationskommunikation. Frankfurt a. M.: F.A.Z.-Buch. Nordfors, David (2004): The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1, No. 7, pp. 1-18. Nordfors, David / Kreiss, Daniel R. / Sandred, Jan (2005): Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index. Benchmarking the Swedish Market. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 1-23. Rogers, Everett M. (2003): Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed., New York: The Free Press. Zerfass, Ansgar (2005): Innovation Readiness: A Framework for Enhancing Corporations and Regions by Innovation Communication. In: Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2, No. 8, pp. 1-27.

Zerfass, Ansgar / Huck, Simone (2005): Innovation and Leadership: New challenges for communication in organizational development. Paper presented at The 7th Annual EUPRERA Conference, 10-13 November 2005, Lisbon (Portugal)

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Zerfass, Ansgar / Sandhu, Swaran / Huck, Simone (2004a): Kommunikation von Innovationen: Neue Ideen und Produkte erfolgreich positionieren. In: kommunikationsmanager, Juni 2004, pp. 56-58.

Zerfass, Ansgar / Sandhu, Swaran / Huck, Simone (2004b): Innovationskommunikation – Strategisches Handlungsfeld für Corporate Communications. In: Bentele, G. / Piwinger, M. & Schönborn, G. (Eds.), Kommunikationsmanagement. Neuwied, Supplement Nov. 2004, No. 1.24, pp. 1- 30.

Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines

Factors of Influence on Innovation Journalism in Special Interest and Specialist Media

Florian Krüger

Ph.D. student and researcher Department of Communication Science University of Hohenheim, Germany

163 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

1 THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS 3

1.1 Innovation – Defining the buzzword...... 3

1.2 Diffusion of Innovations...... 4

1.3 Tech Magazines in the process of diffusion ...... 6

2 FACTORS OF INFLUENCE ON INNOVATION JOURNALISM...... 7

2.1 Education and Journalistic Role Models...... 8

2.2 Editorial Concepts and Organization ...... 8

2.3 Audiences and Sources...... 9

2.4 News value and use value...... 10

3 FINDINGS FROM AN EXPLORATIVE SURVEY...... 11

4 CONCLUSIONS: DOUBLE USE VALUE AS A KEY FOR SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION JOURNALISM...... 12

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Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines

In recent years innovation has become a dominant buzzword in political discussions in Germany. But even though stakeholders in politics, economy and science agree on the importance of innovation for the economies of highly developed industrial countries, specific innovations are hardly covered by mass media. Especially political and business journalism in daily newspapers are blamed for virtually ignoring innovation as a topic of common interest. While general interest media despite all political appeals hardly cover innovation, a huge number of special interest magazines and specialist journals inform their readers about technology, product, service and process innovations. Though not every new product presented in e.g. a computer magazine deserves the label “innovative”, it remains clear that these magazines have covered all the great Innovations in their field: From the diffusion of personal computers to the triumph of the internet or the spread of mobile telephone systems. What lessons can Innovation Journalism learn from specialist media like e. g. tech magazines? How do tech journalists deal with innovations? What are the key factors of influence on Innovation Coverage? This paper integrates Innovation Journalism into the process of diffusion, offers a model of the factors of influence on Innovation Coverage and presents findings from an empirical study on Innovation Journalism in tech magazines.

1 The role of mass media in the diffusion of Innovations

Media coverage is often the first source from which an individual learns about the existence of an innovation. Thus the media are one channel through which an innovation diffuses. This “awareness-knowledge”1 however does not necessarily lead to the adoption of an innovation. What exactly is an innovation? How does it diffuse among the members of a society and what role do the media and specialist media in particular play in the diffusion of innovations?

1.1 Innovation – Defining the buzzword Hardly any term is used as inflationary today as innovation. Consequentially Mast, Huck and Zerfaß suggest that this inflationary use of the term has become a major problem for the media coverage of innovations. 95% of the journalists interviewed for their study on German Innovation Communication in 2004 stated, that constant

1 Roger, Everett: Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed., New York: The Free Press 2003, p. 18.

3 165 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism misuse of the term itself is one reason for the media’s neglect of the issue2. While this is a problem for the practical use of the term already, it is intolerable for any scientific use. Hence it is necessary to define the underlying understanding of innovation in this paper, first.

Hauschildt discerns four dimensions of an innovation. The content dimension describes the objective newness and the degree of newness of the innovation. The subjective dimension asks, to whom the innovation is new. The process dimension deals with the question, when innovations start and end and the normative dimension clarifies whether success is a necessary attribute of an innovation3. Following Hauschildt an innovation is understood as a qualitatively new product or process, which makes a distinct difference to the condition prior to the innovation. The newness of the innovation consists of a new combination of means and ends. This new combination must prove its worth in the market or the internal usage. Creating a new idea is not enough. Sales and usage turn inventions into innovations. Finally the innovation has to be perceived as new. In this respect Hauschildt is close to Rogers, who defines innovations as follows:

“An innovation is an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. It matters little so far as human behaviour is concerned, whether or not an idea is ’objectively’ new (…). The perceived newness of the idea for the individual determines his or her reaction to it. If an idea seems new to the individual, it is an innovation.”4

This subjective dimension is of great importance in the field of Innovation Journalism. One of the central questions in dealing with the media coverage of innovations is how journalists, their sources and their readers perceive innovations. In the following media coverage on innovation will be referred to as “Innovation Coverage”. Like the terms political coverage or business coverage the term “Innovation Coverage” is defined by its subject: Innovation.

1.2 Diffusion of Innovations Before an invention becomes an innovation people must learn about, accept and use it – a process known to us as diffusion and adoption of innovations. Rogers defines diffusion as “(…) the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system”5. Diffusion thus is a special type of communication, dealing with new ideas. Before innovations can cause social change on the macro level they are subject to a

2 Mast, Claudia / Huck, Simone / Zerfaß, Ansgar: Journalisten und Unternehmen: Meinungen, Erfahrungen, Perspektiven. Ergebnisse der Studie INNOVATE 2004. In: Mast, Claudia / Zerfaß, Ansgar (Eds.): Neue Ideen erfolgreich durchsetzen. Das Handbuch der Innovationskommunikation. Frankfurt a. M.: F.A.Z.-Institut 2005.

3 Hauschildt, Jürgen: Innovationsmanagement. Munich: Vahlen 1997.

4 Rogers, Everett: Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed., New York: The Free Press 2003, p. 12.

5 Ibid., p. 5

4 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism decision process on the micro level. This “innovation decision process” is described by Rogers as the process, through which an individual person or other unit of decision-making learns about an innovation, develops an attitude towards it, decides for or against it and confirms or revises his decision at a later point of time6. Figure 1 shows the five stages of the decision process.

Figure 1: The innovation decision process

Communication channels

Knowledge Persuasion Decision Implementation Confirmation

Adoption

Rejection Characteristics of Perceived Decision-Making characteristics Unit of the Innovation

Source: Rogers 2003, p. 170

Whether an innovation is adopted or not depends both on the characteristics of the decider and the perceived characteristics of the innovation.

Thinking about the potential audience of Innovation Journalism it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the characteristics of different types of adopters. Following Rogers we can identify five ideal types of adopters: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards7. As their names already indicate, Rogers arranges the five ideal types on a timeline beginning with the earliest adopters and ending with complete deniers of innovations. The criterion for Rogers’ categorization thus is innovativeness. Figure 2 depicts the adopter categorization including the statistical commonness of each type.

Innovators and early adopters seek information more actively and have a greater tolerance towards uncertainty. This allows them to deal with information, which is not necessarily consistent with their knowledge and attitudes. In other words: they are open to innovation. Innovators not only seek information in the media, they also trust the media’s advice when it comes to adopting an innovation8. They are

6 Ibid., p. 168

7 Ibid., 282.

8 Schenk, Michael: Medienwirkungsforschung. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2003, p. 391.

5 167 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism the most likely readers of Innovation Coverage in special interest magazines and specialist journals.

Figure 2: Adopter Categorization mmonness

Innovators Relative co Early Early Late Adopters Majority Majority Laggards 2,5% 13,5 % 34% 34% 16% t time of adoption

Source: Rogers 2003, p. 281

1.3 Tech Magazines in the process of diffusion

Rogers’ definition of diffusion comprises four central elements: the innovation, communication channels, time and a social system9. In our context communication channels are most interesting. Through which channels do innovations diffuse and which role do mass media – and specialist media in particular – play? Mass media are the quickest way to make people aware of the existence of an innovation. Thus, mass media are important at the beginning of the diffusion process. They create awareness and transfer information about an innovation. This includes information about the combination of means and ends an innovation offers as well as information about its potential uses. When it comes to persuasion and decision, however, interpersonal communication is far more powerful. Innovators and early adopters act as links between mass communication and personal communication. They are active readers of Innovation Journalism and experts in their social groups. While innovators act as gatekeepers and introduce innovations into social systems, early adopters are also opinion leaders, who influence the decisions of later adopters10.

It is a genuine function of specialist journals to inform professionals about innovations in their field. But even among popular magazines we find periodicals, which primarily deal with innovations. Special interest magazines respond to the needs of special target groups. In Germany e. g. a huge market for computer magazines has developed, which comprises more than 80 popular magazines and

9 Ibid., 11 ff.

10 Schenk 2003, p. 283.

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25 specialist journals11. Thus it can be agreed that Innovation Journalism – understood as Journalism covering Innovations – does exist and that it plays a vital role in informing innovators and early adopters about innovations in fields they are interested in. The question is: How do they do it? Do they focus only on technology or do they also cover the economic and social implications of an innovation? And more importantly: Which factors influence the way journalists in special interest magazines and specialist journals cover innovations?

2 Factors of Influence on Innovation Journalism

Journalists do not act independently from internal and external influences. Perception, selection and presentation of an issue depend on numerous factors of influence. In the following we regard individual factors, organizational factors, societal factors and factors regarding content. For each group of factors we can resort to existing concepts developed in communication sciences. On the individual level professional training, self conceptions and journalistic role models influence Innovation Coverage. On the organizational level editorial concepts and organization structure the work of journalists. On the societal level connections to both sources and readers shape the media coverage. On the content level the issue of innovation can be analyzed with concepts of news value and use value. By applying theoretical concepts to each level we can deduce a number of questions concerning Innovation Journalism. Figure 3 shows a model of the factors of influence on Innovation Coverage. Figure 3: Factors of influence on Innovation Coverage

News Value and Use Value of Factors regarding Content the Innovation Coverage of Innovations of Coverage

Connections to Sources Societal Factors and Readers

Editorial concepts and Organizational Factors Organization

Professional Training, Self Individual Factors Conceptions and Journalistic Role Models

11 Vogel, Andreas: Pressegattungen im Zeitschriftengewand. Warum die Wissenschaft eine Pressesystematik braucht. In: Vogel, Andreas / Holtz-Bacha, Christina (eds.): Zeitschriften und Zeitschriftenforschung. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag 2002, p.12.

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2.1 Education and Journalistic Role Models Covering innovations requires high standards of qualification and professionalism. On the one hand journalists covering innovations need a certain expertise to understand the functionality of an innovation as well as its use and its implications for society. On the other hand journalists need excellent journalistic skills to make complex innovations comprehensible for their readers. This of course is a normative statement. Whether journalists, who deal with innovations in their daily work, do have special qualifications, remains a question of empirical analysis.

Journalistic role models describe the societal duties journalists accept in their job12. These perceived roles depend on individual attitudes of the journalists but also on the kind of publication they work for13. Since journalists tend to influence each other and are socialized as members of their editorial staff, the question arises, whether there is a common role model for journalists in tech magazines dealing with innovations. In the history of journalism theory a number of ideal types of role models have been developed. However most of them have until now only been discussed in the context of political journalism. Mast specifies the objective reporter, the controller and critic, the advocate, the investigator, the counselor, the entertainer and the educator14. These role models are in fact simplified instruments to measure attitudes and can be used to roughly describe the attitudes of Innovation Journalists. Thus on the individual level two questions can be asked:

1.) Which (formal) professional training enables journalists to cover the complex issue of innovations?

2.) Is there a dominant common role model, on which Innovation Journalists can agree?

2.2 Editorial Concepts and Organization The next two chapters cover the internal and external structures, which shape the way journalists select, edit and publish certain issues. Internal structures are e. g. editorial concepts and editorial organization. External structures are relationships with audiences and sources. The editorial concept describes the core competences and the unique selling proposition of a publication15. It defines the thematic focus and the target audience.

12 Donsbach, Wolfgang: Journalist. In: Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth / Schulz, Winfried / Wilke, Jürgen (eds.): Fischer Lexikon Publizistik Massenkommunikation. Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer 1999, p.81.

13 Mast, Claudia: ABC des Journalismus. Ein Handbuch. Konstanz: UVK 2004, p. 128.

14 Ibid., p. 129 f.

15 Ibid., p. 530.

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We can discern general or special interest publications or publications with regional or national focus. Furthermore we can discern between information and entertainment. In how far do different editorial concepts lead to different Innovation Coverage? How large is e. g. the gap between specialist journals and popular special interest magazines?

Based on the thematic focus the editorial organization can be planned. Editorial offices are based on division of labor and require organization and coordination. Most editorial offices are divided into departments focusing on topics like “politics” or “business”. These departments structure the perception of an editorial office16. Issues, which clearly fit to a department, are more likely to be covered than issues nobody feels responsible for. Which departments or similar structures have been developed to cover innovations?

Another useful distinction in the field of Innovation Journalism is the one between input and output oriented journalism17. Input oriented departments observe societal subsystems like politics, economy or culture and inform their readers about developments in these subsystems. Innovation Journalism could be understood as Journalism observing a societies’ innovation system – as part of the economic system. On the other hand Innovation Journalism could as well be strictly output oriented. Its aim would then be to perform a certain function for a selected target group. This function could be: Informing innovators and early adopters about the latest innovations in their field. On the organizational level these questions can be asked: 1.) How do different editorial concepts influence Innovation Coverage? 2.) How do the organizational structures of an editorial office shape perception and editing of issues dealing with innovation? 3.) Is Innovation Coverage primarily input or output oriented?

2.3 Audiences and Sources The relationship between journalism and its publics is a well-known subject in journalism research. The main questions are: Does the public have special needs, which media coverage has to gratify? Is the public able to express these needs? Can journalism learn about these needs and should journalism gratify them?18 In the

16 Meier, Klaus: Ressort, Sparte, Team. Wahrnehmungsstrukturen und Redaktionsorganisation im Zeitungsjournalismus. Konstanz: UVK 2003.

17 Ibid.

18 Cf. Scholl, Armin: Die Inklusion des Publikums. Theorien zur Analyse der Beziehungen von Journalismus und Publikum. In: Löffelholz, Martin (ed.): Theorien des Journalismus. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft 2004, p. 517.

9 171 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism context of Innovation Journalism we can ask, what journalists know about the needs, the knowledge and the attitudes of their readers, when innovations are concerned. And we can ask how journalists react. In which roles do journalists address their readers? Do they address them in their professional roles as employees, or do they also address them as consumers, tax payers and citizens?

The second important external factor of influence on journalism are its sources. How do journalists learn about innovations? The most important sources for information about innovations are companies19. Since the success of any innovation depends on quick diffusion, media coverage is vital. Therefore it is very likely, that companies and their PR and marketing departments will try to gain as much influence as possible on the media’s Innovation Coverage.

On the societal level these questions can be asked:

1.) What do Innovation Journalists know about the needs of their readers and do they try and gratify them?

2.) In which roles do Innovation Journalists address their readers?

3.) What are the most important sources of Innovation Journalism and how great is the influence of corporate communications on Innovation Coverage?

2.4 News value and use value The level of content can be viewed from two perspectives. On the one hand we might ask which features of innovations make them worth covering. On the other hand the question could be what criteria apply, when journalists reduce the complexity of an innovation and construct a media reality. To deal with these questions we can resort to the concepts of news value and use value. The term news value has first been used by Walter Lippman, who introduced the idea, that news in the media do not mirror reality but are the result of selection decisions20. The news value journalists attribute to an event or issue not only influences selection for coverage but also the extent of coverage and the positioning and presentation of the issue21. In the European tradition of news value theory22 different authors have suggested several catalogues of news values for political journalism. Some of them may be applicable on Innovation Journalism as well. Among those are intensity, unambiguousness, remarkableness, personalization and

19 Mast/Huck/Zerfaß 2005

20 Lippmann, Walter: Public Opinion. New York: The Macmillan Comp [1922] 1954.

21 Schulz, Winfried: Nachricht. In: Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth / Schulz, Winfried / Wilke, Jürgen (eds.): Fischer Lexikon Publizistik Massenkommunikation. Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer 1999, p. 330.

22 Cf. Östgaard 1965, Galtung/Ruge 1965, Schulz 1976, Staab 1990.

10 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism negativity. How important are these news values for Innovation Coverage? Innovations often need time to reach intensity, they are ambiguous as to their use and their remarkableness is often not clear in the beginning. Therefore use values could be an interesting alternative in dealing with innovations journalistically. While news values are linked to an event or issue, use values focus on the relevance of an issue for the life of the reader. Journalism focusing on use value gives the readers advice he can use for his own decision making and action.

On the level of content we can ask the following questions:

1.) Which news values influence Innovation Coverage?

2.) Do use values play a dominant role in the coverage of innovations?

3 Findings From an Explorative Survey

The questions raised in the above chapters were the base of an interview guideline, which was used to conduct interviews with chief editors of German special interest and specialist computer magazines. Between February and March 2005 one chief editor and one deputy chief editor of special interest magazines and two chief editors of specialist journals were interviewed. Based on this small number of qualitative interviews representative conclusions are of course impossible. Explorative interviews with experts however are a potent instrument to structure new fields of research, which have hardly been covered before. The in depth interviews led to the following answers to the questions above: 1.) The ability to cover innovations does not depend on a specific formal academic training. None of the respondents considers e. g. a university degree in natural sciences or engineering a necessity for Innovation Journalists. Or as one respondent put it: “We have a philosopher on the team, whose technical understanding is just as well developed as that of a computer scientist, who works for us.” Expert knowledge is vital, but in can be acquired on the job. More important are journalistic skills, for which advanced trainings are offered on a regular basis. 2.) In the field of innovations journalists act as counselors and advocates for their readers. According to the respondents readers do not only seek information, they also demand orientation. Innovations create insecurity as to their potential use. As counselors and advocates Innovation Journalists help their reader to decide about private or professional investments in innovations. 3.) Since editorial concepts focus on different target groups, they do influence Innovation Coverage. Specialist journals primarily address professional users. They do not only deal with product innovations but also cover process innovations and help professionals in concrete problem solving. Public

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magazines address the private user and buyer of innovative products. And focus on the uses of new products.

4.) Department structures hardly influence Innovation Coverage. Distinctions between e. g. “hardware” and “software” in the organizational structure of an editorial office have no great influence on Innovation Coverage. The organizational structures of the researched publications do not differ decisively from other publications, which do not cover innovations.

5.) Innovation Coverage is primarily output oriented. An innovation gets covered, when it becomes relevant for the readers. Coverage focuses on the use of the innovation for the reader. Thus the event of an innovation entering the market and the media coverage of this innovation do not have to be simultaneous. Coverage may follow long after an innovation is known to the journalist.

6.) The readers of tech magazines are primarily innovators, early adopters and opinion leaders. They are highly interested, very demanding and well informed in their field of interest. Journalists learn about their readers through intense reader interest research. 7.) Journalists address their readers in their roles as users and consumers of innovations. Other societal roles like e. g. employee, tax payer, or citizen are less important. 8.) Companies, which create innovations, are the most important source for Innovation Journalists. Information from these companies is complemented by the results of the media’s own test laboratories. Corporate Communications do not play a prominent role. The respondents view PR experts rather as “bridges” to competent experts within the company. 9.) News values play a minor role for Innovation Coverage. In the news sections intensity, remarkableness and negativity are of some importance. Unambiguousness and personalization hardly matter. 10.) The use value of an innovation and the use value of its coverage are the decisive factors of influence for Innovation Coverage. The central questions are: What is the use of the innovation for the readers and how can they best benefit from the coverage of the issue?

4 Conclusions: Double Use Value as a Key for Successful Innovation Journalism

Specialist media like tech magazines play an important role in the diffusion of innovations. They address innovators and early adopters of innovations, who act as gatekeepers and opinion leaders and promote innovations through personal communication. Innovation Coverage is subject to several factors of influence

12 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 F.Krüger: Innovation Journalism in Tech Magazines The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism ranging from the individual abilities and attitudes of journalists, to organizational and societal structures, which constrain or enable coverage. Tech journalists’ key to successful Innovation Journalism is a consistent focus on the needs of their readers. Their editorial strategies focus on small, highly specialized target groups. Their Innovation Coverage is output oriented, i.e. it does not concentrate primarily on events and issues, but on the implications for the readers. In the center of their Coverage is an implicit concept of double use value: Innovation Journalism must focus on the uses of the innovation for the readers. Coverage itself has to follow a use value strategy, i.e. it has to be useful for the reader and assist him in his decision for or against the adoption of an innovation.

Florian Krüger works as a researcher and Ph. D. student at the Department of Communication Studies and Journalism at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart (Germany). His research focuses on innovation communication and online relations. Florian graduated in communication sciences and majored in public relations, journalism and political science. He is copartner of an advertising agency and has worked as an advisor on several political election campaigns.

Email: [email protected]

13 175

Media Communication as a Marketing Strategy for Technology Start-Up Firms

Peter Svensson

Visiting Researcher, Stanford University Phd Candidate in Industrial Economics and Management, Linköping Institute of Technology

David Nordfors

Senior Research Scholar, Program Leader Innovation Journalism SCIL, Stanford University

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1 INTRODUCTION...... 3

2 THEORY...... 4 2.1 SOCIAL NETWORK THEORY ...... 4 2.2 INNOVATION ADAPTATION AND DIFFUSION THEORY ...... 5 3 METHODOLOGY...... 6

4 DATA FINDINGS...... 7 4.1 THE WHITE CASE ...... 7 4.2 GLOBAL IP SOUND...... 8 4.3 SPARK PR ...... 9 5 DISCUSSION...... 9 5.1 PROPOSITION ...... 10 6 EXAMPLE OF MANAGERIAL GUIDELINES...... 11

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Media Communication as a Marketing Strategy for Technology Start-up Firms

Young firms are aware of the need to influence potential stakeholders around them such as customers, venture capitalists, suppliers that their business is innovative and is of commercial importance. Researchers have called this to bridge the credibility gap. Getting one actor committed to the project will help establishing credibility to reach out to other actors (Birley and Norburn 1985). Further research has proven that personal relationships are often the factor that enables the first transactions and the founders of the firm are using their prior credibility in the new firm (Kowalkowski et al 2005). From case studies and interviews with different stakeholders we found that companies using media as a strategy to launch their new concept, and managing to get good coverage, equals this to having prior relationships with customers and other stakeholders. It even increases the understanding of the new concept, and the firm does not need to explain their business idea and model every time the meet a new customer/stakeholder. Furthermore, coverage inhibits second entrants of getting media coverage because the newness is gone. On the other hand, media coverage might help create exaggerated expectations or alert response from competitors. Therefore it is not always clear whether news media coverage is helpful or not. We suggest that it will often be a plausible strategy to get media coverage in very early stages of a project, when the credibility gap is large and the risk of exaggerating expectations are low. This will also help to develop media relations that will be useful as the firm develops. Keywords: Innovation communication, credibility, journalism, start-ups

1 Introduction

The aim of this paper is to explore and describe how and why young technology firms communicate their innovations, especially the way they communicate with journalists and different media outlets. Young firms are aware of the need to influence potential stakeholders around them such as customers, venture capitalists, suppliers that their business is innovative and has a commercial interest. Researchers have called this to bridge the credibility gap and that getting one actor committed to the project will help establishing credibility to reach out to other actors (Birley and Norburn 1985). Further research has proven that personal relationships are often the factor that enables the first transactions and the founders of the firm are using their gained credibility or inherited ties in the new firm (Kowalkowski et al 2005). We will look into how communication with media about the firm’s new concept, the innovation, will be beneficial to establishing credibility and get the merry-go-round to spin faster. Knowing that media coverage

3 179 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 P.Svensson, D.Nordfors: Media Comm. for Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism has a broader reach than only to the targeted relationship as within relationship management building credibility through media might also open up for competitors to react.

News media is a key trigger of responses from competitors according to Mark Kennedy (Kennedy 2005). He argues that “both efficiency and legitimacy concerns lead firms to rely on media coverage of their competitors rather than on competitors’ direct public statements” and shows in his study that “…being referenced by rivals follows coverage rather than releases, but coverage itself follows producers’ influence attempts. Thus, the media is behind the market mirror, and its image of demand is refracted by properties of the reporter–source interface.”

2 Theory

2.1 Social Network Theory

Personal networks are important for an entrepreneur to successfully start up a new firm to potential customers, investors, authorities, and suppliers (Birley 1996; Kowalkowski et al. 2005). Compared to the resource base of the business network, the firm’s internal resources are often scarce; for this reason drawing on resources from network relationships is important (Gummesson 2004; Hammarkvist et al. 1982; Johannisson 1998; Ostgaard and Birley 1996). The firm itself is a new phenomenon when it is created and has therefore no credibility in itself. This is why the personal network and the credibility of prior actions within the network is an enabling factor that eases necessary transactions for the growth of the company (Kowalkowski et al. 2005). If the founders have no prior experience with industry it will be of interest to look at what networks and potential stakeholders they can initiate a relationship with. In this case the firm needs according to Birley and Norburn (1985) to develop relationships to different stakeholders and create a virtuous circle of credibility building.

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Source: Birley and Norburn, 1985

Granovetter (1985) argues weak ties are more useful than strong ties. Although media is not building mutual ties, you might argue that media coverage creates unilateral awareness or that might be close to weak ties. Hallen (2006) is finding three ways to establish credibility in the literature. His research is about forming partnerships in uncertainty and the unit of study is the transactions between technology start-ups and venture capital firms. In uncertainty transactions are usually done with actors that have done business before, or through the partners’ partners, but he also suggest that the status of the uncertain actor is a variable.

2.2 Innovation Adaptation and Diffusion Theory

Looking inside the firm of the buyer the adoption process of an innovation is viewed as a five step process. (Rogers 1983) 1) Knowledge is when the group within the company which is the decision- making unit starts to understand what the innovation is about and how that relates to their needs. 2) Persuasion is when the decision-making unit develops a positive or negative attitude towards this particular innovation. They try to evaluate if the innovation could or could not be useful for their business.

3) Decision is the third step and here the unit may try the product or a smaller version of it. After the trial they decide.

4) Implementation is vital for the adaptation. If something goes wrong here and the start up firm is not able to provide adequate information the buyer may cancel the transaction or just not use the innovation. 5) Confirmation is the last step where the buyer needs to get feedback on that they are using the innovation correctly.

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The decision making unit can also be described as the buying centre is the unit of people having different roles in the adaptation of an innovation.(Biemans 1992) The roles are; users, gatekeepers, influencers, deciders, buyers. Gatekeepers control the information that the others in the DMU will get. Influencers are informing about other alternatives or set the buying specifications. Deciders are actually making the decision even if they do not have the formal authority to do so and buyers are the ones having the formal authority and are responsible for the implementation. (Webster and Wind 1972) Bonoma (Bonoma 1982) later found a sixth role, the initiator, who identifies the problem and start the buying process.

It has also been suggested that the more capital expensive equipment that is being sold the more influence top-tier management will have. (Biemans 1992)

Then looking at the diffusion process researchers have found that time is an important element. Time separates between early and late adopters. The channels of communication are affecting the diffusion in two ways according to Biemans (1992, p.54), marketing activities where the industrial marketer sends information directly to the potential buyer and other channels such as word-of-mouth and opinion leadership. Rogers (1983, p.271) defines opinion leadership as “the degree to which an actor (be it an individual, group or organization) is able to informally to influence other actors’ attitudes or overt behaviour in a desired way with relative frequency”.

Opinion leadership is thought not to have a great impact in industrial markets (Day and Herbig 1990; Webster 1970) but on the other hand there is not much research being done in this field (Lancaster and White 1976). Reasons why industrial markets would be less sensitive to opinion leadership compared to consumer markets are; the seller gives more information about their product and also informs about the negative sides or limitations to avoid misuse, consumer decision-making is more bound by the peers, motives for opinion leadership in consumer markets might be inhibited in companies due to their stricter policies, competition restricts the direct communication between buyers in the same industry. (Biemans, 1992 pp.60-61) Contrary to these findings Martilla (1971) and Foxall (1979) found that potential purchasers seek information from competing firms, especially if the purchase was associated with innovativeness (Foxall 1980).

3 Methodology

Since the aim is to explore a contemporary process in a real-life setting, a multiple case study approach was chosen as the research strategy, considered appropriate when investigating a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context where the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (Yin 1994).

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Interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner during 1 month time with one or two representatives at two start-up firms. Also, internal and external written material and presentations supplemented the empirical data. Interviewing representatives at other levels within the organisations, as well as other stakeholders, would have been desirable from a validity point of view but was considered not possible during this period of time. Due to the company representatives being the founders and that one of the authors has followed the firms from the start; high reliability is believed to have been achieved. We then interviewed people at a public relations firm to see if they validated our findings.

The selection of case firms was dependent on their age and expansion. The firms chosen are considered to well reflect various situations where start-up firms struggle to convince the market of there credibility as a supplier. One case is less technology driven and the other’s offering is based on complex technology. Analysis of within-case data was made initially, which corresponds to Eisenhardt’s (1989) idea to firstly become familiar with each case as a separate entity in order to identify case specific patterns before making a cross-case comparison.

4 Data findings

4.1 The White Case In 1997 an idea of a new process of being a coordinating middle man in the health care industry was born. It reminded of how travel agencies help their customers to get what they want when the customer is going somewhere he/she never been before. Using IT communication as an enabling technology and targeting employers as their main customers with their offering the firm open up a new market space. They got a lot of media exposure just from calling different news outlets and telling them about this new concept. “We were working with a well-known transportation company and the biggest business daily in the country wrote about it and after that we never needed to explain why we existed to anyone in the business community.” Suddenly you do not need to explain who you are and why you call every time you call a potential customer, supplier, investor or any other stakeholder. “If you are in the media as a new company you suddenly exist”. It is incredible how much legitimacy and credibility it gives you as a company to have been in a newspaper, on television and so on. Everyone is so critical about journalism nowadays but empirically I know that people believe what they read and see, so therefore it is an invaluable for a start-up to be in media if the coverage is good.

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If you have a new concept, you need to take that space in the reporter’s mind, so when a similar company, product or service is out on the market the journalist will ask the competitor: “What is the difference between X and you?”

You will also teach the market what your product is about. That is in particular true for concepts that are easy to copy. In the end it is like the old saying “No one gets fired buying from IBM”, therefore is the credibility building by coverage invaluable.

4.2 Global IP Sound

GIPS, voice over IP company, started in October 1999 in Stockholm, Sweden, and closed their first financial round in beginning of 2000. The founders are all engineers and previously worked at companies such as Ericsson and Bell Labs.

They established themselves early on in the Bay Area mainly due most of potential customers stemming from the vicinity. But also because one nascent co-worker already living on the West Coast. 2006 GIPS employs 40 people, and has gathered experts of speech processing and IP telephony and has open offices in Boston and Hong Kong.

GIPS has 3 patents and 7 pending patents around embedded voice processing solutions for real-time communications on packet networks. One business model is to make business directly with the companies serving the users (Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo). Here GIPS use a revenue sharing model so that GIPS will be forced to help the clients to improve their technology in order to receive more revenue. GIPS get paid for their first installments as a consultancy firm. The other model is to sell the software to chip manufacturers, which in turn sell to ODMs, which sell to OEMs. The chip manufacturers pay a software license to use GIPS products. There are other companies selling Voip products. But the market looks like the home video industry and the customers can either try to find the best products and assemble it by themselves or with some help or they buy a whole package. The big players want to pick and choose and therefore they turn to GIPS, which is leading in some parts of the package. Jan Linden at GIPS sees themselves as a classical engineering driven company. So there was no effort to contact media and a lot of concentration on the product. GIPS uses embedded software so there is no real need to market themselves to the ordinary users. Although they realize now that a strategy that might work is to go for “Intel Inside” and than it would be useful to be seen in ordinary media. So to be in the media will be beneficial. They went to trade shows instead. To market themselves in the US they realized that they did not have all the contacts so it took a little bit longer to establish relationships. Best way was the trade shows, because then you meet the people in the companies that are in charge of these processes. Otherwise it might take a year just to get to the right person in a company if you start with a cold call.

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4.3 Spark PR

As a public relation company in the Bay Area around San Francisco Spark PR handles a lot of technology start-ups. They have equal amount of business to business and business to consumer companies as customers. Even companies with very few potential customers on their targeted market for their product use PR services. Promoting i.e. open source software companies a more bottom-up process is used compared to some start-ups that will gain to be seen in the big media.

.They always starts with discussing the business objective of the company. The objective might be to hire skilled engineers, to close a partnership deal, crisis management, second round of financing, and increase sales. This is often in alignment with reaching different business milestones. Depending on the objective the public relation strategy is set. “If a company wants to close a deal with Motorola, maybe it is preferable to be seen in the Sunday paper of the Chicago Tribune. It is all about credibility building towards different stakeholders” says Donna Sokolsky, co-founder Spark PR. It is often either the entrepreneur him/herself or the venture capitalist funding the company who contacts the PR firm. Spark PR has seen that competitors are the first to react to the news piece, so the firm needs to take that into account when deciding to pursue media marketing.

5 Discussion

Our first finding is that there is a gap between the management literature in both social network literature we looked at and the innovation diffusion theory compared to how entrepreneurs pursuing a media strategy view the importance of media coverage. The White case was clear in the benefits they received of getting media coverage. This was especially apparent in their relation building activities toward customers. It seems as if they were let in by the gatekeepers much easier through being well- known. The case also suggests that the buyer is in an easier position internally if the start-up is well-known; it was conveyed by the quotation “No one gets fired buying from IBM”. The GIPS case did not suggest that the impact of media would have been lesser. This case demonstrated the inability of the management team of the company to understand why media coverage would be of interest to them. You might argue that their product is further down the value chain and therefore lesser customers and therefore less need for media coverage. But findings from the White case and from Spark are contrary saying that the benefits are not depending on the amount of potential customers but if the coverage is alignment with business objectives.

Through the White case and the Spark case we can also conclude that media has a role when it comes to building credibility towards different stakeholders. We

9 185 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 P.Svensson, D.Nordfors: Media Comm. for Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism would like to suggest a modified model of Birley and Norburn (1985). And because the media landscape is changing as we speak we will simply use media coverage and opinion leadership synonymously. Therefore we argue that media plays an important enabling role of building credibility and challenge prior studies such as Day and Herbig (1990) and Webster (1970).

With the targeted media strategy the company is able to reach all the actors in the Decision Making Unit (Webster and Wind 1972) of a future partner, buyer or even venture capitalist. The knowledge of the company also facilitates the adoption process of an innovation in all five stages (Rogers 1983).

Start-up companies have small resources and using media is a cheap way to increase the credibility of the company. Or as one of out interviewees put it “No one gets fired buying from IBM”. There is also indication that the valuation of the company might increase.

There was some evidence that engineer based companies did not focus on media because of more interest in creating a great product. The companies did however recognize the benefit of being well-known and to get more people to understand their technology and value added. The media coverage has different affects on different stakeholders. The possibility to get a better valuation through being more well-known is an interesting research area in itself. If the companies should communicate pre or post launch seems to be a question of managing expectations. If the founders manage to create a media interest in their company prior to launching their product/service they need to be open about the uncertainties of when the launch will be.

Attracting Pre-launch Post-launch attention:

Benefits Hiring A-team, raising the Customer pull effect, raison value of the firm d’etre – towards all stakeholders,

Risk Delays, expectations not Bad coverage, time met, laughing stock, consuming with no results unserious

5.1 Proposition We want to propose news media communication for technology start-ups as yet another enabling factor for establishing credibility and reducing uncertainty towards different potential stakeholders.

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What we have seen evidence of is that a start up in the very initial stages will usually benefit from even minor media coverage. At the initial stage the firm faces its largest credibility gap, while the expectations from the surrounding world, including any possible competition, is low. A news piece from a known publication is a good complement to a business card carrying an unknown brand name.

This action has the same advantages as networks due to low cost, which is of importance to start-up companies with smaller budgets. But the difference is that the founder can not control the effects and it affects all the stakeholders at the same time.

6 Example of Managerial Guidelines

This list is based on the White case strategy and modified by findings from interviews of different stakeholders.

1) Make an easy to understand analogy of what the new concept is about. 2) Let the CEO of the start-up call a lot of different newspapers, magazines, TV- station, radio stations etc the first time. Out of 150 contacts probably only 10 will write about you, but you have taken the space for new entrants and it is easy to get back with new stories. 3) Communicate your first major customer. Ask the customer if they want to be in the press release. It is often of mutual benefit. 4) Find different ratings and lists of how users use your product or service. This is of interest to niche magazines and some papers. 5) Always communicate directly from the company, do not let the PR-firm communicate for you. (This is because of the respect of the journalists. It is much more interesting for them to talk to you directly)

6) Only communicate with relevant journalists considering what news you have. 7) Prepare yourself before you contact media, so that you know that you have news or an interesting story to tell. Do not abuse their time.

8) To buy the rights to distribute the articles written about you. 9) It is impossible to meet a media attack when you are a small firm, so be honest. News media will almost never attack an honest early stage startup. 10) Build a long-term strategy with important journalists. 11) Give the journalist a lot of access to your company. But remember you can not control what the journalist is writing. No internal fighting.

12) The entrepreneur needs passion, dedication, strong vision to communicate her/his message.

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13) Target different media outlets depending on your business objectives.

Peter Svensson is a visiting researcher at Stanford. His home University is Linköping University in Sweden, and his fields of interest are venture capital, technology start-ups and innovation management. Prior work experiences include managing a think-tank, Forum for Innovation Management, where decision-makers in industry, academia, politics and public sector meet and discuss innovation and economic growth oriented issues. Peter was head of a business incubator and consulted technology start-ups in Stockholm, Sweden.

David Nordfors is Senior Research Scholar at Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and Special Advisor to the Director General at VINNOVA, the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems. He introduced the concept of innovation journalism in 2003. He founded the Innovation Journalism programs at Stanford and in Sweden, which he is leading today. He is the Commissioner for Innovation Journalism of The Competitiveness Institute based in Barcelona. He was Science Editor of Datateknik, Sweden's largest magazine for IT professionals. He founded "IT och Lärande" (IT & Learning), the largest Swedish newsletter for educators, which he headed as publisher/editor. He was Editor for the Internet Societal Task Force, affiliated with the Internet Society. He was the director of research funding of the Knowledge Foundation, KKstiftelsen, one of the largest Swedish research foundations, where built up the research funding programs and also designed the programs for information dissemination and public understanding of science. He initiated and headed the first symposium about the Internet to be held in the Swedish Parliament. David Nordfors has a Ph.D. in molecular quantum physics from the Uppsala University.

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References

Biemans, Wim G (1992), Managing Innovations within Networks. Londn: Routledge.

Birley, Sue and Tone A. Ostgaard (1996), "New Venture Growth and Personal Networks," Journal of Business Research (36), 37-50.

Birley, Sue and David Norburn (1985), "Small vs. Large Companies: The Entrepreneurial Conundrum," The Journal of Business Strategy, Corporate Venturing.

Bonoma, T.V. (1982), "Major Sales: Who Really Does the Buying?" Harvard Business Review (May-June), pp.111-19.

Day, R.L. and P.A. Herbig (1990), "How Diffusion of Industrial Innovations is Different from New Retail Products," Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 19, pp. 261-6.

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. (1989), "Building Theory from Case Study Research," Academy of Management Review, 14 (4), 532-50.

Foxall, G.R. (1980), "Adoption of Discontinous PDM Innovation in Agriculture: Rough-Terrain Forklift Trucks," European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14 (No. 1), pp. 75-82.

Foxall, G.R. (1979), "Farmers Tractor Purchase Decisions: A Study of Interpersonal Communication in Industrial Buying Behaviour," European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 18 (No. 8), pp. 299-308.

Gummesson, Evert (2004), Many-to-Many Marketing: Från one-to-one till many- to-many i nätverksekonomins marknadsföring: Liber Ekonomi.

Hammarkvist, Karl-Olof, Håkan Håkansson, and Lars-Gunnar Mattsson (1982), Marknadsföring för konkurrenskraft (First ed.). Malmö, Sweden: Liber-Hermods. Hallen, Ben (2006), Working paper, Stanford University

Johannisson, Bengt (1998), "Personal networks in emerging knowledge-based firms: spatial and functional patterns," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 10 (4), 297-312.

Kowalkowski, Christian, Jakob Rehme, and Peter Svensson (2005), "The Role of Relationship Selling in Technology Start-up Firms: Two Case Studies in Europe and Asia," in IMP - Building social capital in networks. Merlin Beach Resort, Phuket, Thailand.

Lancaster, G.A. and M. White (1976), "Industrial Diffusion, Adoption and Communication," European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 10 (No. 5), pp. 280-98.

13 189 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 P.Svensson, D.Nordfors: Media Comm. for Startups The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Martilla, J.A. (1971), "Word-of-Mouth Communication in the Industrial Adoption Process," Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. VIII (May), 173-8.

Ostgaard, Tone A. and Sue Birley (1996), "New Venture Growth and Personal Networks," Journal of Business Research, 36 (1), 37-50.

Rogers, E.M. (1983), Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press.

Webster, F.E., Jr (1970), "Informal Communication in Industrial Markets," Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. VII (May), pp. 186-9.

Webster, F.E., Jr and Y. Wind (1972), Organizational Buying Behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Yin, Robert K. (1994), Case study research: design and methods (2. ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

The role of PR in the Innovation Information System A case study on how media can facilitate public debate and increase common knowledge and understanding of the social aspects of innovations

Jan Sandred

Office of the Director General, Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems VINNOVA E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +46 (0)8-473 3000, +46 (0)70 688 1603

191 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

1 INTRODUCTION – MEDIA REALITY IS NOT REALITY ...... 3 2 NOT ONLY A TECHNICAL-ECONOMIC ISSUE...... 5 3 INTERNET SAFETY INITIATIVE ...... 7 4 SECURITY IS NOT SAFETY ...... 8 5 METHOD ...... 9 6 CULTURAL ISSUES AND LOCALIZATION OF CONTENT...... 10 7 LAUNCHING ...... 11 8 RESULT...... 12 9 WHERE TO GET IT ...... 13 10 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 15 10.1 CONCERNING THE COOPERATION...... 15 10.2 CONCERNING THE INNOVATION JOURNALISM ISSUE ...... 15 11 APPENDIX 1 – ACTORS IN THE SWEDISH EDUCATIONAL CLUSTER...... 17 11.1 THE SWEDISH NATIONAL AGENCY FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT ...... 17 11.2 THE SWEDISH MEDIA COUNCIL ...... 17 12 APPENDIX 2 – THE SWEDISH SCHOOL SYSTEM...... 19 12.1 RESPONSIBILITY AND GOVERNANCE...... 19 12.2 THE SCHOOL YEAR ...... 19 13 APPENDIX 3 – PHOTOS...... 20 14 APPENDIX 4 – ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 23 NAME INDEX ...... 24

2 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

The role of PR in the Innovation Information System

A teaching aid, Livstid1 (“For Life”), was produced to promote safe use of the Internet, especially among children and young people. The aim is to reduce ‘risk’ behavior, promote responsible Internet use and support ‘shared responsibility’ for the protection of the rights and needs of citizens, in particular children and adolescents. It involved actors within the entire Swedish educational cluster/triple helix. Industry representatives (Microsoft) and Government (the Media Council and Swedish National Agency for School Improvement) cooperated and each contributed to the project with knowledge and networks. The educational sector (‘academy’) did not contribute with research but with experience and competence. It was also the target for the project. The project was controversial among some groups, especially policy makers and the government, and occasional media. It is not considered politically correct that a multinational company should sponsor school textbooks and teaching aids. Expert and editor roles within the team, especially the teacher’s, were questioned and accused by the media as ‘Microsoft paid consultants’ or similar. It was hard to realize that someone could do this kind of innovative cooperation as part of their ordinary work to produce material that is available at no cost.

1 Introduction – Media Reality is not Reality

It is mostly the journalist’s or media’s view that has been addressed in innovation journalism studies. An increasingly important actor is the role of public relations (PR) and information consultants. The common opinion is that there is a trench warfare going on between the journalists, spin doctors and lobbyists—the ‘dark force’ that influences the media. This is not true. Media has always been an actor and not an observer. Media is part of the innovation network/innovation system, for better or for worse. For a long time, Swedish society was characterized by ‘corporativism’. The only opinion makers, and thus those who had the real influence on new laws, were corporations that represented large economic, industrial and professional groups. Corporations like these—trade unions for example—had the real influence in society and thus, the legislative power. The influencing of public opinion was

1 Photos taken from the Livstid teaching aid. With kind permission from Microsoft Sweden AB. All other photos and pictures by the author.

3 193 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism institutionalized and decisions were made according to fixed procedures and practices. There was no media society, no Internet, no Al-Qaeda, no morning TV talk shows, no SMS. And Donald Duck appeared on Swedish public television only once a year, at Christmas.

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, private ownership of satellite dishes was considered dubious among important European political organizations.2 The German Deutsche Bundespost was the first Post, Telephone and Telegraph Administration in Europe to introduce cable television to private households. But in the late 1970’s, the social democrats (SPD) blocked the service, as the Bonn government was afraid that cable technology would lead to private television.

The same arguments were used in Sweden with the often-talked-about “Prohibit Possession of Private Satellite Dishes” bill in late 1970’s signed by the presidents of the National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden and the Swedish Christian Social Democrats (Broderskapsrörelsen), among others. At that time, there were only two news programs on Swedish TV: Aktuellt and Rapport.

Today, there are eight Swedish TV channels with a dozen Swedish news programs. And media’s role is changing with blogs, podcasts and other Internet tools. The media landscape is an arena where everyone, from media columnists with their own political agenda to private opinion leaders and amateur politicians, can both influence and rightly claim to be part of the media landscape. The media landscape is becoming much more nuanced. The border between journalism, entertainment, information and propaganda is becoming very unclear. There is no longer a separation between ‘professional lobbyism’ and democratic opinion making. It is neither considered strange nor wrong; opinion making and lobbying are both the right and responsibility of all organizations and citizens.

According to recent research,3 there is less investigative and news reporting in journalism and more commentary in Sweden today. There are various reasons for this: Media’s commercial change from traditional news reporting and investigative journalism to entertainment is an obvious one. Today, many interest groups compete for attention (and ultimately control of the state). Important social decisions are no longer made among high-ranking politicians behind closed doors. Public opinion is influenced by many lobbying groups and organizations through media, PR, marketing, advertising and culture. In the 1980’s, it was hard for one individual to reach more than 100 people (unless you were interviewed in the media). Today, with the Internet, anyone can (in theory) reach everybody at any time in any place. Individuals are both content providers and content receivers. Information is everywhere. For media, content is almost out of control.

2 Funny enough you get a lot of Human Rights Report on China, Iran and similar countries, if you Google key words like “prohibit possession private satellite dish”.

3 http://www.vvoj.nl/vvoj_org/live/eu_report.pdf for example

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It is no longer a given that the media sits on the whole story and understands all issues. It is no longer a given that the media agrees on the same truth. It is no longer a given that media understand who has the power over information.

2 Not Only a Technical-Economic Issue

The discussion around innovation journalism has so far only covered the technical, business, legal and political implications of innovations and innovation networks/systems. The social consequences are as important as these others.

Informing society about new innovations is pretty straight-forward journalism. Covering innovation’s influence on society is a different matter.

Political, economic and social science studies of technology often have ethical dimensions. There have always been political attempts to regulate technology that reflect and influence ethical decision-making. The same is true for how to more effectively manage social investments in innovation at state and corporate levels, and even for welfare economics. The ethical implications of social science approaches to technology often rely on technological determinism. The idea is that technology determines social life and develops in an independent or autonomous manner.

During the technologically optimistic 1950’s and 1960’s, critics often opposed the popular view of the unqualified benefits of technological progress with technological determinism theories. These efforts almost immediately aroused moral protests against technology. This led to the theory of diffusion—an understanding of how new technology and new innovations follow certain patterns when they “diffuse” into society. Society

Innovations

Society

Society influences the development of innovation, but innovation changes society. Attitudes change, laws change, politics change, markets change, etc. According to innovation journalism theories and studies, one of the major actors and influencers

5 195 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism in this system is the media. The media influences opinion makers, visionaries and forecasters.

The social impact of innovations is not an exact art. New innovations are greeted with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, new innovations are feared because of the social, cultural or political impact they may have. You often hear arguments about social disintegration, trash culture, immoral lifestyle, ‘consumerism’ (buying things you do not need). In this view, there is very little that is ‘new’ about new technology. It’s simply a way of repackaging old content or giving people content they do not want or need.

On the other hand, new innovations are embraced thanks to the social, cultural or political impact they may have. New ideas can be easily disseminated. Knowledge about new areas is available and new media can be used to empower individuals and groups. New innovations provide people with new opportunities: more and faster information, entertainment, education and culture. Thus, opinions on innovation’s impact on society tend to be polarized: either they are very positive or very negative. This is emphasized by media, which often focuses on conflict in news stories. This media logic often leads to cheers and ovations about innovations, or creates moral panic4. What’s really important is not the technology, but the use of it. When an innovation is successful, it always means there’s some sort of successful content or that the innovation satisfies some need, often social. Newspapers arrived with the high- speed rotation press, soap operas are the heart of television, rock music shaped the music industry forever and sex was one of the first travelers along the electronic highway. There are many actors who influences the diffusion process, with the motive being to make new innovation a success: the scientist behind the research, the researcher behind the product/service based on the research, the company behind the scientist and the researcher, the capitalists behind the company, the politicians who promote some new growth policy based on certain innovations, the journalist who would like to break a news story on the innovation, etc. There are also many actors with the incentive to strongly oppose new innovations, like special interest and single-issue groups. One hundred years ago, Sweden had 100 non- profit organizations. Today, there are slightly more than 52,000 in Sweden, most of them

4 Moral panic is false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group of people, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. Moral panic is inspired by real or imagined phenomena. The subject has varied over time. In the 1950s it was comic books and communism (McCarthyism). In the 1990s it was computer gaming. And now it is child pornography and harassment, especially on the Internet.

6 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism small special interest and single-issue groups5. The use of the concept ”NGO” (non-governmental organization) is today seventeen times as common in Swedish media as is was in 1992.

For instance, in Sweden, there are quite a few groups that pursue Internet safety and security policies, like Ecpat (child pornography), Childhood Foundation (child pornography), Save the Children (child pornography), Barnombudsmannen (child pornography), Friends (harassment), BRIS (harassment), Föreningen Mot Mobbning (harassment). Some of these have hotlines and direct reporting procedures to the Swedish Police.

These groups are working on very important and worthwhile issues, but there is stiff competition for the media’s attention. Therefore, these groups rely heavily on PR and information not only to promote their issues, but also to create attention and, by that, get a better position for funding and grants. All have full-time PR and information managers, and most of them also cooperate with PR agencies.

This creates a huge and ever-expanding supply of information and a growing competition between information, propaganda and, sometimes, entertainment. In this environment, media companies, and innovation journalists for that matter, must create meaning in a multimedia culture flooded with information and opinions, but lacking in knowledge. And the risk of being scrutinized by the media is low. It’s much harder to write a critical article about Save the Children, than it is to write an exiting story about “Online Danger Zone Chat-room Predators: Cyberspace presents an array of risks that may be hazardous to your child’s well being”6.

3 Internet Safety Initiative

During 2004-2005, the debate on the “dangers and threats of Internet” culminated in Swedish media. The coverage consisted mostly of scaremongering articles about restricting development and controlling access to new communication technology, mainly initiated by special interests and single-issue groups that pursue Internet safety and security policies.

There was a germinating moral panic with loud demands on prohibition and restrictions. It became evident for different actors, both governmental and commercial, that Internet safety and security issues had to be addressed in a broader, more nuanced and constructive way to balance the one-sided media coverage. The fact that crimes are being committed online is

5 Volontärbyrån, http://www.volontarbyran.org/

6http://sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/12/INGU9H51EF1.DTL&hw=Insight&sn=001&sc=1000

7 197 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism not a reason to avoid using these services.

Microsoft Sweden AB took the initiative and, in cooperation with the communication agency GCI Sweden AB, where the author worked as Senior Consultant, in late 2004, contacted the Swedish Media Council7 and the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement8 to form a program to address these issues. Late distribution and marketing was made possible by publishing house Gleerups Utbildning AB9, second largest educational publisher in Sweden. The author was assigned an editor and a project leader. From the start, it was decided that the project should follow the innovation journalism model.

In January 2005, Microsoft, together with the author, had discussions with some of the previously mentioned special interest organizations, but were not able to convince them to compromise on their own agenda and adapt to the broader scope of the project. It was decided to involve government, educators, parents, media and industry to promote shared responsibility for the protection of the rights and needs of citizens, in particular children and adolescents.

4 Security is not safety

First, it was decided to separate security from safety, as security is mostly a technology issue, while the safety is not. The subjects have to be tackled from fundamentally different perspectives. The security campaign was coined “Surfa Lugnt” (Safe Surfing) and focused on traditional technical-user security areas such as virus, spam and infringement. The safety campaign was coined “Livstid” (“For Life”). A teaching aid for use in elementary schools, it promoted safe use of Internet, especially among children and young people.

7 See Appendix 1

8 See Appendix 1

9 http://www.gleerups.se

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The aim was to reduce ‘risk’ behavior and promote responsible Internet uses and to “empower citizens to use the Internet, as well as other information and communication technologies, safely and effectively.”

Livstid focused on how to find and handle inaccurate information, harmful material, intrusive advertising and online bullying, while at the same time emphasizing the positive aspects of Internet use among young people.

The object was also to empower parents, educators and the Internet industry to help children reach this goal. Livstid consisted of student material and a teacher’s manual with suggestions for activities.

5 Method

Livstid follows the fundamental values expressed in the Swedish Education Act and School Curriculum, LPO9410. It is based on the EU project SAFT–Safety Awareness, Facts and Tools11, a cross-European project that promote the safe use of the Internet among children and young people. The aim of SAFT is to reduce ‘risk’ behavior and promote responsible Internet users. It is supported by the EU Commission’s Internet Action Plan for a Safer Internet12. The program has four main objectives:

• Fight illegal content

• Tackle unwanted and harmful content • Promote a safer environment • Raise awareness The SAFT program covers all online technologies, including mobile and broadband content, online games, peer-to-peer file transfer and all forms of real- time communications such as chat rooms and instant messages, primarily with the aim of improving protection for minors. Microsoft Sweden decided not to address intellectual property ownership and use, as it is treated separately in other campaigns.

The group, formed by Microsoft, the Swedish Media Council and the National Agency for School Improvement, decided that Livstid should address the following important issues for Swedish schools.

10 Democracy and Fundamental Values, http://www.skolverket.se/sb/d/354/a/1257

11 http://www.saftonline.org/

12 http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm

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• Netiquette: “Citizenship online.” How to contribute to the online community in a positive and appropriate way. How to recognize and react to inappropriate behavior, like bullying. How to protect oneself from different types of threats from persons that use the Internet to engage potential victims and how to respond.

• Integrity – “Personal safety online”. How to protect and manage personal identity online, including display of private information (as opposed to expressing personal opinions and views) on forums, blogs, chat rooms, webcams, etc.

• Criticism of the sources – To critically check and interpret a document, an image or a statement. To find out if the source is accurate. To find out what is true or at least probable. The National Agency for Education has expressed the importance of criticism of the sources, printed as well as electronic. “Check the Source”13 is a special program within the Swedish Schoolnet14 that started in 1994 intended to be an aid for teaching children how to search for and evaluate webpages and other sources of information.

Focus groups with young people 12 to 15 years and teachers were formed for reference and input.

6 Cultural Issues and Localization of Content

Fundamentally, parenting a child in cyberspace requires the same techniques, time and involvement as parenting a child ‘in real life.’ Livstid encourages an open dialogue and discussions between teachers, parents and children about objectionable material and good behavior. Ethical issues cannot be taught as a subject like history or math. It can only be learned through the student’s own reflection and understanding by “ethical dilemma discussions,” scenarios, role-playing or the like. Laws, restrictions and regulations cannot create good morals–they can only express good ethics.

The use of Internet blocking software or other technologies are only technical safeguards and not the whole answer to the problem. These technologies are seldom applicable to languages other than English. You have to address many cultural issues in discussions regarding Internet safety and security. The ‘moral rating systems’ and classifications used in ‘censorware’ and filters are based on fundamental Anglo-Saxon social values.

13 http://www.skolutveckling.se/skolnet/english/e_check.html

14 http://www.skolutveckling.se/skolnet/english/index.html

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Fundamental social values differ between countries and between different societal groups. Each group has its own preferred styles and strategies for dealing with and managing ethical issues.

The differences among western countries are subtler than those between eastern and western, but in the right context, obvious. There are large regional differences in attitude within a country. For example, the request “Be civilized!” has one meaning in the countryside and another in a suburb that is home to a large number of immigrants; nudity has one definition in Sweden and another in Ireland, etc.

Other materials concerning Internet safety and security were examined at an early stage in the project for a possible localization, but they were too focused on technology issues.

7 Launching

Livstid was pre-launched at daily luncheon seminars and one-to-one meetings with high-level managers and decision makers at the Almedalen Political Week in July 2005. Almedalen Political Week is the leading Swedish political event where Sweden’s party leaders traditionally launch their campaigns. It takes place every year in the beginning of July at Almedalen,15 in the city of Visby, on the island of Gotland.16 It started in 1968 and today, has expanded to more than 5,000 participants at 250 high-level public and invitation-only seminars and conferences. All the national political leaders are present, all major trade unions, professional and industrial organizations, various non-governmental associations, as well as public authorities and departments.

15 “Elm Valley”, which actually is a park in the town center.

16 Visby is an extremely well-preserved Swedish early medieval city with a network of narrow, cobbled streets. It was during the middle ages the centre of trade around the Baltic Sea. In 1995 Visby was put on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. http://gotland.net/english/visby.asp

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The official launch of Livstid was at Skolforum,17 October 31 through November 2, 2005, at the Stockholm International Fairs. The show brings together more than 260 exhibitors and almost 20 000 visitors, all of whom are education professionals. Skolforum is the largest fair in the Nordic region.

Representatives from the whole spectrum of the Swedish school system—from pre- schools to universities—attend the seminars and the show. This year Skolforum had 18,844 visitors, ranging from teaching staff and head teachers, to administrative personnel and education policy-makers.

MSN Sweden AB and Microsoft Sweden AB collaborated on the Microsoft booth. A mix of GCI and Microsoft personnel and external experts–a principal, an IT pedagogue and two college students–teamed at the booth. They handed out the materials and answered questions about the teaching aid and IT-related questions and also demonstrated how schools can use MSN Spaces and Messenger 7.5.

The Swedish Media Council and the National Agency for School Improvement distributed the Livstid material at their own booths. Around 2,500 copies of Livstid and 4,000 flyers were handed out at the show and 2,000 mouse pads with the Livstid logo were given away. The reach was approximately 10 percent of the 18,844 visitors.

8 Result

The project as a whole was a huge success. The first printed edition of 30,000 copies sold out in a couple of weeks, with a back-order of 14,000 copies. It also got extremely goods reviews and huge press coverage.

The seminars at Almedalen were also a success. The goal was set at five to six participants per seminar during the week, and the seminars averaged 10 participants per day. Most of the participants were politicians, public officials and media. A number of one-to-one meetings with high-level political officials were also held.

The Livstid project has become one of the most successful citizenship projects ever for Microsoft Sweden. Microsoft shot directly to # 8 in policy and social related issues on the Top-20 list of the most successful opinion makers measured by press coverage by media intelligence company Agent25. Microsoft surpassed Almega (an organization with 8,300 member companies supporting service companies in Sweden) and the Swedish blue collar trade union LO (an organization with two million members)

17 http://www.skolforum.com/

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1. Svenskt Näringsliv 56 2. Apoteket 40 3. Lärarförbundet 40 4. Riksteatern 27 5. Timbro 22 6. Skattebetalarnas förening 14 7. TCO 14 8. Microsoft 12 9. Almega 11 10. Byggbranschen i samverkan 10 11. SSU 9 12. LO 7 13. BIL Sweden 6 14. ITPS 6 15. Motorbranschens Riksförbund 6 16. SACO 6 17. SCB 6 18. Hyresgästföreningen 5 19. Svensk Biblioteksförening 5 20. Vattenfall 5

The table shows number of media articles during the Almedalen week July 3 to 7. The survey is based on more than 700 sources (news media, blogs, party- and organizations web sites). Livstid has also become Gleerups Utbildning’s most successful teaching aid. The first printed edition of 30,000 copies sold-out in only three months and quickly had a backlog of 14,000 copies. A second edition of 30,000 copies is now on the market. Gleerups Utbildning estimates that the potential distribution is over 100,000 copies. The Swedish Media Council will use Livstid at its annual regional training days during 2006. The pedagogical method in Livstid, as well as the material itself, has been adapted by the Department of Teacher Training at Uppsala University.

9 Where to get it

The Livstid teaching aid is free of charge (without payment being required) and distributed through Microsoft and the partners in the project. Distribution and marketing of the printed material is made possible by publishing house Gleerups Utbildning AB. The material is also available for download at: http://www.livstid.org/ http://www.microsoft.se/Livstid http://www.gleerups.se/visatitel.asp?titelid=4106 http://www.medieradet.se/templates/Shopindex____120.aspx

13 203 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 J. Sandred: The Role of PR The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism http://www.skolutveckling.se/skolnet/kolla/index.shtml

More information on the project (in Swedish only): http://www.microsoft.com/sverige/pr/articles/200506201.asp http://www.microsoft.com/sverige/pr/articles/200602171.asp

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10 Discussion and Conclusions

10.1 Concerning the cooperation The Livstid project involved actors within the whole Swedish educational cluster/triple helix. Industry representatives (Microsoft) and Government (the Media Council and National Agency for School Improvement) cooperated, and each actor contributed knowledge and networks to the project. The educational sector (‘academy’) did not contribute research, but experience and competence. It was also the target for the project.

The project was somewhat controversial among some groups, especially among some groups of policy makers and the government and, occasionally, the media. It is not considered politically correct that a multinational company should sponsor school textbooks and teaching aids. The experts and editors on the team, especially the teachers, were questioned by the media and accused of being ‘Microsoft paid consultants’ or similar. It was hard for many to realize that someone would be willing to participate in this kind of innovative cooperation to produce a material that is free of charge. On the other hand, the resulting material would not have been as successful or high quality had it been produced as a commercial textbook or teaching aid. The budget is not official, but the production cost was much higher than what is standard for textbooks. A publishing house might have taken the risk, but most likely not. The governmental agency might have produced this type of material, but teaching aid production is not part of their ‘core business.’ It is the author’s strong belief that this type of high quality material and the success would not have been possible without the PR component. In the end, it’s not important who pays—it’s the quality assurance and final result that counts. This type of cooperation within the ‘educational innovation network’ producing sponsored high-quality teaching aids and textbooks could most certainly be more common in the future.

10.2 Concerning the innovation journalism issue In covering the social aspects of innovations and technology, media got low grades. If media had done its job professionally and not acted as megaphone for all these one-issue groups, Livstid would not have been necessary. The author has talked to many journalists about Internet safety and security, but none had the knowledge or the interest to scrutinize the published scaremongering stories. The general knowledge and interest in discussing the consequences of new innovations on society was surprisingly low. Often, the journalists were biased and had preconceived ideas that a commercial company (and especially not Microsoft) was unable to act as a responsible citizen, or to produce a teaching aid without a ‘secret motive’.

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The one-issue organization had a much better reputation— perhaps thanks to better PR? The journalists were not able to see through these organizations’ anti- commercial reputation. There definitely is an overwhelming bias that all voluntary organizations are good guys and all commercial actors are bad. They are, no doubt, working for well justifiable and simple goals, but their motives are not even questioned. Their media PR strategy is very well thought-out, with clear stories that contain all media archetypes: villains, heroes, victims and experts, that is exciting and easy to write.

There definitely is a need for innovation journalists who could see the whole picture; who could recognize the changed media landscape and the real opinion- makers; and have the knowledge too see through and scrutinize PR spin from seemingly harmless organizations.

Some conclusions:

• Ask everyone—trust no one. From an innovation journalistic view (or journalistic view in general) it is important to question all statements, especially if the facts are presented by voluntary organizations/groups with noble aims. Many claim to have a good purpose and good intentions, but as the number of organizations that is dependent on contributions and grants increases, all have the economic or political motive to strengthen their own position to get more aid/grants/support/political attention. All major organizations have their own PR and information departments.

• Friends are found in completely new places. PR companies and journalists often have the same goal nowadays: to give a different perspective of the truth. There is no longer a ‘two front war’ between media that sits on the ‘truth,’ and the ‘others’. The (Swedish) media landscape is an arena with everything from journalists with their own political agenda and enterprising politicians to PR- consultants and lobbyists that work for a living. PR consultants are also humans with opinions and ethics.

• Opinions belong to everyone. Journalists have opinions, as all people do. With blogs and the Internet, the common man has (almost) the same power as traditional organizations. Journalists and media companies have to offer readers new, higher quality packages of custom-tailored content.

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11 APPENDIX 1 – Actors in the Swedish Educational Cluster

11.1 The Swedish National Agency for School Improvement The Swedish National Agency for School Improvement18 has the overall responsibility for, among other things, the use of IT and the Internet in education in pre-schools, schools and adult education. The agency initiates and supports local school development and improvement to ensure quality and equal opportunities for students.

The agency supports the use of IT in learning environments and spreads knowledge about the use of IT through its Web site. The agency was included in the latest Swedish IT Government Bill 2004/05:175 “Från IT-politik för samhället till politik för IT-samhället” – “From an ICT Policy for Society to a Policy for the ICT Society,” requested to support the further use of IT and Internet in schools.

11.2 The Swedish Media Council The Swedish Media Council19 is a Committee of Inquiry in the Government Offices. Their task is to reduce the risk of the harmful effects of the media on children and young people. The Council has to give particular attention to portrayals of violence and pornography and to apply a clear gender perspective in its work. Children and adolescents must also be actively involved in the Council’s activities. The Council’s remit covers all media with moving images like movies, TV, video, computer and TV games, and the Internet. It is also responsible for SAFT, an EU project for safer Internet use among children and teens. The Media Council’s tasks are to:

• Act as an expert on developments in the media and the effects of the media on children and young people

• Follow research on the effects of the media and spread factual information and provide guidance

• Press for self-regulation in the media industry • Work for increased media knowledge in schools

18 http://www.skolutveckling.se/

19 http://www.medieradet.se/

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• Protect and strengthen children and young people in the new media landscape through cooperation with other actors

• Follow international developments and take part in international cooperation in its field

The Media Council continuously publishes reports and other material on developments in the media, media effects and the media situation of children and adolescents. The Council also follows research in its field.

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12 Appendix 2 – The Swedish School System

The Swedish public school system is made up of compulsory and noncompulsory schooling. Non-compulsory schooling includes the preschool class, upper secondary schools and municipal adult education.

All education throughout the Swedish public school system is free. There is usually no charge to students or their parents for teaching materials, school meals, health services or transport.

12.1 Responsibility and governance The Swedish school system is a goal-based system with a high degree of local responsibility. The main responsibility for education activities lies with the municipalities and authorities responsible for independent schools.

The Swedish Parliament and Government lay down the guiding principles for the curriculum, national objectives and guidelines for the public education system. The federal budget provides municipalities with a sum of money to carry out the various activities. Within the objectives and framework, each municipality determines how its schools are to be run and adopts a local school plan describing the funding, organization, development and evaluation of school activities. The principals of each school then draw up a local work plan in consultation with the school’s teachers and other personnel.

The Swedish National Agency for Education evaluates, follows up and supervises the public school system. Every three years, the agency publishes a national development plan for schools.

12.2 The school year The school (academic) year consists of two semesters. It typically begins at the end of August and runs to the beginning of June the following year, a total of about 40 weeks. The regular school week is five days, Monday through Friday. A longer holiday of just over two weeks is taken from around the 20th December to the beginning of January.

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13 APPENDIX 3 – Photos

One of the luncheon seminars when launching the Livstid teaching aid on Internet safety at Almedalen Political Week, 3-9 July 2005.

Mr Fredrik Reinfeldt, MP and party chairman of the largest Swedish opposition party the Moderate Party, being interviewed at the launching of the Livstid teaching aid.

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The Livstid booth at Skolforum 2005.

Launching the Surfa Lugnt Campaign on Internet security with Steve Ballmer April 29, 2005, in Grand Hotel close the Royal Castle in downtown Stockholm. Microsoft hosted a national campaign focusing on educating users about computer security. Title of the day in Sweden is “Surfa Lugnt”20 (Safe Surfing). The campaign was launched April 29 in Grand Hotel close the Royal Castle in downtown Stockholm. The campaign is organized by Microsoft in cooperation with the National Post- and Telecom Agency, the Swedish Emergency Management Agency, The 24/7 Agency Delegation, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, the Swedish Data Inspection Board, The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Svenska IT- företagens Organisation AB (the Association of Swedish IT Companies), Dataföreningen (the Swedish Association of Computer Users), I-Stiftelsen (IIS) (the Internet Infrastructure Foundation), The Swedish Bankers’ Association, TeliaSonera, Symantec, F-Secure and IBM.

20 http://www.surfalugnt.se/

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The launch’s keynote speakers were Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Swedish Minister for Communications Ulrica Messing and Microsoft partners like F-secure and Symantec.

Surfa Lugnt focuses on user security areas such as virus, spam and infringement.

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14 Appendix 4 – Acknowledgements

Project leaders

Jan Sandred Project leader, GCI Sweden

Anders Johansson Corporate Affairs Manager, Microsoft Sweden

Editors and experts

Pernilla Bjarman Teacher Swedish, Swedish as a second language, Bolandsskolan, Uppsala

Daniel Boije Swedish Media Council, Webbmaster,

Ulf Engström Principal Östhammars skolområde

Anette Holmqvist Swedish National Agency for School Improvement, Kolla Källan Peter Karlberg Swedish National Agency for School Improvement Karin Larsson Swedish Media Council, Project leader SAFT Christina Szekely Swedish National Agency for School Improvement, Head of Skoldatanätet subdivision Design and production iDS Reklambyrå

Distribution Gleerups Utbildning, Malmö Booth staff Skolforum Marie Lundmark Booth Manager, GCI Sweden Lena-Stina Eriksson IT pedagogue, Olandsskolan, Alunda

Karl Engström College student, Katedalskolan Uppsala. Erik Sundsten College student, Katedalskolan Uppsala. Others involved in the project Fredrik Wallner Marketing Manager, MSN. Jessica Börjel MSN, training.

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Name Index Aktuellt, 4 Karl Engström, 23 Almedalen, 11, 12, 13, 20 Kolla Källan, 23 Al-Qaeda, 4 Lena-Stina Eriksson, 23 Anders Johansson, 23 LPO94, 9 Anette Holmqvist, 23 Marie Lundmark, 23 Barnombudsmannen, 7 McCarthyism, 6 BRIS, 7 Media Council, 3, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 23 Broderskapsrörelsen, 4 Microsoft, 3, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 21, 22, 23 censorware, 10 moral panic, 6, 7 Check the Source, 10 National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden, 4 Childhood Foundation, 7 NGO, 7 Christina Szekely, 23 non-governmental organization, 7 consumerism, 6 non-profit organizations, 6 Daniel Boije, 23 nudity, 11 Deutsche Bundespost, 4 Pernilla Bjarman, 23 Donald Duck, 4 Peter Karlberg, 23 Ecpat, 7 Rapport, 4 Education Act and School Curriculum, 9 Safety Awareness, Facts and Tools, 9 Erik Sundsten, 23 SAFT, 9, 17, 23 filters, 10 Save the Children, 7 Föreningen Mot Mobbning, 7 Skoldatanätet, 23 Fredrik Reinfeldt, 20 Skolforum, 12, 21, 23 Fredrik Wallner, 23 social values, 10 Friends, 7, 16 Steve Ballmer, 21, 22 Fundamental social values, 11 Surfa Lugnt, 8, 21, 22 GCI, 8, 12, 23 Swedish Christian Social Democrats, 4 Gleerups, 8, 13, 23 Swedish IT Government Bill, 17 iDS Reklambyrå, 23 Swedish National Agency for School Internet Action Plan for a Safer Internet, 9 Improvement, 3, 8, 17, 23 Jan Sandred, 1, 23 Swedish Schoolnet, 10 Jessica Börjel, 23 Ulf Engström, 23 Karin Larsson, 23 Uppsala University, 13

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Conference Discussion Note

6 Apr 2006 (Day 2):

The Role of PR within the Innovation Communication System – a Case Study Jan Sandred, Special Adviser, VINNOVA, Sweden. Innovation Journalism Fellow 2004

Discussion Liz Perle, Editor-in-Chief, Common Sense Media Vilma Luoma-aho, Researcher, Organizational Communication and PR, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, Visiting Scholar at Annenberg School of Communication John Joss, Writer, Innovation Communicator

Comments by Vilma Luoma-aho

In his presentation, Jan Sandred described a case study of excellent cooperation in innovation journalism: the case where the Swedish government worked together with Microsoft to prepare a manual for safe surfing on the internet (Surfa Lungt). Thought this was clearly a PR-project to enhance Microsoft’s image as more caring and sharing (instead of dangerous and greedy), the manual and its various spin-offs such as courses and lectures, was very well received by the Swedish public, teachers, governments and decision-makers. This example seems to prove that when the need is big enough, it doesn’t matter where the help comes from. Or does it?

Even though big companies may be seen as contributors to social problems, they still can come out as winners if they fill the social need for help. Finding this need is a place for innovation and monitoring. Companies willing to survive in the ever- changing world must constantly have their antennae out to sense what the various stakeholders and publics are experiencing, and in which directions the stakeholder expectations are shifting. And not only sense these, but adapt to them and meet these needs. There are some definitions that I’d like to correct. PR is not merely as Jan suggested, talking in third person about someone, it is a strategic management function that includes communication. The long time-span of PR is often not understood. Public Relations (PR) has been defined as management of the relationships and communication between the organization and those in contact with it (Ledingham & Bruning 2000, Grunig 1992). More precisely, Public

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Relations is an ongoing and target-oriented management function for evaluating the attitudes of publics, identifying policies and procedures to suit the public interest and the execution of programmes to earn the acceptance of publics (Kotler & Andreasen 1987).

In fact, PR creates general goodwill and collaboration. PR is not just the words uttered out in the media (in this case about Microsoft), but the processes and relationship building that took place months, maybe even years before that. PR is the choice that was made on the top level to care about what the stakeholders want and need, the decisions to monitor, the ability to listen and the willingness to collaborate. It was the decision to fund potentially beneficial projects. It is actually because of strategic PR-choices that projects such as Surfa Lungt were possible for Microsoft. And it was not only good PR but it was thought through on various levels of different stakeholders even with differing needs. Microsoft addressed ministries, decision makers, teachers, students, parents all at their own levels, met their various needs.

The concept of stakeholder is a vital one for organizations and corporations. It refers broadly to those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist as well as to those who aim to influence or are influenced by the organization (Freeman 1984). The organization may or may not be aware of its stakeholders, but through monitoring and picking up weak signals they may be identified. Identifying the various stakeholders is vital as opinions and alternate points of view may quickly be expressed to large masses through real-time media (Luoma-aho, 2005). Doing good becomes good PR only through journalism. Part of the success of the Surfa Lungt was the extensive press coverage it received. Various media were supporting and promoting it. Yet another reason for success was its contents. It hit a timeless topic, the fear of the unknown. As the internet is becoming more available to those good and bad in society, the social need for safety increases. Microsoft practiced excellent PR and picked up a weak signal of fear and acted to answer that signal before it became a crisis.

A guide or a study programme is an excellent example of long time-span PR, and it would be interesting to know how many meetings occurred between the Swedish government and Microsoft before the deal was reached? Though it later often looks like a clean deal, there were probably many talks on what names to use, which examples to use, where could Microsoft Logo be present and how many times their name should be mentioned during training days. Yet the Swedes received this PR project with enthusiasm, as from God. Are the Swedes naïve? Maybe so. Big PR projects have been known to go down ‘without swallowing’ (Finnish expression meaning ‘without hesitation or deeper thought’) in the Nordic countries before. One such example was the massive propaganda put forth by the European Union before national votes in the 1990’s. There is a certain cultural trait common to the Nordic countries to accept and trust the authorities as given. Questioning the authorities’ decisions is not as common in the North as it is in countries with older civil societies such as France (Luoma-aho, 2005). When the government collaborated with Microsoft, it was a seal of approval

2 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 V.Luoma-aho: Discussion Note The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism for the public to accept the project. After all, they trust their government. And if government trusts Microsoft enough to engage in a project, the public should, too. It was a matter of transferred trust.

But why did the media, the watch-dog of the powerful, not criticize the project or even report on the PR-nature of it? Why were there no reports of how much positive feedback the project provided Microsoft? How did it affect Microsoft’s sales in Sweden?

This raises the bigger question of which PR-projects fail, and which succeed? Which campaigns go down as winners for innovation journalism?

One suggestion can be found through the theory of Isomorphism. Isomorphism can be described as the attempt to become similar, or to maintain a standard by mirroring others in their field and try to become similar enough to fit in (Thompson 1967, Parsons 1956, Meyer & Rowan 1977.) The point is that organizations both interact with their environments within the dominant boundaries and imitate the structures of other organizations within those same boundaries. Microsoft used isomorphism, by similar enough to be understood and accepted, different enough to stand apart from others. Microsoft took a common problem (partly self-caused) and approached it via sponsoring and collaborating with the government. There were familiar measures and means, yet the target and companion, government and guidebook were different enough to stand out as new and interesting. Maybe this novelty as well as its good nature excused the lack of critical reporting on the event. Without the collaboration with its major stakeholder, the government, the project probably would not have had such a huge success. In fact, Surfa lungt was a good example of innovation PR but a very bad example of innovation journalism, as it seems that the PR ate away the critical light so necessary to reporting on new and innovative topics... and we are all familiar with the dangers of reporting too positively on innovations and new phenomena.

Vilma Luoma-aho is a visiting research scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication, School of Journalism, University of Southern California, and a researcher at the Social Capital and Networks of Trust research programme funded by the Academy of Finland. She holds a PhD in Organizational Communication and Public Relations from the Department of Communication at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Luoma-aho's career has included consultation as well as academic teaching. She has also worked as an information officer for the Finnish authorities. Luoma-aho has researched and published on the topics of social capital, reputation, public administration and stakeholder relations. Her current interests include organizational legitimacy, stakeholder expectations and development of power in public administration.

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References:

Freeman, R.E. (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Pitman: Boston. Grunig, J. (1992). Communication, public relations, and effective organizations. In Grunig, J., Dozier, D., Ehling, W. Grunig, L., Repper, F. & White, J. (Eds.). Excellence in public relations and communication management. Lawrence Erlbaum: Hillsdale, N.J, pp. 1-28. Ledingham, J. & Bruning, S. (eds.)(2000). Public Relations as Relationship Management. A Relational Approach to the Study and Practice of Public Relations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ. Kotler, P. & Andreasen, A. (1987). Strategic marketing for nonprofit organizations. 3rd Edition. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Luoma-aho, V. (2005). Faith-holders as Social Capital of Finnish Public Organizations. Jyvaskyla Studies in Humanities, 42. Doctoral Dissertation. Available Online [http://dissertations.jyu.fi/studhum/9513922626.pdf]

The New Course in Innovation Journalism at KTH, The Royal Institute of Technology

David Nordfors

Senior Research Scholar, Stanford University, USA Special Advisor to the Director General, VINNOVA Program Leader, Innovation Journalism

Mats Nyberg

Pedagogical Consultant, KTH Learning Lab KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

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1 BACKGROUND ...... 3 2 THE COURSE IN INNOVATION JOURNALISM ...... 4 2.1 OTHER EDUCATIONS...... 5 2.2 VINNOVA AND KTH...... 5 2.3 AIMING AT A REGULAR ACADEMIC COURSE ...... 5 3 PILOT COURSE DESCRIPTION...... 6 3.1 GOALS FOR THE STUDENT ...... 6 3.2 COURSE DESCRIPTION ...... 6 3.3 LOGISTICS...... 7 3.4 REQUIREMENT OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ...... 7 3.5 WORK SPECIMEN ...... 7 3.6 SELECTION PROCESS...... 7 3.7 IMPLEMENTATION ...... 7 3.8 TIMETABLE ...... 7 4 ORGANISATION:...... 8

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The New Course in Innovation Journalism at KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology

KTH Learning Lab will set up, run and evaluate Sweden's first university programme in innovation journalism. A pilot course will be run during 2006. This paper presents the preliminary syllabus of that course, providing a commissioned education in Innovation Journalism corresponding to 5 university credits. The target group for the pilot course are journalists who are already active but wish to develop their knowledge within the field of innovation journalism. Experiences gained from the pilor course will provide the knowledge and experience for an education that may also include university students, as a part of KTH's ordinary academic programme with academic credits and merits. KTH Learning Lab is a part of KTH's new school, KTH VIL - the School of Scientific Information and Learning. The course is closely connected to the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford and in Sweden. Former Innovation Journalism Fellows will be tutors in the course.

1 Background

Journalism plays a pivotal role in democracy by reporting political processes, competition between groups of players and the ideas that are competing with each other for adoption in society. Few could imagine a democracy without a free and independent press.

Independent journalism has a role to play in innovation systems similar to that in democracies1. Like pluralist democracies, innovation systems are eco systems where ideas are transformed into new products and processes. Ideas compete for selection, and behind every idea there are various interest groups and incentives at work, competing with each other. The winners get to implement their ideas on the market and in society. Like in democracies, for people to get a picture of what will happen around them, they need to have a picture of: What are the competing ideas? What is at stake? Which players can win the game? What do their strategies look like? Like in democracies, each stakeholder or person affected by the decisions of the stakeholders will be interested if the news media covers them. Here is a task and an opportunity for innovation journalism.

1 D. Nordfors, D. Kreiss, J. Sandred, ”Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index – Benchmarking the Swedish Market”, Innovation Journalism Vol.2 No.5, May 4 2005. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-5.pdf

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The innovation process is a blending of science, technology, law, business, finance, culture and sometimes art. And they all interact. In industry R&D and business development affect each other at earlier stages. Often innovation processes overlap with political processes. Telecom, energy, the environment and health are powerful examples. With better journalistic reporting readers can get a better understanding of ongoing developments and the processes and people driving them.

Innovation journalism needs to face up to the challenge of transcending the limits set by traditional reporting areas. This involves understanding the games being played and here political and business journalism have well established traditions. What is involved is understanding and communicating new ideas as scientific and technical journalism have traditionally done. Innovation journalism involves combining identifying, and reporting the crucial questions, ideas and players, irrespective of traditional reporting areas.

In 2003 VINNOVA initiated through David Nordfors the fellowship programme ”Innovation Journalism”. Currently this covers a co-operation between VINNOVA and Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. The programme coined the concept of ”innovation journalism”2, an expression that has not been used in Sweden earlier or internationally. David Nordfors is Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. In his work, he has built up a knowledge base of innovation journalism. Parallel with academic development of Innovation Journalism, an international network has also been created comprising interested parties and alumni from the fellowship programme.

2 The Course in Innovation Journalism

KTH Learning Lab has been commissioned by Vinnova to draw up and evaluate Sweden's first university programme in innovation journalism. KTH Learning Lab has been commissioned to develop the pedagogical approach at the Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan). The work is based on documented research and experiences gained, as well as systematic evaluation. KTH Learning Lab is a part of KTH's new school, KTH VIL - the School of Scientific Information and Learning.

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2.1 Other Educations A course was started in 2004 in Finland on innovation journalism for working journalists at the University of Tampere. In 2005 this was followed up by a course for students at the University of Jyväskylä. In September 2006 a course has been planned for working journalists at KTH in Stockholm.

2.2 Vinnova and KTH Co-operation between VINNOVA and KTH aims at developing a Swedish programme in innovation journalism within the framework of the mainstream academic system. Initially a pilot course in innovation journalism has been developed for working journalists and other qualified participants who already possess important skills and knowledge. The course will be run during 2006. The goal is to provide commissioned education in Innovation Journalism corresponding to 5 university credits (corresponding to 5 weeks of full time studies). The target group in this introductory phase are journalists who are already active but wish to develop their knowledge within the field of innovation journalism.

2.3 Aiming at a Regular Academic Course The aimed result of the commissioned pilot education is an Innovation Journalism course in KTH's regular academic programme, offering full academic credits and merits. Experiences gained from the commissioned pilot education for professional journalists will provide the required knowledge foundation. Course start planned for 2007.

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The target group may then be expanded for further education of working journalists and students in Master programmes at KTH, as well as other institutes of higher education with a relevant background.

3 Pilot Course Description

The main purpose of the course is to broaden participants' perspective of Innovation Journalism by blending theoretical knowledge about the cornerstones of the innovation process with everyday practice in journalistic writing on innovations.

3.1 Goals for the Student The students will understand the difference between an invention and an innovation, what an innovation system is, and get a feeling for how to identify the actors in it. The students will also train how to analyze the goals and actions of the players, and identify the incentives that are providing their momentum. They will a analyze the interaction between the players, and get a basic understanding of their knowledge fields, and see how the development of business and technology intertwine.

3.2 Course Description The course is divided into 8 different modules, where participants acquire knowledge of the different players in innovation processes and their different ways of reasoning, analysing and behaving. Participants will also receive training in assembling complex information from different sources in order to create a realistic holistic view. The first and last modules look at innovation systems and innovation journalism, its goals, content and relationships with other areas. In the 6 intermediate modules, participants meet representatives of different players in the innovation process in 6 different lectures. The lectures are followed up by means of applied projects and project reporting and presentations. These lecturers are some of the leading specialists in innovation thinking from international industry, the political sphere and the academic world. Parallel with the lectures, each participant will plan, carry out research and write two articles dealing with innovations and innovation systems. Participants will be tutored by alumni from the Innovation Journalism Fellowship Program who will assess, comment and provide critical feedback during participant work processes. The articles will be posted to a virtual editorial board so that all participants and tutors can follow and comment on each individual work module.

The course premieres real life situations to simulation. The aim is that articles produced in the course should be published in real news media.

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3.3 Logistics The course starts Thursday 7 September. The course runs for 8 weeks

Premises: KTH, Biblioteket, Salongen

Academic director of the course: David Nordfors, Stanford

Project leader, moderator and facilitator: Mats Nyberg, KTH

Course administration: Margareta Bergman, KTH

Min-max number of course participants: 15-20 persons

Application: To be submitted by latest 18 July

Digital course platform: Ping Pong + own digital editorial facilities.

Course material: Compendia, ref. David Nordfors. Teachers: Teachers at KTH and other higher education institutions with relevant expertise, and also working journalists in the area and active within " Fellows, Innovation Journalism".

Marketing : Start May.

3.4 Requirement of Prior Knowledge The course participants must be working journalists (certification from editor) and/or studying journalism programmes in higher education or corresponding (copy of certificate to be enclosed).

3.5 Work Specimen Applicants should enclose a journalistic project they have completed and consider to be relevant.

3.6 Selection Process If the course is over-subscribed, selection will be based on an assessment of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, where the latter is given a higher weighting.

3.7 Implementation The course is carried out through lectures, individual work assignments and tutoring by face-to-face meetings and through distance work over the net.

3.8 Timetable MODULE A1, Innovation systems and journalism.

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1. Thursday 7 September 15.00-19.00. Lecture + assignment

2. Tuesday 12 Sept 15.00-19.00. Reporting of assignment

MODULE B1, Industry and finance.

1. Thursday 14 September 15.00-19.00. Lecture and assignment

2. Tuesday 19 September, 15.00-19.00. Reporting of assignment

MODULE C1. The academy and R&D.

1. Thursday 21 September. Lecture + assignment

2. Tuesday 26 September. Reporting of assignment

MODULE D1. Politics and public innovation policy.

1. Thursday 28 September. Lecture + assignment

2. Tuesday 3 October. Reporting of sub-assignment and 1st article MODULE B2, Industry and finance. 1. Thursday 5 October. Lecture + assignment 2. Tuesday 10 October. Reporting of assignment MODULE C2. The academy and R&D.

1. Thursday 12 October. Lecture + assignment 2. Tuesday 17 October. Reporting of assignment MODULE D2. Politics and public innovation policy. 1. Thursday 19 October. Lecture + assignment 2. Tuesday 24 October. Reporting of assignment and 2nd article

MODULE A2. Innovation systems and journalism # (something wrong here in your original i.e. the 2 )2. Workshop. Presentation of articles and publications.

4 Organisation:

Academic director: David Nordfors, Senior Research Scholar at Stanford Center for Innovation in Learning. Programme leader for the Innovation Journalism programme at Stanford, run by SCIL in co-operation with VINNOVA.

Pedagogic director: Mats Hanson, director KTH Learning Lab and vice president at KTH responsible for undergraduate infrastructure.

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Project leader, moderator and facilitator : Mats Nyberg, Educational research and development at KTH Learning Lab and journalist, JHS and IHR.

Subject specialist : Jan Sandred, VINNOVA, founder of Biotech Sweden

Course administrator: Margareta Bergman, Academic Administrator at KTH Learning Lab.

Mats Nyberg is pedagogical consultant at the Swedish Learning Lab at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a former journalist, now working in the forefront of innovating academic courses with the use of information technology. Mats is the KTH project leader for the pilot course in Innovation Journalism, which is presently being set up.

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Experiences from the Innovation Journalism Pilot Course in Jyväskylä

Turo Uskali

Visiting Scholar, Innovation Journalism, Stanford; Research Scholar, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

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EXPERIENCES FROM THE INNOVATION JOURNALISM PILOT COURSE IN JYVÄSKYLÄ...... 3

1 BACKGROUND ...... 3

2 COURSE CONTENTS ...... 4

2.1 Introduction to Innovation Journalism...... 4 2.1.1 Contents...... 4 2.1.2 Principal literary sources...... 5

2.2 The Structures of Innovation Systems and Institutions...... 5 2.2.1 Contents...... 5 2.2.2 Student assignments ...... 6 2.2.3 Principal literary sources...... 6

2.3 Global Trends and Innovations ...... 6 2.3.1 Contents...... 6 2.3.2 Student assignments ...... 6 2.3.3 Principal literary sources...... 6

2.4 Meeting Innovation Journalism Seniors ...... 7

3 RESULTS AND STUDENT FEEDBACK ...... 7

4 SUMMARY...... 8

5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 9

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Experiences from the Innovation Journalism Pilot Course in Jyväskylä The paper describes experiences from the first Innovation journalism (InJo) pilot course for undergraduate students. The course has three main driving forces: first, interest undergraduate students; second, combine theoretical thinking and practical InJo work with the students’ help; third, establish international co-operation in InJo education between The Department of Communication (University of Jyväskylä) and SCIL (Stanford University).

The course comprises 14 hours of lectures (2 hours produced by SCIL). The lectures provided basic knowledge about business, technology, science and innovation journalism but the main focus was on innovation systems (domestic and international). Course grades were based on the quality of the final InJo articles the students had to finish to receive credit points. The main conclusion from student feedback was that the InJo course was interesting and important for them, and they wanted more knowledge on InJo topics. 1 Background

This small paper explains how the first innovation journalism course in Jyväskylä was organized and executed. The author of this paper has been teaching courses in foreign-affairs journalism for undergraduate students at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland for seven years. That course was started as a modest pilot program in 1999, the first of its kind in Finland. Since 2001 the course has comprised 24 hours of lectures, a “guru- seminar,” and home assignments. A study book by the author, The New World of Foreign News Reporting, will be published in Finnish in 2006. The lessons in building this successful journalism-education course concentrated on foreign news practices, as a starting point, while creating the first innovation journalism (InJo) course for the students.

According to David Nordfors “Innovation journalism”1 is journalism about innovation” and “Innovation journalism covers technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems”2. Naturally, the first course for undergraduate students focused on these aspects. The lectures provided the

2 D. Nordfors. The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems. Innovation Journalism Vol.1 No.7, November 8 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-7.pdf

3 231 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T.Uskali: The InJo Pilot Course in Jyväskylä The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism basic theoretical knowledge of innovation journalism by introducing first business, technology and science journalism. The main goals of the voluntary pilot course were:

1) Interest undergraduate students in the topic;

2) Combine theoretical thinking and practical work on innovation journalism with the students’ help;

3) Establish international co-operation in InJo education.

The next five aims were described to the undergraduate students when the course was introduced to them in summer 2005:

1) Provide basic knowledge on business, technology, science and innovation journalism;

2) Give basic information on innovation systems (domestic and international); 3) Explain, basically, the world’s principal economic and technological trends; 4) Create innovating innovation-journalism topics; 5) Publish students’ innovation journalism stories when suitable.

2 Course Contents

This chapter introduces, briefly, lecture by lecture, the contents, main literary sources and student assignments of the lectures given by the author.3

2.1 Introduction to Innovation Journalism

2.1.1 Contents

• Main concepts (innovation and innovation journalism); • The short history of innovation journalism (David Nordfors, SCIL); • Business journalism (history, practices, limits); • Technology journalism (international, Finnish perspectives); • Science journalism (international, Finnish perspectives); • Future research (especially thinking with different scenarios); • The theory or model of weak signals in innovation journalism.

Student assignments

3 All the lectures are presented in power point format at www.cc.jyu.fi/~tuuskali (in Finnish).

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• What is innovation journalism in practice? Analyse examples of domestic and international ‘innovation journalism’ articles; • Homework: Invent new topics for innovation journalistic stories; Start to develop your own story; • Monitor Digitodays´4 news flows (the material was pre-collected by the lecturer from Fall 2004 to September 2005); • Test also the open-for-all web tool to find interesting topics for your story http://innovationandjournalism.blogspot.com/).

2.1.2 Principal literary sources

• David Nordfors. 2004. “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Program for Developing it,” VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, Oct. 2003. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf.

• Erkki Kauhanen. 1998. Thoughts about Science Journalism, from a book “Journalism! Journalism?” WSOY, Helsinki, 291–316.

• Turo, Uskali. 2005. The History of Business Journalism, its limitations and Future from a book Ojala & Uskali (eds.) “Mediajättien aika – uusia heikkoja signaaleja etsimässä.” (The Era of Media Giants. Finding New Weak Signals). Infor, Helsinki, 27–54.

• Helsingin Sanomat, Kauppalehti, Talouselämä, Tietoviikko, Tekniikka & Talous, The Economist, The New York Times, Business Week, Technology Review, New Scientist, Financial Times, Fortune, Reuters, Physorg, and CNN Money.

• Innovationjournalism.org, the web site.

2.2 The Structures of Innovation Systems and Institutions

Learning about the structures of innovation systems and institutions enables the students to seek the most relevant sources for their InJo stories.

2.2.1 Contents

• Finnish Research Organizations (Finnish Academy, Universities, other governmental research institutions, VTT etc., public companies and their research departments, Nokia etc.);

4 Digitoday is a Finnish web publication specializing in digitech news, http://www.digitoday.fi/.

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• Finnish research funding organizations (Tekes, Ktm, Sitra, Fintra, et al.);

• Regional perspectives (University of Jyväskylä, especially nanoscience, human technology center etc., innovation institute initiative);

• International Research Organizations (Leading universities and institutes, OECD, The Economist Business Intelligence Unit).

2.2.2 Student assignments

• Where do you find the best sources for your stories?

2.2.3 Principal literary sources

• Gerd, Schienstock – Timo, Hämäläinen. 2001. Transformation of the Finnish Innovation System. A Network Approach. Sitra Reports Series, 7;

• The web pages of the Research and research Funding Institutions. 2.3 Global Trends and Innovations

Knowledge on global trends and innovations enables the students to place their stories in a larger context.

2.3.1 Contents

• Injo-guru example (John Markoff/The New York Times);

• World Trends and Innovations; • Visualizing Injo-stories; • Writing and selling the Injo-stories.

2.3.2 Student assignments

• What are the main trends influencing in your Injo-story?

2.3.3 Principal literary sources

• Michael J., Mazarr, 1999. Global trends 2005. An Owner´s Manual for The Next Decade. Palgrave, New York; • Mika, Mannermaa,. 2004. Heikoista signaaleista vahva tulevaisuus. (From Weak Signals into Strong Future) WSOY, Helsinki;

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• Nicholas, Negroponte. 1996. Digitaalinen todellisuus. (Being Digital) WSOY, Helsinki; • The Economist. The World in 2005 and The World in 2006.

2.4 Meeting Innovation Journalism Seniors

Swedish InJo fellow Marcus Lillkvist and Innovation Journalism ‘father’ and SCIL program leader David Nordfors visited the course at the end of the intensive period. Lillkvist contributed a lecture of his own experiences and commented undergraduate students’ final works and InJo articles. Nordfors gave his talk live via Skype from Stanford, focusing on the latest developments of the international initiative. Both presentations were highly valued by the students. More feedback is presented below.

3 Results and Student Feedback

Twenty students applied for the course, twelve started, seven finished and at least four more wanted to join after the course had started.

The main message from the free InJo pilot course was that InJo is interesting and important for the students—they thirst for more knowledge on InJo topics. There is great potential for techno-, financial- and science-oriented students in InJo studies. Only two students completed their stories in time. Others needed approximately one week more. Few would argue that one and a half months for an InJo story should be enough, considering the deadline-driven nature of much journalism. This author shares these concerns, but the students waited until the end of the lectures before starting their work, and this maturing process was needed by them. Here are the titles of the InJo stories and the grades. Some stories were published in a major regional newspaper, Keskisuomalainen.

Innovation Journalism Story Grade Publ.

Radio breaks into Internet 5 Yes

N-a-n-o – Four Lessons about the Future 5 Yes

Internet Music Stores – The same Names again 4 Yes

Chips inside Footballs goes to Word Cups 4

Wellness Dream Lab prepares Innovations for Sale 3

Biometric-based personal identification/verification technology goes to 3 Libraries

Nokia starts new Mobile Search Services – tries to take the Lead 2

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What principal lessons were learned from the students’ InJo stories?

• The more sources the better the story. With only one source, the story usually lacks objectivity and looks like an advertisement. Critical sources enrich the story;

• Historical, economical and other statistical data help create necessary story backgrounds;

• Putting a person into the story helps in reporting difficult (technological, scientific) topics. There are cultural differences in journalism, for example, the Anglo-American way of starting a story with a person (in action) is not common in Finnish journalism. Choosing good cases (companies, innovations) could also help the story building processes;

• Regional views and examples were important in selling the stories to newspapers. As Michael Porter has said regional aspects (clusters) are the driving force for national innovation systems5. Based on the above, these future course improvements are envisaged:

• The course should contain more lectures (from 12 +(2) hours to 24);

• The course web tool should be developed (in international co-operation);

• The course should begin later in Fall (October), because of the extensions of the students’ summer work;

• More advertising for the open visitors’ lecture is needed.

4 Summary

The Finnish pilot-course for undergraduate students tested well the possibilities of Innovation Journalism. It combined theoretical thinking and practical working on such journalism with the help of the students, and established international cooperation in InJo education between The Department of Communication (University of Jyväskylä) and SCIL (Stanford University). However, many more opportunities exist between journalism schools as well as communication departments worldwide. The challenge is to merge national and international objectives on Innovation journalism and create multilateral and lively links between students, educators, journalists and researchers. Fellowship programs are good examples of successful joint ventures, but other possibilities deserve exploration, especially via Internet and Skype connections or the like. Innovation

5 Michael E. Porter, 2003. “Microeconomic Foundations of Competitiveness - A New Agenda for International Aid Institutions”, Workshop with the UNDP Leadership Team New York, NY November 18, 2003.

8 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 T.Uskali: The InJo Pilot Course in Jyväskylä The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism journalism also needs its first English study book for undergraduate students and others.

5 Acknowledgements

I thank David Nordfors (Stanford, SCIL, U.S.) and Marcus Lillkvist (Västerbottens-Kuriren, SWE) for visiting the course and for many inspiring thoughts on Innovation journalism. Many thanks also to the students, who had the courage to participate in and complete the world´s first InJo course for undergraduate students. I owe much to professor Heikki Luostarinen, nowadays at The University of Tampere, for introducing InJo to me in Jyväskylä, in Fall 2004. Finally, thanks also to Helvi Rikala and John Joss for checking the language of this paper.

Turo Uskali is senior research scholar at The Department of Communication at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), and currently visiting scholar at SCIL. He took part in the first Finnish innovation journalism education and research programme 2004–2005. Specialized previously on foreign news and financial news practices (dissertation , 2003, about the work of Finnish correspondents in Moscow). Worked before, about ten years, as a national, foreign, business and law reporter in various leading Finnish media outlets.

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Innovation Journalism in Slovenia

Polona Pibernik

Director and co-founder, Mediade d.o.o.

Violeta Bulc

Director, Vibacom www.vibacom.si Partner of the Institute for Business Growth and Creativity (www.iprk.si) Advisor to EU Commision

Edita Kuhelj Krajnovi

Editor and co-founder, Mediade d.o.o.

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1 INNOVATION AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT...... 3 2 ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES...... 3 3 OTHER INNOVATION PROJECTS IN THE REGION ...... 5 4 THE CHALLENGE...... 6 5 CONCLUSION...... 6

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Innovation Journalism in Slovenia

Innovation as a driving force is effective when it becomes the value system and consciousness of a general socio-economic community. To position itself successfully worldwide, Slovenia has made significant progress in the last few years in raising public awareness about the importance of innovation and creative thinking. Entrepreneurs and successful businesses have played a mayor role in this process. Lately, especially with a systematic approach of the MPI group to innovation as a public value, the national media started to respond. The needed critical mass of informed and stimulated people has been created. The next push is towards higher- quality reporting and writing on innovation, thus deeper understanding of innovation as a long-term driver of progress and prosperity.

1 Innovation and Social Development

Innovation as a driving force is effective when it becomes the value system and consciousness of a general socio-economic community. It is significant for communities when the state, scientific community, administration and ultimately the media are interconnected for this purpose. Public awareness of innovation as a tool for greater competitiveness and long-term prosperity, is beginning recognised at all levels of society.

2 Entrepreneurial Initiatives

Stimulating innovation in Slovenia started in the late 1980s when a well known Slovenian publisher, Joe Vilfan, began issuing the “Revija za Razvoj” , renamed “Podjetnik” . He used this journal to promote the idea of entrepreneurship and diversity.

Recent initiatives for accelerating and promoting innovative thinking originated in 2003, when the company Vibacom started issuing the newsletter “Aktualno 1.0” . This was also the reason for establishing the project “Mo podjetnike inovativnosti (MPI)” . The project founders are three corporate entities: Vibacom, TV Pika and Mediade, who entered a strategic partnership at the start of this three- year international project. Its core mission: assert innovative Slovenian business thinking into global competitive markets, emphasizing Slovenian business models, business logic and socio-economic results. The project promotes ‘Created in Slovenia, Europe.’™ The trademark’s goal is to achieve higher visibility for Slovenian business logic and higher value for Slovenian products on international markets. The project uses multimedia as the primary tool for market penetration and focuses on business community.

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The central project in its first year includes the dynamic monthly business- education program “Poslovni ritmi” . The monthly ‘45 minutes’ TV program presents competitive Slovenian companies successfully penetrating global markets, via innovative breakthroughs. The program promotes advanced leadership based on the business-relations model ‘8+1 business relations’ by the MABS® methodology, with innovation as the primary driver for overall development and prosperity. By presenting these companies, we are strengthening national confidence and awareness of the opportunities and tools needed to create successful business. At the same time, we want to establish the perception that innovation is a mindset, a ‘can do’ attitude. Every program ends with the slogan “And remember anyone can be innovative — even you!”

November 3, 2005 represented a turning point in the MPI project, when D. Nordfors and V. Bulc met. This meeting resulted in the immediate introduction of innovation journalism concepts into Slovenian media and the business community. Articles for local and national newspapers, including radio and TV, followed. An interview with D. Nordfors on ‘Innovation Journalism’ was published in the leading business magazine “Manager.” In February 2006 the project was officially announced at the “1st Festival of Innovation” as an independent entity with a respected round table, including leading Slovenian opinion leaders. The entire team has already participated as guest in the program “Studio ob 1700” on prime national radio . The discussion covered innovation journalism in Slovenian media. In November 2005, a personal blog , “Innovation here and now,” was created, dedicated to spreading awareness of the significance of innovation and creating the proper conditions for stimulating innovation processes and creative thinking in Slovenia.

All these activities mentioned are part of the external simulative activities. Our experience shows that it is also important to link external media with internal business communication. Fulfilling such a need is the primary mission of the innovative publication, “Podjetniki v podjetju” by Mediade . Publication started in May 2005. It is a mix of business education and the media, e.g., the external initiatives on one hand, and the business environment and their employees on the other. Publication strategy is to introduce an independent, external viewpoint about core management issues, especially for middle management. The basic purpose is to create an effective internal business environment of entrepreneurship and competitive individuals. Innovation and innovative thinking have become competitive, distinguishing advantages for employees; it will help employees acquire this attitude as rapidly as possible. The importance of individual competitiveness can hardly be overemphasized, as individuals overcome socialist traditions to embrace self-management and self-motivation. Under socialism, everything was the same for everyone—being average or ‘part of the crowd’ was seen as virtue rather than a weakness. The publication “Podjetniki v podjetju,” with the column “Slovenska zgodba” , shows companies good practices of other successful and innovative Slovene companies and is building a network of know-how and knowledge between companies.

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A web of local radio stations is also building a special network: “Gospodarstvo v etru” is a business program broadcast daily, simultaneously, by 14 local radio stations. The MPI project obtained a weekly media slot to present successful Slovenian companies and their innovative breakthroughs. Radio stations extend media coverage of the MPI project in Slovenian public space. This is how we achieve wider coverage and critical mass of informed individuals on innovation and the importance of self involvement as the way to business success.

The MPI project also covers different reviews. An opinion article on innovation is published in the monthly magazine “Glas gospodarstva” , issued by Slovenia’s Chamber of Commerce .

Agreements with more media organizations are being established, including SBR (Slovenian Business Report), Manager , Dnevnik (second biggest national newspaper) and Gazela . The national radio and TV broadcasting house has also shown interest: TV Pika , with its program “Business Curves” and an MPI project partner, has been a supporting medium from the first.

Media were not the only ones touched by the MPI project. It has also created new sub-projects. Among others it handles promotional projects for innovation awareness at the Regional Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia, as well as the project »City of Innovation« and the project» ”The Best Innovative Contribution in the Media Award” in cooperation with TIA, Slovenian Agency for Technological Development.

3 Other Innovation Projects in the Region

Innovation means an independent and innovative lifestyle. It is penetrating the consciousness and thought processes of teams and individuals as a huge, contagious and positive virus. Additional initiatives being implemented in Slovenia with similar goals include: - The campaign »Created in Slovenia« vs. the traditional ‘Made in Slovenia’ emerged from three projects: MPI, Japec Jakopin (creator of the most expensive and most innovative sail boats in the world), and Joe Vilfan, mentioned earlier, who focused on the interest in the products from the crafts and trade sector and entrepreneurship; - »PODIM « – A conference on business and innovation with a long tradition in awarding the best business ideas upgraded also with awards for the most innovative company. - »Mesec designa « – a business initiative by Zmago Novak, who organizes a month of daily events on advanced design, integrating designers, business people and top class experts in the form of workshops, social events and lectures;

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- The scientific research institute IJS and their EU office for development in cooperation with IRC Slovenia;

- »Ti povej «; a public initiative, which offers help to young people in realizing their innovative ideas;

- »Intitut za inovativnost in tehnologijo « and Borut Likar, who has focused on awakening and realizing innovation in young people.

4 The Challenge

Most of theses projects originated from the initiative of entrepreneurs and individual believers, to establish business networks. A critical mass of journalistic contributions has also been accumulating in the media for three years, allowing innovation to position itself as a value. The next step is needed: raise the contributions to a higher level. It is not enough to write about innovation. It is also important to write qualitatively, analyzing short- and long-term (business) results with a focus on the future. This is why more professional journalistic knowledge, experience and willingness to understand is needed.

5 Conclusion

We did not listing all the initiatives. Our contribution is limited by our awareness and the power of our network. Yet we will continue with our work as an integrating point, especially in innovation and advanced thinking. We seek as many initiatives as possible for promoting innovation—more or less on their own today—that will combine their power. These could generate essential team energy and could catapult Slovenia into the group of leading global economies. These are not just empty dreams. The Technological Agency of Slovenia has implemented a good starting point when it established the “1st Festival of Innovation” with the Ministry of Development in February 2006 and it continues to do so with a pro-active, ambitious future strategy. Innovation is in each of us. It is a natural process, enabling individuals to optimize their intellectual capital and stimulating effective pooling of resources. Let's get connected; in a spirit of new media and new models that bring the best out of us. ______

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Polona Pibernik is co-founder and general manager of Mediade. The company has evolved from the GV Revije, the leading business print publisher in Slovenia, which was restructured in 2005. Mediade is known for developing a brand new concept of business-educational volumes, focused on the development of intrapreneurial organisational culture in the corporate business environment.

She has been involved in media for two decades. She started her career with local radio station Radio Koper and continued with the famous independent students' radio Radio tudent. Later she worked for five years for the Slovenian business magazines Gospodarski vestnik and Manager. She knows media from different points of view, having worked as journalist and then switching to marketing. She transforms her media and business experiences into developing new concepts of media, especially those linked to promotion of innovations and formation of knowledge networks. She is co-author of business-educational TV series “Poslovni ritmi” (Business Rhythms) and secretary general of the multi-media project MPI: The power of business innovation. The project, aimed at promoting innovative cultures was established by three Slovenian companies: Vibacom, TV PIKA and Mediade and acts as a leading integrative force in developing and promoting the highest achievements of the Slovenian innovative business environment.

Violeta Bulc, Vibacom, House for Business Solutions. Ms. Bulc is recognized as an opinion maker for advanced technologies and innovative business models. She is an excellent promoter of change with great people skills and a visionary sense for developing business behavior. She believes in the power of networks, holistic, individual and positive energy. She has received several awards for business innovations, including the national FENIKS Award for Consulting Project of the Year. The European Commission appointed Ms. Bulc to its Advisory Board for the e- Europe Action and Strategic Plans initiative for 2012 and 2020. Among her latest achievements is establishing the MPI business partnership (Power of Business Innovation) and the Institute for Business Growth and Creativity. The MPI Business Partnership is in cooperation with Mediade and TV PIKA, and its primary focus is the promotion of innovation culture and the Slovenian way of doing business. The Institute for Business Growth and Creativity is in cooperation with 3 additional experts (Andrej Bertoncel PhD, Ladeja Godina Koir and Darko Kova). The primary focus of the Institute is creating advanced management tools for sustainable business growth. Ms. Bulc is the author of many professional articles on innovation, expert studies, electronic publications and co-author of a popular business series called "Poslovni Ritmi«.

Edita Kuhelj Krajnovi, MSc. is an editor and co-founder of Mediade, innovative publishing. She started her professional career as a teaching assistant for corporate finance at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. After eight years she swithced from academic to business environment. She took a managerial challenge as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at the third largest slovenean bank , SKB bank. After a period she moved to the leading business print publisher in Slovenia, GV Revije as a Director of Advertising. She was also appointed as a marketing manager for the Gazelle project. In the same period she initiated the Student Business Conference as a partnership of Gospodarski vestnik magazine and Faculty of Economics, Ljubljana. In 2004 she was a President of 13th Slovenean Advertising Festival. After re-structuring of GV Revije she decided to pursue an entrepreneurial path and co-founed Mediade, innovative publishing where she works as an editor-in-chief. She is an executive manager of the Power of Business Innovation project and co-creator of the Ustvarjeno v Sloveniji. Created in Slovenia, Europe. brand.

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Innovation Journalism, Competitiveness and Economic Development

Kevin X. Murphy

President, J.E. Austin Associates Arlington, VA

David Nordfors

Senior Research Scholar Stanford University

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Innovation Journalism, Competitiveness and Economic Development

Independent innovation journalism may spur economic development and focus national leadership. Innovation Journalism is a new area of economic development focus and can be an important driver for building national prosperity. Economic development professionals must become more aware of its importance.

Competitiveness is a key factor for sustainable economic growth in all countries, as well as for reducing poverty in emerging economies. The Competitiveness Institute and the Institute for Competitiveness and Strategy at Harvard Business School have mapped hundreds of ongoing national, regional and cluster competitiveness initiatives all over the world, both in highly developed regions and in developing regions1. USAID launched its first Competitiveness Initiative in 1998. The U.S. foreign assistance remains in the forefront of implementing competitiveness initiatives for economic development.

Michael Porter, the leading competitiveness expert, has shown that innovation is the key driver of competitiveness, not only in advanced industrial economies, but also in developing economies2. Innovation – the introduction of a new concept – is not always based on advanced technologies or complicated business models, the ideas can be real simple as well. But innovation always depends on that the new concept is accepted. It takes a small amount of people with new ideas to propose a new solution, but it takes a large amount of people who are open to new ideas to implement a new solution on the market. Inventions can be made by individuals. Innovations must be done in communities. Competitiveness projects will not give results without a change of mindset among the leaders making the decisions and the people that must support them. This change of mindset is key to achieving lasting change. Independent journalism is a powerful actor in setting the public agenda. Journalism has the power to challenge or maintain the mindsets of leaders.

1 Ö. Sölvell, K. Ketels, G. Lindqvist: “The Cluster Initiatives Greenbook”, Stockholm 2003. ISBN 91- 974783-1-8. http://www.cluster-research.org/greenbook.htm

2 Michael Porter: “Building the Microeconomic Foundations of Prosperity” from the Global Competitiveness Report 2002-2003.

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Journalism as a business captures readership attention and sells it to advertisers. In order to stay in business, journalism must maintain readership attention. The job of the journalist is to produce stories that may catch the attention of the readership. The easiest way to do this is to follow up on stories that already got readership attention. Apart from providing the goods to sell to the advertisers, this will focus the collective attention of the readership on issues of collective interest. It may put these issues on the common agenda.

Independent journalism is essential for pluralist democracies. An innovation ecosystem of actors that turn ideas into new products and services on the market has similarities to a pluralist democracy3.

In both pluralist democracies and in innovation economies, competing actors with competing ideas form alliances, compromise, trigger conflicts and fight for attention. In democracies the winners get to implement their ideas in society. In innovation economies the winners get to implement their ideas on the market. In both cases, journalists have a role in covering the competition between the key actors, their main ideas, and their interaction. The general business of journalism – to capture readership attention and sell it to advertisers – is plausible in both cases. The presence of independent journalism may spur the development of clusters and innovation ecosystems. Successful innovation journalism can prosper from focusing collective attention on issues of collective importance for clusters and innovation systems4. It may be a powerful actor in shifting mindsets of leaders and increasing the competitiveness of the entire cluster. In order to achieve this, journalists need to be able to identify clusters as readerships, identify the main actors and key issues, learn how to catch their attention and find advertisers to sell it to. These are skills that do not come by themselves. Journalism is a conservative industry with few R&D resources. A cluster initiative may address this issue, and may in parallel with facilitating the development of the cluster, support the development of the journalistic skills in covering it. Therefore, innovation journalism (IJ) plays a key role in national competitiveness initiatives. IJ spurs further innovation by inspiring the broader public—especially the youth. IJ reinforces the success of those leading the way.

3 D. Nordfors, D. Kreiss, Jan Sandred, ”Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index: Benchmarking the Swedish Market”, Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 No. 5, May 2005. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-5.pdf

4 D. Nordfors, ”The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems”, Innovation Journalism, Vol 1. No. 7, December 2004. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-7.pdf and J. Sandred, “A Business Model for Innovation Journalism: Biotech Sweden”, Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2 No. 1, Jan. 2005. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-1.pdf

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We would like to issue a challenge to economic development professionals based on the above observations.

First, economic development professionals in the World Bank, regional multilateral banks, bi-lateral assistance agencies, contractors and non-profits who care about building prosperity in “tough neighborhoods” need to focus on mindset change. They need to recognize the key role of journalists and other thought leaders and address them in efforts to put countries on the path to prosperity. It is therefore important that competent innovation journalists are present in the system.

In this context, journalism must not be viewed as a channel for press releases but as a key group of independent actors, who enhance the dynamics leading to strategic changes and policy reforms that effect economic development and that are a part of the competitiveness. Journalism is an independent actors, which together with industry, government and academy, form the infrastructure of competitiveness. Economic development professionals need to develop innovation journalism competence, without compromising their journalistic integrity. The preservation of integrity must be absolute, and the development of competent innovation journalism needs to be separated from communication and public relations. This will require rethinking “requests for proposals” and budgets well before the implementing parties begin work.

5 251 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 K. Murphy, D. Nordfors: InJo Competitivenes, Development The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Kevin Murphy is president of J.E. Austin Associates. He has worked with senior private and public sector leaders on issues of legal and institutional reform, including current and former heads of state of Ireland, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. His expertise in legal and institutional reform includes formal training in economics, international law and public administration. He has served as policy and institutional reform advisor for the OECD in eight workshops related to SME policy, privatization and private sector development. Mr. Murphy is the author of USAID’s Manual for Action in the Private Sector (MAPS), created for the Agency in 1987 and subsequently implemented in 15 countries. Mr. Murphy also led USAID’s first Competitiveness Initiatives in Uganda, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Croatia. Mr. Murphy’s relevant formal training includes a Master Degree in public administration and an MBA from Harvard University, and a Bachelors in Foreign Service from Georgetown with a concentration in International Law and Organization.

Innovation is a Cat With a Long Tail or Innovation Journalism as an Essential Element in the New Endogenous Theory of Growth

Erkki Kauhanen

Ph.D. Research fellow Journalism Research and Development Centre. Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. University of Tampere, Finland.

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1 THE EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY PARADOX...... 3

2 TECHNOLOGICAL COMPLEMENTARITIES...... 4

3 INNOVATION AS A KNOWLEDGE/KNOW-HOW STRUCTURE...... 7

4 INNOVATION JOURNALISM: WHOSE POINT OF VIEW? ...... 11

4.1 Audience ...... 11

4.2 Use...... 11

4.3 Developments abroad ...... 12

4.4 Social innovations and other social/cultural aspects...... 13

4.5 Soft sectors...... 14

4.6 Future orientation ...... 14

4.7 The definition and scope of innovation journalism ...... 15

5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 16

6 SUMMARY...... 16

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Innovation Journalism as an Essential Element in the New Endogenous Theory of Growth

European economies suffer from what the Commission of The European Communities in 1995 dubbed as the European technology paradox: Europe excels in scientific research, but there seems to be a partial failure in translating the new technological knowledge in commercial success. The proposed remedy for the situation is expressed in the twin ideas of innovation society and its innovation economy. Innovation economy has in its core a dynamics that in terms of the so called new growth theory (NGT) is called endogenous growth. It is based on the idea of knowledge being a "non-rival good", i.e. with relatively little extra cost, knowledge can multiply like a plant and it can therefore be used by several agents at the same time. That makes possible "increasing returns".

It is claimed in this article that this dynamics is only possible on the condition of effective and efficient communication. That portraits the process of innovation diffusion as the critical element in any innovation economy. It also defines the central focus of innovation journalism. In this paper innovation diffusion is seen as a cascade, where innovation output of each level becomes innovation input for the subsequent level. Users of innovation are seen as co-innovators, which effectively forces us to describe all innovations as multi- layered knowledge/know-how structures.

Some implications of this view for innovation journalism are discussed.

1 The European Technology Paradox

1 Commission of The European Communities (1995): Green paper on Innovation (COM(95) 688 final, Brussels, 59 pages).

3 255 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E.Kauhanen: InJo and the Edogenous Growth Theory The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism social organization that is strongly and consciously future-oriented and is geared toward harnessing the whole innovation potential of its people. Innovation economy has in its core a dynamics that in terms of the so called new growth theory (NGT) is called endogenous growth.

The phrase "endogenous growth" is used by several authors since the late 1980'ies to express the idea that economic growth is an outcome of some internal processes of the economic system rather than some outside influences upon it. The theory is often associated with Paul Romer of Stanford University (e.g. Romer 1990, 1994)2.

According to Romer we must distinguish between "ideas" and "things". While things are always rival goods, ideas usually aren't. This is to say that information differs from most other types of production inputs, like money, in the sense that many people can use it at the same time and with relatively little extra cost, knowledge can multiply like a plant. That makes possible increasing returns.

Although inventions and discoveries made in an economy may seem to be exogenous inputs into the economic process in the same sense as nuggets of gold found by a gold-digger, Romer points out that the aggregate rate of discovery is endogenous. Although gold nuggets and diamonds are found in alluvial deposits where they have been positioned by geological forces outside human control, in the end the organization of miners, their vision, inventiveness, knowledge, know-how and technology determine the success of the mining town. That is an important idea, and forces our attention upon institutions and other factors that either support innovation or impede it. It is the task of society to lay the table for innovative companies by developing institutions, and as a reward it hopes to get positive externalities, or spillover effects flowing out of the new knowledge and know-how. In NGT, they are the crucial growth factor of national economies.

2 Technological complementarities

Carlaw and Lipsey (e.g. Lipsey 2000, 2001, Carlaw and Lipsey 2001)3 have claimed that it is not positive externalities but "technological complementarities"

2 Romer, Paul M. (1990): Endogenous Technological Change, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 5, 71-102.; Romer, Paul M. (1994): The Origins of Endogenous Growth. (The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 8, Issue 1, Winter 1994, 3-22).

3 Lipsey Richard G. (2000): Some implications of endogenous technological change for technology policies in developing countries (available on the internet at http://www.sfu.ca/~rlipsey/etc.pdf ) ; Lipsey Richard G. (2001): The Productivity Paradox: A Case of the Emperor's New Clothes. (A paper presented in the conference Policies for the New Economy, Montreal June 26-27, 2001, 14 pages); Carlaw, Kenneth I. & Richard G. Lipsey (2001): Externalities versus Technological Complementarities: A model of GPT-driven, sustained growth (A Paper Presented in the Conference in Honour of the 20th Anniversary of Nelson and Winter’s Book An Evolutionary Theory Of Economic Change Aalborg Denmark, 12-15 June 2001, 57 pages.)

4 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E.Kauhanen: InJo and the Edogenous Growth Theory The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism that form the basis of economic growth. They say that technologies, especially general purpose technologies (GPT) such as electricity,

"...expand the space of possible inventions and innovations, creating myriad new opportunities for profitable capital investments, which in turn create other new opportunities, and so on in a chain reaction that stretches over decades, even centuries".

Old and new technologies produce together more than each would have accomplished alone, thus opening to each other some new avenues of development.

"So... the technological complementarities... have been a major (we would say the major) source of growth over, at least, the last three centuries (Carlaw & Lipsey 2001)."

Although Carlaw and Lipsey apparently treat technological complementarities as something quite else than positive externalities, they can be seen as a special type of externalities created by the organic growth of technologies building upon each other. Why complementarities imply growth, is easy to see. It is a logical outcome in a system whose number of elements and their potential combinations increases.

So, take any technology before a new GPT is launched. Let's denote it with Tp (p for “previous” ).Then A{Tp} is the class of marketable artifacts produced using that technology. Introducing a new GPT (say microprocessor) increases the number of logically possible artifacts hugely (as computing power becomes ubiquitous and all gadgets can be modified to include processor technology). We move from Ap = A{Tp} to An = A{Tp}, A{Tn}, A{Tp, Tn} , where {Tn} (n for “new”), represents the new types of artifacts only made possible by the new technology and {Tp, Tn} represents the old-type artifacts where some old technology is replaced with the new.

Now, let’s introduce another new technology Tm. We get the situation Am = A{Tp}, A{Tp, Tn}, A{Tp, Tm}, A{Tp, Tn, Tm}, A{Tn}, A{Tm}, A{Tm, Tn}, where A{Tp, Tn}, A{Tp, Tm}and A{Tp, Tn, Tm} refer to various old-type products that are modernized using the new technologies and A{Tn}, A{Tm} and A{Tm, Tn} are new product classes that only now have become possible.

Of course not all logically possible combinations of old and new technologies are technologically or commercially viable, but it is more than compensated by the fact that in modern markets most artifacts are produced in numerous (sometimes in hundreds or even thousands of) slightly different models and varieties. Therefore, with each new technology we see a huge increase in the number of possible artifacts and artifact classes. And most of what we have here is what Carlaw and Lipsey would call technological complementarities with Tn and Tm interacting with each other and Tp. That is the fundamental source of growth in innovation

5 257 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E.Kauhanen: InJo and the Edogenous Growth Theory The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism economy, making possible a vibrant industrial activity, steady stream of new marketable products and efficiency gains4.

Electricity is the prime example of a GPT that has made possible a huge number of goods that have little by little replaced old pre-electricity technology. The process has taken more than a century and is not ready yet. There are still tools and appliances that in principle could be made electric. Another equally good example would be synthetic plastics (see e.g. Pinch & Bijker 1987)5. When the bakelite process was made public in 1909, probably no one realized what it would mean economically and technologically worldwide. In the beginning bakelite was not even a commercially viable competitor as the celluloid process was cheaper. In 1918, however, huge war reserves of phenol (needed in the bakelite process) were dumped into the market, lowering the cost and making bakelite commercially competitive. This created the market, opened avenues of product and process development, and led to omnipresence of synthetic plastics today. The number of various products that have since been designed to include plastics must be in billions, literally, and many of them would never have been produced if this cheap and versatile material had not been available.

A similar process is currently happening with microprocessors. Twenty years ago, when the processor was still young, it would have been difficult to believe that today we are beginning to have processors in our clothes and even in our bodies. Processors are becoming ubiquitous in the same way as electronics and plastics did. However, historical analysis of technological complementarities shows that they do not automatically produce rapid increases in productivity, not even strong GPT’s, like ICT. Sometimes it takes decades, even centuries for a new technology to show its whole potential. Often, in the early phase of its adoption, an innovation may even decrease productivity due to the cost of the learning process and various glitches of juvenile technology. It also takes time for positive network effects to show up. In times of technological transformation, network effects and synergies based on old technologies are vanishing and the network effects that ultimately will be built on the replacing new technology are not yet there. It is even possible that a new technology will not increase absolute productivity at all. In such a case,

4 Of course there is growth of markets and sales volumes, too, but it appears that in the new global dynamics the production of mature and mass-marketable goods has a strong tendency to move to countries where labor is cheaper than in the old industrialized, aging West. Thus, in many product groups growth of market volume is only available as a source of growth in the early phases of product life cycle, before the production matures and is transferred. Then a new product is needed to keep going on. Thus, we are getting the role of a nursery for new products, with mass production happening elsewhere. This surfing on a rising tide of new innovations is the essence of innovation economy, and needs a constant stream of innovations to feed the economy machine.

5 Pinch, Trevor & Wiebe E. Bijker (1987): The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other (in Bijker, Hughes & Pinch 1989, 17-50).

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"...the social advantage of the new technology over the old is... in the future path of returns. With the opportunities created by the new technology for further technological innovations that stretch over future decades, the actual rate of return may hold constant instead of falling as it would if technology had remained static" (Carlaw & Lipsey 2001 ).

There are always several of these technological/economic mega-transformations going on at the same time, in different phases. Very few technological or commercial innovations have ever been separate from these big trends. Most individual technological innovations are part of some large process whereby a GPT is diffusing through society, replacing some old technologies and producing some novel gadgets or solutions to problems and challenges that were not there before the GPT redefined the horizon.

Parallel to this movement we have institutional development, both in business and in society in general, which always accompanies technological change.

3 Innovation as a knowledge/know-how structure

In the case of electricity, the real impact on productivity and thus economic growth was not made by the innovation itself or by manufacturing electronic appliances, but by taking the technology into wide use. This is a crucial distinction that is often overlooked, with sad consequences. Electricity became important only as it transformed practices. And that is even more generally true: it is not their creation and subsequent production that make innovations important, but their wide use.

Of course, we don’t have one without the other, but the policy implications for innovation journalism are clear: although a technological transformation begins with the birth of some new technology, it is only made important by its diffusion into society and good penetration. This suggests two quite different approaches for innovation journalism. Should it be oriented toward 1) the conditions and acts of innovation-creation or toward 2) the process of innovation-diffusion and subsequent use? It is crucial to realize that the technological innovation that produced a new marketable product is only the first in a long series of innovations that any technological transformation in society demands: for the diffusion to take place we need millions upon millions of individual or collective user innovations. For a user to embrace a new technology and restructure his user processes to suit it is an innovation itself. User innovations are preceded by user experiments when the user tries to find the special way of using the product that suits his needs best. As innovations are always introduced into a setting where they interact with old technologies, it is here where most technological complementarities of the new technology are found and realized.

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This user experimentation, which has in fact always been there, is nowadays more and more often taken into conscious use by pioneering companies who are even developing tool-kits for key users to facilitate their experimentation and subsequent communication of their ideas back to the company (see e.g. v. Hippel 2005, Thomke and v. Hippel 2006)6. In software industry this has created the open source -movement, the gist of which is precisely that there is a huge creative potential in the user end of the process, and recognizing that can benefit all parties.

Richard Langlois (2001)7 refers to modern consumption theory that sees end consumers of commercial products as co-producers who create basic utility for themselves, their families, organizations or other communities from various inputs, like their own work, knowledge, know-how, available raw materials, and technology. This view has the additional merit of reminding us of the often overlooked part of economy, namely household work. Its value to economy is seldom calculated, but it forms the steady foundation that makes possible much of what is seen as the "real economy". According to some writers this "second economy" may comprise as much as 45-50 % of GNP even in industrialized countries. The efficiency of this co-production is a major factor in any national economy. In fact, much of what is called consumption is in fact investments or production inputs into the second economy.

6 Hippel, Eric von (2005): Democratizing Innovation. (The MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.); Thomke, Stefan & Eric v. Hippel (2006): Customers as Innovators: A New Way to Create Value. (Harvard Business Reviw OnPoint, Executive Edition, Spring 2006, 64-74.)

7 Langlois, Richard N. (2001): Knowledge, consumption, and endogenous growth (J. Evol. Econ. 2001 11: 77-93).

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The co-production that is hidden in what is usually called consumption requires a fair amount of skills and a knowledge structure that must be compatible with other knowledge structures in society. This is to say, for example, that as firms and public organizations take computer technology into use, also household producers meet related demands and challenges. Computer proficiency in work makes it easier to adapt one's own household to computer/internet era, but the influence goes also the other way around. People, who are accustomed to computer technology at home, are more ready to adapt to it at work, too.

So, we are led back to the old dilemma, whether producer push or user pull is more crucial in a technological transformation process and, hence, innovation economy, where technological transformation has become the norm.

The wise thing, naturally, is not to see these two as somehow opposite or competing processes. It is e.g. well known in Finland that demand pull created by public service organizations, banks and the like, made financially possible the development activity that created the current situation where banking in Finland is one of the most computerized in the world. Already in 1980ies there was huge activity in banks putting the new technology into use, but also at homes where the possibility of using banking services from one’s own living room was well received. For every innovation by software developers8, user companies (in this case banks) added their own even more numerous innovations in application of software, organization and service concept and finally also the end users of these services (in this case bank customers, which include private citizens and still other business companies) came to add theirs. In this case end user innovations were about personal life management, or personal ways to use computerized banking services as part of one’s economy management, or company level solutions of payment, purchasing and other financial activities. Some companies even developed new business models based on the newly available electronic money- transaction possibilities. Thus we have the e-business of today. At all levels of this diffusion chain there were both demand pull and producer push effects – and innovations. Thus, innovation diffusion is regularly a multi-layered process, a cascade where the innovation-output of one layer serves as an innovation-input for the next level. In most cases, no clear-cut distinction is possible between users and producers of innovations. There is innovation in all stages of diffusion, all steps of the innovation cascade. The more complicated and “deep cutting” the product, the more it is so.

8 Software is here seen as new technology.

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Although it is common to speak only of the first-producer innovations, there is no justification whatsoever for forgetting this innovative activity that happens below the level of the first producer. Technological complementarities are not only sought and found in the initial first-producer phase, but also and perhaps especially at all later levels of the innovation cascade. The real impact on the national economy is in fact made there, at those levels of the cascade where the original innovation is put into use, itself an innovative process. Innovative first-producer companies may create the most intelligent products ever, but if they are not put into creative use at the lower levels of the innovation cascade, they don’t leave many footprints in national economy. We have here a view of innovation, not as a once-and-for-all invention made by some creative person or company, but as a many-layered knowledge/know-how structure. In addition to the original first-producer innovations that comprise the virgin idea or product, also the subsequent co-innovations that comprise the process of putting the original idea or product into use, are part of the new technology and the new product. Thus, innovation is like a cat with an unexpectedly long tail. If that is not understood and all institutional support is concentrated on the first-producer end, you step on the cat’s tail and you are in danger of entering the situation where most Western economies today in fact are: there is excellent activity in the ultimate first-producer end, but all other layers of the innovation’s knowledge/know-how structure, and all other steps of its diffusion cascade, are neglected. Here we have finally entered the realm of innovation journalism. We are in the position to ask, what does innovation economy with its growth imperative mean from the innovation journalistic point of view. The answer is at once obvious: especially if innovation activity is seen from the point of view of national economy as in this article, the most important task of innovation journalism can not be anything else but to support the process of innovation diffusion as best it can, in its entirety. But what does that mean in practice?

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4 Innovation journalism: whose point of view?

On the basis of the discussion above, a number of questions must be asked and answered by innovation journalists. I present here a few:

4.1 Audience

Who is the intended reader of an injo9 story? If it is just a business-man or an engineer in an innovative company, then innovation journalism has condemned itself to special publications with economy and technology beat and a corresponding audience. That is, of course, an option, but then the project of innovation journalism is reduced to getting some more technology content to business magazines and some more business content to technology magazines, a minor adjustment that does not wake up great feelings for or against. Good technology stories have always assessed also the business aspect and good business stories have always been aware of the technology part. But good journalism is always a minority, so it is always good to remind of it. If innovation journalism wants to reach to the general audience, the matter becomes quite different. Then the next question must be: what is the important content that injo may convey to its lay readers? What is it used for?

4.2 Use The role of an ordinary person or an ordinary user company or organization in the national innovation economy is one of a co-innovator or user-innovator, who tries new solutions in the context of his own organization, own business, or private household economy, to keep abreast of the general development. She wants to be more efficient, to earn more, to have a better life, or what ever motivations various private citizens or other users might have. For her meticulous coverage of the slightest movements by some key companies and precise technological specifications of their new products are mostly irrelevant and therefore uninteresting. They are not going to invest in these companies. They are not going to do anything very technical, because there are professionals to do that. Rather they need critical and reliable user-information of much more general level about how they could apply this new technology, how others have done it, with what success, etc. They need the user point of view, which is more or less the opposite of what business/ economy/ technology journalism mostly is today.

9 Injo = innovation journalism, for brevity

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Good innovation journalism facilitates innovation diffusion (or rejection) and influences the process by circling back the experience and needs of users to product designers.

In my data10 by far most innovation writing is very elitist. Stories are written from the point of view of politicians, company managers and engineers, i.e. either political elite or first-producers of innovation. Outside specialist magazines, stories with user focus or user point of view are few and even then the angle is not utilized to the full. Therefore it is usually difficult to imagine what might be the possible use of these stories to any ordinary reader. This being so, it may be that not many ordinary users of technology ever read them at all (why would they?) and the audience is mainly restricted to the same types of people who appear in the stories.

A curious detail, though, is that women’s magazines have a huge number of injo stories and they are almost exclusively written from the user point of view. The theme of these stories is always personal life-management where some innovation is offered as remedy. The problems are self-centered and often narcissistic and all more general technological, economic, social, cultural or political aspects of innovations, new technology or society are systematically forgotten. The reader is wrapped in her atomistic and consumerist self, which is pampered as true femininity, and thus she is rendered non-citizen. This kind of “journalism” sadly reinforces old gender roles where technology and politics are seen as something outside the female sphere of interest and influence.

4.3 Developments abroad From the point of view of a first-producer, all professional media, industrial cluster networks and informal networks of peers are an important channel of information. Some use them better, some are less skilled, but for all alike, technology development and trends outside their own networks receive very little attention.

At the national level this points to the need of good coverage of technology trends in comparable foreign countries. It is no use inventing wheel time after time in different countries, and it would be very wise to be aware of emerging technology trends or perhaps problems, as early as possible. In my research data coverage of technological developments and trends abroad is even in the best of media very scant up to the point that it may be a problem to the national economy. Technology, in itself, is not patriotic. You may take advantage of, say, Russian or Chinese technology, as well as American, but only if you are aware of it. Fantastic things are done in China these days, but to my knowledge not a single Western media even scratches the surface of it. The Chinese, however, can read a lot of what is done in the West. We never surprise them. Therefore they will surprise us many times in the years to come.

10 The material consists of almost 1000 media stories in a number of Finnish newspapers, magazines and TV news broadcasts.

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4.4 Social innovations and other social/cultural aspects All technological change implies changes in relative social/economic positions of different groups of people (defined by gender differences, geographic differences, age differences, education, occupation and the like) and it shapes our future extensively. Therefore technological development is politically laden and it should be analyzed as such.

However, in my research material, technological change is mostly treated as if it were a law-like natural phenomenon and thus outside the sphere of political and other partisan interests. In this view, economy is driven by autonomous technological change that may have social consequences but usually not social/ political motivation and definitely no social/ political responsibility attached. This technological determinism is a political position taken by those who either fail to see the political/ social/ cultural nature of technology or who are so firmly on the socially/ economically winning side that they do not want to acknowledge the existence of losers and the legitimacy of their position. However, we all know that technological choices have social consequences, and there are case studies proving that sometimes technology has been intentionally used to attain political/ social goals11. Technology is also shaped by social/ cultural factors (e.g. household technology is often designed in view of a certain gender- based division of labor). Even when this is not the case, the social nature of technology makes it a social concern, if not for engineers or entrepreneurs, at least for society who supports economic and technological activity in many ways. It may be asked, for example, if it is in national interests to support certain technology or not, or on what terms, and in that assessment social concerns must figure along with economic and technical views and visions, which only seldom appears to be the case. It appears that some technologies are recognized as politically laden (e.g. energy technology and sometimes transport technology), but some (e.g. mobile technology) are not. This must be a misunderstanding or reflect poor analysis. Energy technology is made politically interesting because energy decisions affect people (location of power stations, environmental concerns, etc.) AND society pays part of the bill. Is this not the case with all technology? What technology does not affect people? What technology is not subsidized by society in myriad ways? This should be an important concern for innovation journalists. What it means in practice should be analyzed in each case separately. I have the strong feeling that in many cases journalists might be surprised by their own analyses, should they ever be made.

11 E.g. MacKenzie, Donald & Judy Wajcman 1985: The Social Shaping of Technology, second edition 1999, Open University Press, Maidenhead, Phil.

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4.5 Soft sectors

A related observation in my research material is that in media discussion certain industries and technologies figure heavily and some are almost forgotten. This does not always reflect the real importance of these industries or technologies in national economy. I just take one example: In Finland the development of productivity in services will probably be the key factor in our future economic success or failure. Therefore covering and discussing innovation activity in services would be good innovation journalism indeed. However, it is almost non-existent or in any case very scant. When we have it, it is in most cases about national level structural developments. Yet it is in individual organizations and firms, where economic results are made and where innovations are needed and put into use. Covering this activity would give people in other organizations good ideas and examples to help them with their own development needs.

Current huge emphasis in media on all things ICT and forgetting most other sectors of economy, is a disservice to readers and economy alike. Innovation journalism has a historic chance of fixing this problem, but it appears that even in this conference new information technology and its innovations dominate discussion. Shame on us.

4.6 Future orientation

From the discussion above it should be quite obvious that I see future orientation as the essence and backbone of innovation journalism12. It follows naturally from my view of innovation journalism as the crucially needed journalism of change. When change has become the only constant in society, journalists should adapt their work methods accordingly, turn their attention to change as a general phenomenon, the primary manifestation and tool of which innovations are. In my own research I define innovation journalism so broadly as to include all journalism, what ever the subject, if it has a conscious future orientation. It does not matter, whether we speak of technological innovations or whether we are more interested in social innovations: in both cases it is about future development paths. For future is very path dependent both in technology and in society in general. The solutions, be they technical or social, of today, define paths of future development. Although it may not be impossible to reverse or adjust a path later, it may be very difficult. If, for example, we invest very heavily in hydrogen technology in the decades to come, the sheer size of the needed infra-structural investments binds us for a century or so to come. Or if we adopt one technological standard today, that closes out some other standards and development paths.

12 Emphasis on future is evident also in Uskali, Turo (2005): Paying Attention to Weak Signals - The Key Concept for Innovation Journalism. Innovation Journalism Vol.1 No.1, May 3 2004; and Jyrki Alkio's (2006) article How to Write about the Future? in this year's conference, which can be found in this same volume.

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In fact, in our research program we are trying to develop innovation journalistic news criteria that take consciously this point of view: what makes a story journalistically important can not be based upon what has been important in the past. In innovation journalism things become important in relation to some future horizon. So, the basic innovation journalistic task is to recognize the makers of future.

4.7 The definition and scope of innovation journalism

In our conference last year I proposed to define innovation journalism in much broader terms13 than has been customary in our small innovation journalistic community (e.g. Nordfors 2003, 2004, 2004b)14. I claimed that although the initiative to develop innovation-oriented journalism is an important and extremely timely innovation itself and as such worth all praise, seeing innovation journalism as only business journalism spiced with some technology view (like in Nordfors, Kreis & Sandred 2005)15 , will not add much essentially new to what is done in journalism today when it is done well. We can do better than that, for the real poverty of business reporting is elsewhere. I claimed that in order to have some real impact on journalistic practices innovation journalism should include social, cultural, political, and even artistic innovations as well. Instead of or at least in addition to individual innovative commercially marketable products it should look at the processes of change and contexts of innovation in economy. That is because the concept of innovation has deeply changed during the last years as scholars in social science and even policy makers have gradually realized that the traditional linear models of innovation are essentially flawed. Innovation is very seldom a producer push -type phenomenon,

13 For that discussion, see Kauhanen (2005): Innovation is much more than business and technology. Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Innovation Journalism, Stanford University, April 2005. Available on internet at www.innovationjournalism.org.

14 Nordfors, David (2003): The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing it, VINNOVA Information VI 2003:5, ISSN 1650-3120, Oct. 2003. Also published in Innovation Journalism, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 2004. Available on the internet at http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf.

Nordfors, David (2004): Why We Need Innovation Journalism, and Where It May Have a Market. (First Conference on Innovation Journalism. Conference Papers. Innovation Journalism Vol 1 No 3, May 3 2004, 14 pages.).

Nordfors, David (2004b): Innovation Journalism. Presentation in The Competitiveness Institute's 7th Global Conference Building Innovative Clusters for Competitive Advantage, September 27 - October 1 2004, Ottawa, Canada. The presentation slides are available on the internet at http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/235/1/61/.

15 Nordfors, David A., Daniel R. Kreiss & Jan Sandred (2005): Introducing an Innovation Journalism Index. Benchmarking the Swedish Market. (Innovation Journalism, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 02, 2005, 23 pages. http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-5.pdf

15 267 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E.Kauhanen: InJo and the Edogenous Growth Theory The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism but as I have outlined earlier in this paper, it is a much more complicated process, the success of which is crucially dependent on what happens in the so called user end. In fact, clearcut distinctions between innovators and users do not bear scrutiny.

When writing of innovations we deal with “wholesale development” of society, its future work in its entirety. Drawing boundaries around technological development as if it were autonomous is artificial. AnnaLee Saxenian of Berkeley in his recent very deep study (Saxenian 2006)16 has analyzed the reasons why some technology regions in the world have prospered and some not, and her analysis shows convincingly how e.g. ethnic networks of innovator-entrepreneurs and their personal ties to Silicon Valley companies have played a crucial role. That is a good example of the kind of things that are missed if the wider social context of innovation is deemed uninteresting by innovation journalists. For most European economies at least, the crucial issue today is not the dearth of media information about new companies and their new products but the need to maintain and sharpen our edge in global competition. That suggests a bit more analytic and perhaps economy (and not company or product) oriented approach to innovation journalism as well. I also expressed the concern that restricting the concept of innovation journalism to technology and economy, which the narrow definition effectively does, closes the doors of innovation journalism to all other journalists that are not of those beats, i.e. majority of them. I repeat the concern here. My experience from Finland during the two years of the Finnish innovation journalism program convinces me that innovation journalism as a genre will probably not develop and survive if it is not accepted that it can be much more than business and technology journalism just a bit mixed.

5 Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the National Technology Agency of Finland, TEKES, for financing the Finnish Innovation Journalism Research Program. I also thank Esa Reunanen of Tampere University, and Turo Uskali, of the University of Jyväskylä, for valuable comments.

6 Summary

In this article it is claimed that the so called new endogenous theory of growth, which in some formulation is behind most discussions of innovation society,

16 Saxenian, AnnaLee (2006): The New Argonauts. Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2006, 424 pages.

16 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 E.Kauhanen: InJo and the Edogenous Growth Theory The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism necessarily suggests that innovations make their impact only in and through the process of innovation diffusion, which therefore attains the central role in innovation economy. That makes issues related to innovation diffusion the staple food of innovation journalism.

A view is presented where innovation process is seen as a cascade, where the innovation output of the previous level is seen as innovation input at the next level. At each level, also in the user end of the cascade, additional innovations are needed to put the first-producer innovation in use. Thus users of innovation become co- innovators, which forces us to see innovations as multi-layered knowledge/know- how structures where user innovations are included in addition to the original first- producer innovation or idea. Some implications of this view for innovation journalism are discussed.

The focus of this paper is on national economy.

Innovation journalism is defined as including all fields of journalism with future orientation, whether there is technological innovation included or not. Thus social, cultural, political and even artistic innovations are seen as legitimate and important prey for innovation journalists.

Erkki Kauhanen, Ph.D. is researcher and journalist, the Journalism Research and Development Centre, University of Tampere. He graduated as a journalist from the Journalism school of Sanoma Corporation in 1985. He prepared his master's thesis in biology (ecology) at the University of Helsinki in 1987 and got his Ph.D. in mass communication in 1997. Since 1980 he has worked in several Finnish national media, e.g. as Scandinavian correspondent (stationed in Stockholm, Sweden) with the leading Finnish afternoon paper the Ilta-Sanomat, as a science journalist in the Helsingin Sanomat and as a cultural journalist and science journalist and later chief of the science programs unit of national radio channel 1 (Yle 1). He has spent several years in Vietnam doing research on intercultural communication and giving courses on organizational communication with AITCV (Asian Institute of Technology Center, Vietnam). Currently he is employed as a researcher with the Journalism Research and Development Centre, University of Tampere, Innovation Journalism Research Program.

17 269

Innovation Journalism for Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Commercialization

Antti Ainamo

Visiting scholar, Stanford University

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1 INTRODUCTION ...... 3 2 THE IDEA OF INCREASING RETURNS ...... 6 3 ROLES THAT INNOVATION JOURNALISM CAN PLAY IN INCREASING RETURNS...... 7 4 STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF PREVIOUS JOURNALISTIC GENRES AND “BEATS” ...... 8 4.1 WATCHDOG JOURNALISM...... 8 4.2 LAPDOG AND MONGREL JOURNALISM...... 9 4.3 CONSERVATIVE JOURNALISM...... 9 4.4 INNOVATION JOURNALISM: BEYOND MONGREL JOURNALISM INTO AN ESTABLISHED “BEAT”? ...... 10 5 NEW RESEARCH DIRECTIONS: THE FUTURE OF INNOVATION JOURNALISM? ...... 11 5.1 INNOVATION AS A NEWS GENRE...... 11 5.2 INNOVATION JOURNALISM AS AGENDA SETTING...... 12 5.3 INNOVATION AS A JOURNALISTIC “BEAT”...... 12 5.4 INNOVATION JOURNALISM AS PROFESSIONAL SPECIALIZATION...... 13 6 CONCLUSION...... 14

2 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 A.Ainamo: InJo for Bridging the Gap…. The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Innovation Journalism for Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Commercialization

A commentary on Erkki Kauhanen (in this volume), “Innovation journalism as an essential element in the new endogenous theory of growth”

1 Introduction

Many regional innovation systems in the Europe Union have been found to excel in scientific research but fail – at least in part – to translate the new scientific knowledge thus created into economic success1. From the perspective of innovation systems thinking -- the line of thought that science, industry, and the stage should work together to improve local science-based technology and local competitiveness -- this failure can be considered to be major. One explanation for this kind of failure is that science, industry, and the economy are different fields of society that exhibit distinctly different sets of institutional arrangements, cultural schemas, scripts, and mental models. Within this context, the emerging literature on “innovation journalism”2 has emphasized that the media and journalism can here step in to have an important role in helping to bridge the gap that exists between the institutions that go with new science-based technologies and those that go with commercialization of these technologies. Nordfors (2003/2004) suggests that innovation journalists learn the established rules of the game in institutionalized fields such as those of science, technology, and business, and develop “critical mass”. 3 In this view, in order for innovation journalism to have “a niche and an arena for a new professional community[,] become a new school of journalism[, and] contribute with dialogue and criticism that inspires companies and lawmakers towards sustainable growth”, 4 journalists should subordinate themselves to the institutional logics of the system which they are to change:

“If reporters are to offer a well-founded opinion about whether or not a society or company is heading towards growth, they need a thorough understanding of both technology and business matters... [I]innovation

1 See, for example, Aho, 2006.

2 See Nordfors, 2003/2004 for the seminal paper.

3 Nordfors, 2003/2004.

4 Nordfors, 2003/2004:3-4.

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journalists need to understand the markets and become well informed about the leading interests, their relations to each other, and their agenda.” 5

The innovation journalism literature has thus emphasized that before the media and journalism can ever truly have an important role, innovation journalists and innovation media must be as in a straitjacket or on a leash. However, the precise logic by which this “critical mass” in innovation journalism will come about has of yet neither been named nor specified in this innovation journalism research. Now, in stark contrast to such a view of unquestioned subordination of innovation journalism to the system that established fields jointly represent, Erkki Kauhanen (in this volume) 6 calls for innovation journalists not to subordinate themselves to anything. He argues that innovation journalism be a form of “horizontal communication” that transgresses the boundaries of the conventionally distinct fields of society and their associated areas of specialization.

The idea of a rather uncontrolled and serendipitous approach to commercializing new technologies and attracting media attention to “accidental empires” in ways that are not fully controlled by the state or central actor is not new, of course. Indeed, it has always been, and will probably continue to be so that “new media tend to imitate the old media”.7 It has been shown that important changes in the U.S. radio broadcasting field, for example, first occurred as a result of innovations at the periphery of the field, which then migrated to the core after they had been shown to be effective.8 Also more generally, a niche in the periphery of a field has been shown to be a legitimate reason for not understanding the institutional logics of the field.9 In the specific context of the literature on innovation journalism, nonetheless, the idea of a rather uncontrolled approach to innovation journalism is a new approach. This commentary takes the aim of integrating the idea of “horizontal communication” into the research programme of innovation journalism.10 The first premise of this commentary to Kauhanen is that he blends selected insights from political science and evolutionary biology in a way that is very interesting. Clearly, he is a good scientist by training. On the other hand, it can be considered an unfortunate downside of his contribution on “horizontal communication” that he follows a discipline of “stylized facts”, rather than grounding new theory, testing a hypothesis, or otherwise combining the idea with

5 Nordfors (2003/2004:3-4, emphasis added; for similar ideas, see Sandred, 2004; Kauhanen (in this volume), Hautamäki, in this volume.

6 Note: This commentary refers to the original version of Kauhanen’s paper, presented at the Third conference on Innovation Journalism, April 6.

7 Cringely, 1992:63.

8 Leblebici and colleagues, 1991; see also Lounsbury and Ventresca, 2003.

9 Mohr, 2005.

10 Nordors, 2003/2004; Sandred, 2004; Uskali, 2005; Hautamäki, in this volume.

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systematic observations of journalistic outputs, ways or work, patterns of discourse, or logics of practice. His focus remains to the end on “politizing” (this expression is from Hautamäki, in this volume), rather than on specifying what the mechanisms of increasing returns and horizontal communication that he identifies might mean in practice. Maybe this is because is not specialized on topics such as how to invent new technologies or how to channel them into use through business channels or the media, but a political scientist.

The second premise of the commentary is that Kauhanen’s idea of “horizontal communication” is so good it is worth development regardless of the person or research team doing that. The idea is original in the context of innovation journalism. The idea provides new spin to the emerging research literature. It may well be very productive. It points in interesting directions for future research on innovation journalism. A gap between new technologies and how they are commercialized exists in research literature also beyond research on media and journalism11. Within research in innovation journalism, more specifically, the research idea of “horizontal communication” can thus be considered one rupture for a new kind of analysis of innovation journalism and a new journalistic discourse. It amounts to an opening for specification of cultures and cognition across the macro and micro levels of analysis of why and how would the proposed marriage of “increasing [economic] returns” of journalism and new technologies reflect on each other.12

Within this context, this short paper is an attempt to explore, even to some extent map, some of the contours of this rupture. In the pages that follow, we sketch in a very preliminary manner one view of how and why innovation journalism can make a difference in systems of innovation in Europe not only at the level of “stylized facts”. We make an attempt to blend the ideas of “horizontal communication” into extant research literature that has been carried out on innovation journalism, innovations, and institutions, the media and journalism, and so on. We argue that just as such genres and “beats” in the natural environment and business were journalistic projects of the 20th century innovation journalism appears to be one of the key journalistic projects of the 21st century. We present a first sketch of why and how to make a research-based specification of some of the ways that innovation journalism can make a difference. We specify a few directions for research mainly at the micro level of journalistic, science, engineering, and business practices, with implications also for research, commercialization, and other activities at other system levels of society and beyond. The paper is structured as follows. A very brief summary of what economists mean by “increasing returns” follows this introduction. Starting to move on away from evolutionary economics, the paper continues with this treatise of evolutionary economies with a mapping of the role that innovation journalism may be able to

11 See Hargadon and Douglas, 2001; Scott, 2005 for some examples.

12 Kauhanen, in this volume.

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play in bringing about these “increasing returns” in a given local or sectoral system of innovation. After this first part of the paper, we take a journalistic and historical turn in the second part of the paper to look at what kind of journalistic traditions have followed from earlier journalistic projects. We point out how each new journalistic project has, in the long term, developed into a distinct issue-based genre that has then been overcome by a new issue13. As an outcome of such evolution of issues, a specific kind of regularity and conservativeness has come to characterize at least the two earlier genres and “beats” (that is, the environmental journalism and business journalism, mentioned above). Thus, we argue that the journalistic field is spotted with traditions or rules of the game that are sediments of earlier projects of the journalistic profession. The paper acknowledges that innovation journalism in the immediate future is likely to be different than in the recent past of the “dot.com” bubble which we, in fact, hint might be a key formative moment in the crystallization of the new journalistic project of innovation journalism. The paper concludes with a notation of a few research directions that we can identify for the study of phenomena that we believe are key issues in and around research in innovation journalism.

2 The idea of increasing returns

What is known of increasing returns in literature, it seems credible the claim that journalism can – at least potentially – become a mediator or translator of how to make Europe – or any system of innovation for that matter – more competitive (as claimed by Nordfors, 2003/2004, and Hautamäki, in this volume, for example). The increasing returns argument in economics is essentially the idea that the more nodes there are in a network, the more valuable are both the network as a whole and each of the many node in this network, in contrast to a non-existing or small network with no or only a few nodes.14 In essence, increasing returns is the opposing argument to that of elitism, whereby holding resources that are scarce would make these resources more valuable.

“Increasing returns” come in more than one guise. For example, the classic example of increasing returns in literature is a telefax. One telefax could never valuable as long as there was only one such device. In any social, business, or other kind of a network, when there were two or more telefaxes, however, those using one could use it to send a message to another, and/or vice versa.

13 Downs, 1972.

14 Arthur, 1994.

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Besides the above classic telefax kind of example, there are also more modern kinds of examples of increasing returns, such as the “mobile phone” (cell phone) or the “personal digital assistant” (PDA), for example. These modern devices can also connect to other devices than those of their specific or peculiar kind. 15 A mobile phone can connect to a landline, for example. A PDA can connect to laptop, for example.

The fact that telefaxes are less pervasive in contemporary society than are mobile phones and PDAs can be explained from the perspective of increasing returns. The latter – what we call “modern” – kinds of devices express new technologies and exhibit increasing returns in terms of not only the spread of the devices, but also of the underlying technologies. Modern devices have few negative externalities, regardless of what technological or user perspective is taken to look at their spread. This win-win relationship between introduction of these modern devices and their ways of use derives from the fact that these devices do not appear to require superordinate systems or subordinate systems of infrastructure or users but also work as horizontally across incumbent configurations and systems16. As long as users will consider connecting with extant ways of use of a technology and with other people positive dimensions of their human and social existence, more connections will be better.17 (Of course, there is a built-in assumption here that such a device and technology can also be switched off, at will, by the user. If not, a commercialized technology can represent decreasing rather than increasing returns of economic and/or other benefits, even net cost, to the user).

3 Roles that innovation journalism can play in increasing returns

Most people are pretty ”local”; they interact most people with whom are closest to them in terms of distance, measured in yards and miles; a few hour’s driving distance, at the most18. Within this view, the local world is a pretty nice place, and aside from a few complaints, these people are quite happy with the status quo. This goes for people in the western world, at least. There have been few revolutions in the core countries of the western world, at least as of lately.

15 See e.g. Ainamo and Korhonen, 2003 for the linkages of these technologies to other technologies and contemporary ways of use.

16 See Hargadon and Douglas, 2001.

17 I am grateful for Andy Hargadon for helping to develop this argument so that it now takes into account also analogous use of earlier technologies and dynamics, rather than only horizontal communication across technologies and people at given point in time.

18 Mansell and Steinmueller, 2000.

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What, then, is the role that innovation journalism can play in this context? On the basis of drawing inspiration from a long-extant view in marketing literature, 19 it would appear that innovation journalism can have a role in one or several of the following four roles:

• Raising awareness of innovative devices and technologies

• Raising interest in these innovations,

• Enabling citizens and users to make meaningful decisions about whether to adopt these innovations, and/or

• Facilitating the integration of these innovations and making them into actionable parts of networks (for example, the digital ecosystems and/or social networks in telephony, internet, and or the intranet), in which they are embedded

4 Standing on the shoulders of previous journalistic genres and “beats”

What makes innovation journalism different from traditional journalism? What, if anything, makes innovation journalism a genre or “beat” separate from earlier genres and “beats”, such as broadsheet journalism, environmental journalism, business journalism, legal journalism, etc.? What are a genre and a “beat”, to begin with? To answer these questions, we will first describe what we mean by genres of journalism – or what we call “watchdog journalism”, “lapdog journalism”, “mongrel journalism”, and “conservative journalism”. Then we present our view of how to position innovation journalism in the journalistic field vis-à-vis established genres and “beats”. Finally, we review the case for innovation journalism as an established “beat” and “profession”.

4.1 Watchdog journalism. The call for watchdog journalism emerged in the late 19th century as a call – a successful call, by hindsight – for quality journalism. The history of journalism is that at first the media were very much an “advertiser” or common carrier of content by corporations. 20 As a countermovement to the advertiser or common-carrier role for corporate messages, the new journalistic project in society became a “partisan” one. In the sense of some of the best professional traditions of journalism in the modern day, the role of journalism became to be ”watchdog of democracy”.

19 Strong, 1925.

20 Starr, 2004.

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4.2 Lapdog and mongrel journalism. After the victorious run of watchdog journalism, however, corporate messages made a come-back in the latter half of the 20th century. The corporations made their presence re-established, at least in part, as determinants of media content. 21 Antti Mikkonen (1998), the Finnish business journalist has written, at the worst, in the 1980s, Finnish business journalists were not watchdogs of democracy. Rather, business journalists were ”lapdogs of corporations” and “mongrels of plutocracy”. By this, Mikkonen meant that journalistic practice by and large fully lost their capacity for critical inquiry, on the one hand, and bred new kinds of peculiar logics whereby journalists were mongrel dogs in a heated chase for anything that appeared to be moving in business and the society at large, on the other hand..

4.3 Conservative journalism. Kaarle Nordenstrang and Theodore Glasser (in this volume) strongly suggest that both traditional watchdog journalism for the broadsheet media and the lapdog journalism for the business press have both, ultimately, become conservative genres. Broadsheet journalism has become conservative because it is inherently local, explicitly oriented to representing the interests of people who are not cosmopolitan and innovative. Business journalism has become conservative because it represents the views of “business people” – a restricted elite of corporate managers, investors, and entrepreneurs – who have a private and hegemonic interest that the majority of people will hear only what they are used to hearing; that is, that the desires and wants of the majority of the people will be satisfied by virtue of products, services, and investment goods supplied to them by the business elite. What, then, triggered the process whereby watchdog, and lapdog and mongrel genres of journalism all evolved into conservative kinds of genre? There are at least two kinds of explanations. On the one hand, a Marxist answer to the question would be that the media and journalists are pawns of the dominant groups in society. 22 From this perspective, it appears almost obvious that in contemporary capitalist society, in particular, their role would be subordinated to financiers and capitalists whose discourse will dominate (capitalist) society. 23 Reporters of news will be under considerable pressure to deliver news to their readers, listeners, viewers, or browsers of a conservative genre because these have become accustomed to such news.

21 See, for example, Kjaer and Langer, 2005.

22 Nordenstrang and Glasser, in this volume.

23 See also Ainamo, Tienari, and Vaara, 2005, for a review of ideologies underlying various conceptions of journalism.

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Another answer to how conservativeness can arrive is by American professional management wisdom. This dominant ideology of the modern world society 24 will preach that business is about serving the customer and ”the customer is always right”. If citizens are innovative, they must delivered news about innovations. If they are conservative, they are to be delivered news of a conservative kind, if they do not ask for anything different. If a piece of news is conservative, this suggests that a majority of readers, listeners, viewers, and browsers are conservative, and also other news that are delivered to them must be of conservative kind. In other words, conservativism arrives as an outcome of isomorphic or institutional mechanisms among customers reading news or among the organizations supplying them with news, or both.25

4.4 Innovation journalism: Beyond mongrel journalism into an established “beat”? The word “beat” in journalistic discourse stems from the time that crime reporters literally followed police officers on their “beat”. Separate “beats” later developed for political news, culture, business, etc., on the basis of the “beat” model. Thus, journalism as a series of “beats” is really a model of organizing. The word “beat” refers to the fact that specialized journalist will live in the “rhythm” and “pace” of the world on which they report.26 Just as crime journalism has been about crimes and how they are solved or ought to be solved, how business journalism is about transactions and how news about them were released or should have been released, or how environmental journalism is about pollution and what to do about it, also innovation journalism has at least two sides. On the one hand, innovation journalism is about innovations. On the other hand, it is about how products of those technologies are commercialized. It is in the nature of forms of human and social life that they tend to exhibit evolution toward extreme forms. Once blind variation leads to a dominant form that climaxes in a way whereby that form is no longer sustainable, a counter- development will immediately be provided a niche in which to take shape and evolve free of the constraint of the existence of an earlier form that is clearly superior. Within this context, Innovation journalism can be seen as a call for a new kind of a non-conservative journalism that takes a constructive stance to innovative and various kinds of entrepreneurial activities by research institutions, business, government, NGOs, and individuals. Innovation journalism can take shape by

24 See Meyer, 2002.

25 Meyer, 2002; see also Scott 2005; DiMaggio and Powell 1983.

26 The author is grateful to discussions with Jyrki Alkio, Theodore Glasser, Stine Grodal, Andrew Hargadon, Stefan Jönsson, Erkki Kauhanen, Kaarle Nordenstrang, David Nordfors, Marjatta Seulamo, Turo Uskali, and Marc Ventresca for this definition of the concept of “beat” in journalistic practice. Remaining mistakes and/or contradictions with established journalistic discourse, standard literature, or the views of the above commentators remain the responsibility of the author.

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natural evolution so that innovation news and the contours of producing them are shaped by the innovative activities and outcomes.

The contours of innovation journalism can also be shaped and accelerated by selective breeding. Here, “breeders” can be such bricoleurs as journalists, their possible employers, by other private or public organizations, and/or entrepreneurs.27

5 New research directions: The future of innovation journalism?

This paper is obviously but a preliminary sketch of these issues but perhaps an interesting paper nonetheless. Even in this short paper, nonetheless, it is possible to point at at few not unimportant directions for future research in the context of innovation journalism:

5.1 Innovation as a news genre. News specialized in innovation are, in large part, already a reality. Witness specialized ‘innovation news sections’ in global business-media outlets such as Wall Street Journal and Business Week. Financial Times has a tag called innovation. Also such a local outlet as the Finnish regional daily Aamulehti has a special section on innovation at least once in a month, even if this only a couple of pages. In addition to sections in established media outlets, there are also distinct ‘innovation media outlets’ that are fully dedicated to innovation journalism, such as Red Herring. Thus, in more ways than one, there is a) a flow of innovation news, b) a pool of news that has accumulated over time, and c) a genre that characterizes such news across time. Within the context of innovations news as a specific genre, an interesting research direction would appear to be the tracking of the first appearance and developments in the new genre of innovation news. For example, what kind of news did journalists write at the time that Edison first commercialized the electric light? 28 Did the news that were written conform to established mental models about news production and readership? Did they open new ground? Was there conflict or tension between the mental models or schemas of readers that were well established and some kind of new scripts that arrived only with the news about the innovation of the electric light?

27 See Scott, 2005, for review of bricolage.

28 The author is grateful to Turo Uskali for suggesting agenda setting theory as an appropriate way to frame innovation journalism for the purposes of research and to support policy.

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5.2 Innovation journalism as agenda setting. To study innovation news, there is a well established research idea in communication theory that news media outlets are not always successful at telling people what to think, but they are quite successful at telling them what to think about. 29 Although different people may feel differently about the issue at hand, studies building on this idea have found that people with similar media exposure tend to place importance on the same issues.

Framing innovation journalism against the background of agenda setting theory 30 would appear to be an appropriate way to frame innovation journalism as a phenomenon worthy of both research and worthy of reification in practice. First, agenda setting as a research idea has explanatory power because it amounts to a theory that predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same issues are important. Thus, it promises to explain why most people can prioritize the same issues as important. Second, agenda setting is not a complex theory. Rather, it is a theory that is parsimonious and easy to understand. Finally, and equally importantly, the theory can be proven false. If people are not exposed to the same media, the theory predicts that they will not feel that the same issues are important. Within the context of innovations journalism, an interesting research direction would appear to be the tracking of developments from this agenda-setting perspective. In the above case of Edison and the electric light, for example, did innovation journalists conform to established mental models or follow new kinds of scripts about news production and readership? More generally, was there conflict or tension between the mental models or schemas of journalistic genres that were well established and some kind of new schemas and scripts that arrived only with journalism related to the electric light?

5.3 Innovation as a journalistic “beat”.

There might be similarities between one genre of news and another in how they developed into a recognized genre and, moreover, an established “beat” for journalists. Environmental news in Finland is a genre that by hindsight first appeared as a set of small stories in the news media during 1950s and 1960s. The breakthrough into the front page of Helsingin Sanomat, the major newspaper in Finland, took decades and happened not until the 1980s. 31 It was only at this point that environmental journalism became an established “beat” for a group of journalists.

29 McCombs and Shaw, 1972.

30 Ibid.

31 Suhonen, 1994.

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In the case of innovation journalism as a “beat”, it can be proposed that it was the mongrel and lapdog kinds of technology and business journalism that contributed to the recent appearance, expansion, and burst of the dot.com bubble in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Arguably, the burst of the dot.com bubble opened up a niche for the systematic development and emergence of an alternative kind of a genre and “beat” in the form of innovation journalism.

When representations in the media have been suggested to be one explanation for Edison’s success with commercializing the electric light, 32 why did not innovation become an established “beat” for journalists already then? What is happening now in terms of a “beat” being established, or not? What are the weak signals that appear already to exist in terms of the direction of future development? 33 These are questions that are pertinent in terms of research into innovation journalism regardless of the why and the how of organizing innovation journalism in the newsroom.

5.4 Innovation journalism as professional specialization

Sociological research of systems of professions suggest that when professional boundaries will develop in and around innovation journalism, that is when there will be increasing returns on the specialized “beat” of innovation journalism. According to this view, innovation journalism will not automatically prove to be a fad. Rather, in the first phase, there will be attempts to make institutionalized as an established “beat” somewhere at the boundaries of journalistic “beats” in business, technology, and cultural journalism. Sandred’s (2004) paper on innovation journalism in and around biotechnology in Sweden is one seminal piece of research on which to build other studies of professionalization in the case of innovation journalism. In the next phase, it can be expected that some elements of conservativeness will appear within the new “beat” of innovation journalism.34 Finally, professional development will take on directions such as professional association, specialized education, theorization, scientization, accreditation, standardization and, finally, expansion of the profession. Consider the historical

32 Hargadon and Douglas 2001.

33 Alkio, in this volume; Uskali, 2005.

34 There clearly is more than one scenario. It may be that similar boundaries of a specialized subfield within the journalistic profession will never appear in the case of innovation journalism as in the cases of the earlier “beats” such as broadsheet journalism, environmental journalism, or business journalism. This would mean innovation journalism will be a temporary kind of a fad that will evaporate as a concept and be integrated into established “beats” of journalisms. On the one hand, Nordenstrang and Glasser (in this volume; confer Cringely, 1992:63) can be taken to argue that any “beat” will turn conservative. On the other hand, Nordfors (2003/2004) argues that innovation journalism will be the last kind of journalism to be conservative, even if otherwise there were evolutionary determinism.

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accounts of environmental journalism in Finland 35 and business journalism in Finland, 36 for evidence of similar developments in other genres and beats. Just as innovation journalism is to report on the commercialization of science-based innovation, the expectation can be that innovation journalism will in the long term participate in the project of scientized advice of how to commercialize artifacts.

The elements of conservativeness in innovation journalism will differ in part or wholly from those of earlier “beats”. This is because the evolution of any genre of output and the establishment of a regular “beat” may represent a “performance program”37 whereby success will trigger the creation of routines which, in turn, are a basis for path-dependency and conservativeness.

Innovation journalism appears still as a relatively new phenomenon but what elements of conservativeness will in the future unfold in innovation journalism, specific to this new “beat” and professional specialization? What, if any, signs of professionalization, routinization, and conservativeness already may exist?

6 Conclusion

Those with a political agenda in why and how innovation journalism is to make a difference (Aho, 2006: 21, 29; see also Nordfors, 2003/2004; Hautamäki, in this volume) are already working to turn scientific knowledge into business reality with the support of innovation journalism, in the expectation that the missing pieces of the puzzle are sure to appear in the near future. We have in this paper inquired into why and how to operationalize the idea of “horizontal communication” and the logic of “increasing returns” to support bridging of science-based innovations and their commercialization in systems of innovation. There already clearly exist several kinds of media outlets for delivery of innovation news. Innovation journalism is an increasingly a recognized “beat” of journalism. The identification of genres applicable to categorization of innovation journalism and the setting of agendas will further contribute to horizontal communication. There is more than one direction from which to approach research on science-based innovation and innovation journalism, for instance, or commercialization and innovation journalism, for example. Innovation journalism can have multiple roles. It need not only be a mediator between science, technology, and business, but can also be an active agent of change. The existence of this kind of journalism in society can be a foundation on which to build other elements of a highly innovative system.

35 Suhonen, 1994; see also Downs, 1972.

36 Mikkonen, 1998; Ainamo et al., 2006.

37 March and Simon, 1958.

14 Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 A.Ainamo: InJo for Bridging the Gap…. The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Antti Ainamo is presently a Visiting scholar at Stanford University, working closely with Stanford Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects. His research interests other than global projects include new organizational forms, cultural industries, and global business services (including production of business news). His publications include articles in Human Relations and Organization Science, as well as a book published by Kluwer. Currently having his office at SCANCOR (Scandinavian Center for Organizational Research), Stanford University, he is also Docent at Helsinki School of Economics, department of marketing and management, and at University of Art and Design Helsinki, department of industrial and strategic design

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References

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Ainamo, Antti and Korhonen, Timo, ”Product development generations: Some lessons from personal digital assistants and palmtop computers”. In T. Korhonen and A. Ainamo, editors, 2003, Handbook of Product and Service Development in Communication and Information Technology. Boston, Dordrecht, London: Kluwer, 2003, 79-97.

Ainamo, A., J. Tienari and E. Vaara, “Between West and East: A social history of business journalism and management in Cold war Finland”, Human Relations, 2006, forthcoming.

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Mikkonen, Antti, Rahavallan rakkikoirat: Tositarinoita talousjournalismista. Porvoo: WSOY, 1998.

Nordfors, David, “The Concept of Innovation Journalism and a Programme for Developing It”, Innovation Journalism, 1(1), 2004 (originally published as Working paper, Stockholm: VINNOVA, 2003) http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-1-1.pdf

Sandred, Jan, “A business model for innovation journalism: Biotech Sweden”, Innovation Journalism, 1(1), 2004, http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-2-1.pdf,

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Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 A. Hautamäki: Politicizing of InJo The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

Discussion Note

Friday April 7 2006.

The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems

• Moderator: David Nordfors, Program Leader, Innovation Journalism, Stanford University • Karin Markides, Deputy Director General, VINNOVA, Sweden • Lisa Chiles, USAID/Pakistan Mission Director • Ellen Levy, Director of Industry Collaboration and Research, Media X, Stanford University; Network Advisor, Draper Fisher Jurvetson • Patrick Windham, Lecturer, Public Policy Program, Stanford University • Joseph Yang, Director of the Science & Technology Division of the Taipei Economical and Cultural Office (TECO) in San Francisco, Taiwan • Antti Hautamäki, Director of Innovation Research, SITRA, Finland; Visiting Scholar UC Berkeley School of Information, Finland • Markku Huusko, Arvopaperi Magazine, Finland

Comments by Antti Hautamäki

1 Politicizing of Innovation Journalism

It seems to me that Innovation Journalism is not so much a gender of journalism than a special capability to understand innovations and their meaning. To understand the role of InJo we have to distinguish two notions of “innovation system”: national innovation system and innovation ecosystem.

1.1 Two central concepts: NIS and Innovation ecosystem

1.1.1 National Innovation System:

NIS is a set of distinct institutions which jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies and which provides the framework within which government forms and implements policies to influence the innovation process. (Metcalfe: Handbook of Economics of Innovation and Technical Change (1995).) This concept is top down and works well on the national level. It’s traditionally technologically oriented (but not so much any more). In Finland the concept of NIS adopted as a basis for innovation and technology policy in the early 90’s. Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 A. Hautamäki: Politicizing of InJo The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

1.1.2 Innovation ecosystem:

There is a great pressure to develop a “now innovation policy”, not based on the concept of NIS but stressing more specialized networks, local conditions and creative centers. The new concept of innovation ecosystem is emerging.

Innovation ecosystem consists of a large number of participants, that can be business firms, institutions, groups of people etc.

Participants are interconnected and interacting

They are capable of conscious decisions of their own part and they can compete or co-operate

Interconnectedness and interaction lead to shared fate

Innovation ecosystem is like a rainforest, where many kinds of innovation will emerge: technological, conceptual, organizational, social, business etc. The innovation ecosystem is coupled to its environment, which is open and unpredictable This concept is bottom up type and its focus is on regional and local levels. If National innovation system provides good conditions for innovations and entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystem is the dynamic process of innovation creation and experimentation (see AnnaLee Saxenian: The new Argonauts, Regional Advantages in a Global Economy, Harvard University Press 2006)

1.2 The role of InJo in innovation systems Jyrki Alkio said in the conference that journalists are involved in the process of making the future. I agree and want to add three points:

1.2.1 Information circulation in innovation ecosystem

I would say that journals and journalists are tacit members of innovation ecosystem. This means that they contribute to the development of ecosystem independent whether they are conscious about it. This is so because the heart of ecosystem is the circulation of information and knowledge. Media is “mediating” information or clues of information among players of innovation ecosystem. Many times innovation journalism could define the agenda of interesting things to know and debate.

1.2.2 Innovation: a focus of national politics

Innovation policy is becoming a focus of national politics. The reason is that global economy is turning to be “innovation economy”, where enterprises compete by innovations and nations compete by providing an attractive innovation environment - innovation ecosystem for enterprises. Innovation Journalism Vol.3 No.4 May 29 2006 A. Hautamäki: Politicizing of InJo The Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

To be successful in this competition a huge amount of reforms is needed in education system, in universities, in taxation, in IP-legislation, in regional development, in public services etc. So the issue is the deep transformation form industrial society to globally networked society and innovation economy.

1.2.3 The rise of ethical issues of innovations

The third point is that some fields of research and technologies are ethically disputable. Say genetic manipulation, new control technologies based on IT, some forms of energy technology etc. This kind of issues might have deep implications to the success of innovation policy and competitiveness. For example USA might lose its edge in biotechnology thanks of its restrictive attitude towards embryo manipulation.

Innovation journalism will be involved in all these issues. In this kind of situation, the role of innovation journalism will be crucial to reforms needed in global economy. Innovation journalism must be open to all “voices” in society: business, universities, politicians, ordinary people etc. Earlier, say in 90’s, investments in science and technology was generally accepted among Finnish politicians. But now the debate in innovation policy is becoming harder. A Good example is a university issue in Finland. Like you know there are no fees for students. Universities need the right to sell examinations to countries outside EU. The proposal to take even moderate fees from student outside EU has raised a huge protest among Finnish students and the left side of politics. So my conclusion is that topics of innovation journalism will be extremely important and disputable. This will lead to the politicizing of innovation issues!

Antti Hautamäki has worked in the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development Sitra since 1996. He is the director of innovation research and is during 2006-2007 a visiting scholar at Berkeley School of Information at UCB. Before that he was leading the new Innovation Programme and the research team of Sitra. He is a docent of theoretical philosophy in the University of Helsinki. Before Sitra he worked several years as a researcher in University of Helsinki, Academy of Finland and Nokia Research Center, and as a consultant in public and private organizations. Mr. Hautamäki has been a member of several committees preparing research programs or proposals for the Academy of Finland and for different ministries. He was also a member of steering group of a project of the Finnish Government: “Finland in the Global Economy” (2004). He has done his thesis about philosophical logic in 1986. He has published over 150 articles and books about philosophy, cognitive science, innovations, information society and public policy.