FROM PRINT

TO MULTI-MEDIA

HOW JOURNALISM IS CHANGING.*

* Including a few caveats

We all work a lot more, for one thing. A classic hurry-up in union terms that brings life to the Orwellian management maxim of doing

more with less.

It sucks.

And it’s glorious.

Which of these two things?

Doesn’t really matter. It is what it is.

The fax story.

(a word about the technology credentials of your presenter)

Then came the interweb thingie.

Here is what then Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll said in 1999:

"Reporters will be wandering into the streets not only with notebooks in their pockets, but occasionally, with little video cameras in their hats. A great way to cover a riot, for instance."

Here is what I said about that:

“The future, it seems, could include a fleet of electronic chapeaued Max Headrooms who will mix it up with angst-ridden hoi polloi and beam digitized mayhem back to the screens of people killing time between check-ins on the progress of their stock portfolios. “

He turned out to be right.

Old job description

• Able to type rapidly and sometimes write at the same time.

• Scribble furiously and pretend you know what the scratches are when you get back to the office.

• Work the phone. Dialing, talking, the whole shooting match.

• Drink a lot. Smoke doobies.

New job description

• File bits the web, news breaks to same, longer stories to paper, and still write big heaves on occasion.

• Continuously update same with more and better information.

• Work in various media – text, video, audio – appropriate to the story.

• An ability to face plant and repeat.• The moxie to score enough Ritalin or caffeine to

get you through.

The dawn or sunset for journalism? Hint: We are looking west.

Kidding. Sort of.

Where to look?

• RSS. Customization closes the loop.

• Friends creating riveting content.

• Content does a jailbreak. Where did you see that?

• Clutter makes it impossible to stand out.

Digital math

• Vid sharing up 45 percent, in the last year.

• Broadband penetration up 9 percent in the last year to 54 percent.

• 64 percent of teens use the computer to create content

• 8 percent of internet users have blogs, and 33 percent spend time looking at them.

• Wikipedia just passed 1 billion entries

Personal media dominates

• “Some technologies and applications are age-specific, but narcissism is not one of them. The pleasures of the self reaches all demographics.”

Clay Shirky, NYU

Implications for journalism

• Mindshare: a smaller slice of a smaller pie

• Ratings for everything. (most e-mailed)

• Consumers are the new editors

• All platforms, all ways, 24/7

• Embracing community

• Free is the only price point that matters

• Anything that can be stolen will be.

The revolution goes both ways.

• More power on your desktop

• More points of contact

• More platforms to work in.

• An ability endlessly amend and tweak message.

• The possibility of going viral. The Grail.

Creates a few problems

Building a future or a gallows?

• NYTimes.com 2.0

• iTunes – Hulu

• The end of long thoughts? (Pitchfork)

• Spitting in the ocean or targeting a niche?

The Times adapts. Will it prosper?

17.9 million unique users in April, a 30% increase from April 2007

33 page views per person - 598 million total page views

Over 50 blogs, with page views up 346% over last year

By far, the most-linked news source on the planet.

Will big numbers add up to $

My job

• Monday media column

• Features for culture

• Blog about the Oscars

• Videos about the Oscars

• Special event coverage. Elections, Sun Valley, Bonnaroo, digital and otherwise

• My own reader rep. Hundreds of e-mails every week. Talk to the Newsroom.

The blog is bottomless and needy.

Think of the blog as a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention.

Begets an obsessive, dollhouse pleasure in configuring, with feedback through a fire hose. Reporters become day traders, jacked in to monitor their precious commodity: themselves. How do they like me now? What about ... now? Hmmmm ... Now?

The blog

Where did this wiseguy come from?

The video

A homeless guy with a microphone.

The criss-cross

Reporter-files-to-the-web-which-is-repurposed-into-the-paper.

The end around.

A Google exec walks into a bar …

This American Epoch

You wanna hear the guy, right?

Changes the reporting process.

• Unlimited storage

• Cheap digital recording

• Everyone knows everything

Ancient, broken down dogNew, new tricks

• A transparent memoir.

• All interviews video taped.

• Documents rendered transparently into text.

• And a website that lets people look under the hood.

A one-man production unit

• $1000 at Best Buy• Digital audio recorder• Digital video recorder• Tripod• Scanner• 75 Gig harddrive• Plug in to existing computer and voila, a

dynamic database

The revolution will be televised, digitized, searched and mashed-up• Enroll audience

• Simple easy U/I. Forget gimmicks

• Try everything. It’s only pixels

• Leverage what you have

.

Does the web make you dumb?

• Losing the ability to think long thoughts

A push and pull world

An opportunity inside a porcupine

• Daily guys want to take your business. Maybe you can take theirs.

• Obsessive localism plays to altie’s strength

• Weeklies know from free.

There is a win on the table.

At a time of dynamism and asymmetries, all the sticks are in the air. Make sure you grab your share.