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Students will actually read it! High school newspapers go Web-only
By Geneva Overholser: Like their professional counterparts, high school news organizations are moving online and fretting over budgets, but theyre also fighting censorship. This according to advisors from Southern California high schools who brought their students (some 300 strong) to the USC Annenberg School of Journalisms high school journalism gathering Friday for a day of panels and journalism shop talk.
Many of the 30 advisors who gathered this morning to commiserate and trade solutions said they were ditching the print edition to go online only. One advisor said she was seeking more of a social engagement site. You can actually get them to read things if you go online.
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Building the data desk: lessons from the L.A. Times
By Eric Ulken: In early 2007, when the Los Angeles Times launched its Homicide Report blog an effort to chronicle every homicide in Los Angeles County it was clear that there were important geographic and demographic dimensions to the information that a blog format wouldn't fully capture. What we needed was a ChicagoCrime.org-style map that would let users focus on areas of interest to them, with filters that would enable them to "play" with the data and explore trends and patterns for themselves. Problem was, the web staff (of which I was a part) lacked the tools and the expertise to build such a thing, so the blog launched without a map. (Sound familar?)
It took several months to secure the tech resources and a couple more months to create wireframes and spec out requirements for what would become the Homicide Map, with the help of a couple of talented developers and a project manager on part-time loan from the website's IT department. We were fortunate, of course: We actually had access to this kind of expertise, and since then we've hired a couple of dedicated editorial developers. I'm aware that others might not have it so good.
Last week, Robert Niles argued that news organizations should be in the business of creating "killer apps". Put another way, there is a need to develop tools that hew to the content rather than the other way around. But creating the functionality Robert describes takes a closer connection between news thinking and tech thinking than is possible within news organizations' traditional structures and skill sets.
In this post, I'll try to squeeze some wisdom out of the lessons we learned in the process of assembling the Times' Data Desk, a cross-functional team of journalists responsible for collecting, analyzing and presenting data online and in print.
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Brian Lamb: C-SPAN not immune to the digital threat
By David Westphal: C-SPAN would seem to have as secure a future as any news operation could have. Thirty years after Brian Lamb began shopping around his off-the-wall idea for a public affairs network funded by the cable industry, it's hard to imagine a media landscape without C-SPAN's rich offerings on TV, radio and the Web.
But Lamb says C-SPAN will be buffeted by the digital revolution just like everyone else. Despite successful work in recent months on a new long-term plan that helps ensure the network's future, Lamb told an audience at the University of Southern California that C-SPAN's core business could be affected.
"I see the handwriting on the wall at our network," Lamb said. "You gotta' be a little more agile
a little more nimble, to survive."
Lamb delivered the James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting on Thursday at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.
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Ad networks can help online news start-ups take first step toward profitability
By Robert Niles: Let's continue with the thought that David raised Monday, and talk about first steps toward making a for-profit news website start-up work.
Today, I'll be writing about ad-supported news websites, as opposed to subscription-based publications. (We've written about those on OJR before, but they are far rarer to find than ad-supported sites.) Since we're talking start-ups, too, we'll operate under the assumption that you, the publisher, do not have a dedicated ad sales team working for you, pitching your site to potential advertisers.
Let's also stipulate that profitability for a start-up demands publishers to minimize the expense side of the ledger. Initial ad revenue for a news start-up - no matter how well designed - likely will be meager, so going it alone (or with a small partnership) and spending little on development and reporting will help keep expenses manageable.
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The case for independent news sites as profit-makers: 'I think there's a great business model here'
By David Westphal: After my recent stories on the state of independent news sites, several folks called or e-mailed to say I was barking up the wrong tree by focusing on nonprofits like MinnPost and the Voice of San Diego. The real future, they said, is with sites that are in it to make money. They may be right.
"I think there's a great business model here," said Merrill Brown, a media management and strategy consultant. "If you can get a quality product out there, local advertisers are looking for alternatives
I think there's plenty of evidence of that."
So far, of course, there's little evidence that profitability will reliably follow. Even many operations that talk about being in the black do so with asterisks the key players aren't drawing a salary, or the site is subsidized with other lines of business, for example. Others argue nonprofits will be the winning models for robust public-service news sites. Only today, a seemingly promising startup in Seattle, Crosscut, announced it was transitioning from a for-profit site to nonprofit status.
But many people say it's not surprising that profits are not there at this point in the innovation cycle, and point to the rapid growth of businesses trying to tease out local advertising dollars. The day of online profits is coming, they say, and for-profit news sites will be best positioned to thrive.
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