A new internet news site
By Ron Buel
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Cornelius Swart
22nd Oct 2009
thanks for the mention of our site at www.portlandsentinel.com. Note our site is an open source publishing platform -drupal -but its also an open publishing SITE where users can post directly to the site next to the news service.
Bill Lascher
5th Nov 2009
I have some longer thoughts that I guess I'll save/work up for the conference. One thing I'll share now is how important it is that we ask ourselves what is most important, just having "more eyeballs" or accomplishing some broader goal.
Bret Bernhoft
13th Nov 2009
I am convinced that the future of News, especially online news will come from aggregation of independent sources versus the centralization of a single body of journalists. The newspaper or news-room model is outdated and frankly dangerous to the propagation of quality news. The "hyper-local" approach is only one cog in this wheel as there are many other resources and techniques that must be applied for the success of this model.
Bill Lascher
13th Nov 2009
Bret, I agree with you to an extent, in that the "hyper-local" is but one part of the model; however, I think journalists need to be cautious about focusing on aggregation as the panacea. If we spend a great deal of energy concerned with how to relay, aggregate and deliver stories, we will have less time to focus on actually reporting, investigating, composing and producing those stories. We will have no news to aggregate if we focus less on the journalism than the propogation of news. Part of what helps is a solid, strong newsroom or network (it doesn't have to be in one centralized space) of journalists working in collaboration, assisting one another, serving as mentors, specializing in specific subjects and skills (writing, audio collection, photography, data processing, etc.). If we expect to all be independent experts without anything to gain from working with one another (why I like Buel's celebration of various local Websites as part of a fabric of Portland area media organizations) we won't succeed.
We may actually be arguing the same thing in different ways, but I thought that's something I want to get out.
On to more thoughts on Buel's essay. Ron, though I know some data has been gathered on readership demographics, I still want to bring into focus your claim that "it's worth noting that the generations who desire to spread their newspapers out before them every morning ... are aging and dying off."
I wonder if this is really, true. Do younger generations know what that experience is like? What would happen if we gave them some form of that option (as much as I, a somewhat young person, like the tactile experience of papers, I do have some ecological qualms about printing)? What if current/younger generations had the option to spread publications of quality journalism out readily availabe? Might they find they enjoy it. Though I think the stats probably back you up on this, I would still like to see them, and I think We Make the Media Could make some of its arguments more effectively if we could come at our efforts armed with statistics and facts. That is, can we be good reporters about what it is we're trying to do?
Ultimately, I'd like to think we're trying to impact the community, to tell Portland, and Oregon's stories more effectively. I'd like to think that we're trying to "make an impact," as I belive the Voice of San Diego people also hope.
Though we should welcome all ideas at the conference, let's all think about something. What would be the ultimate importance of pursuing Joel Kramer's goal of short stories that "produce more eyeballs and drive up Internet advertising revenues."
Why do we need eyeballs for eyeball's sake? Kramer argues that it's to allow writers to develop individual voices and followings, but we need to ask ourselves why even that is important. What does simply having a following and a voice matter, if it's a voice that's saying less?
This is the kind of question we need to ask. Do we journalists want to just have larger followings, to write frequently, to produce more material, or do we want to impact the communities our work reaches, to write (or tell stories in whatever form we specialize in) compellingly and meaningfully, and to produce material of significance?
In order words, are we simply manufacturers, creating widgets in the form of words and video and sound, or are we something else, something more?
Ken Aaron
17th Nov 2009
I’d like to put Neighborhood Notes, www.neighborhoodnotes.com, into the ring of examples. We publish community-focused news, events and commentary for all Portland neighborhoods. We produce original stories at the neighborhood level. Over time our stories have grown in length rather than shrank. We believe there is a place of in depth reporting especially at the local level, a space that large media organizations, such as the Oregonian, have abandoned.
We are not an aggregator, though when we started as a labor of love blog we did do a lot of aggregation. We don’t see aggregation as a viable business model, people can and do act as their own aggregator by using RSS to pick and choose the news they receive daily. We believe people are still very interested in original content, and that is what we produce.
In terms of revenue we currently rely on advertising. We will soon be expanding those offerings. Simple advertising will not sustain an online news site alone. Other revenue sources must be developed. We are always brainstorming about other sources of revenue to fund our business.
One of the first things we need to do is to stop giving away online advertising for free. Giving away an online ad as an incentive for someone to purchase a print ad devalues the online world. Many news organizations do this and they are cutting their own throats. As an online business we constantly battle the perception that online advertising is or should be free. As print revenues shrink and more information is published online, giving away online advertising only hastens the death of organizations.
Our goal is to impact our community with the stories we tell. We look for stories that aren’t being told, even in stories that other media outlets are covering. We don’t try to be first with a story, but want to be the most thorough.