It's the Monday after a day-long weekend conference in Minneapolis titled "The Other Future of News" crafted by David Brauer, MinnPost's local media reporter, and Taylor Carik, with BringMeTheNews.com. As the early morning speaker, I had a fresh crowd and thankful for it. But I had five minutes and rushed through a lot of points. Only later could I see what was being "said" (Tweeted) about the remarks. It was eye-opening to see your passion distilled to 140 characters or less. Later, I will expound on that presentation but one point quickly for the OFON participants.
One of my suggestions was our news folks should take an advertising sales rep out to lunch to find out what the world is like from their perspective. What are advertisers telling them about why they are or are not advertising.
Some thought I was suggesting reporters should sit down with advertisers. Not so; that maneuver should be reserved only for the stout-hearted and preferably management such as editors. What I was suggesting was getting to know more about those people -- the people who bring in the advertising money for your news organization and who have a direct impact on your livelihood.
Journos should talk to circulation people to find out what people are saying when asked to buy a subscription. Page Designers should talk to press people to find out if their color screens choices are best for reproduction on newsprint.
Journos should collect information from as many sources as they can especially if they are wondering why some decisions are being made that affect them and their livelihood.
But we should challenge long-held notions about news organizations and separation of departments. Many of our news entrepreneurs (some forced into their situation by the economy) aren't going to have the luxury of isolation and comfort of a well-heeled organization. They will be reporting and collecting information, disseminating in lots of various ways but most importantly they will be finding a way to make a living off of it.
Shouldn't journalists of today know the Business 101 of newspapering, TV and radio broadcast? If for no other reason than to prepare themselves should they need to be their own boss. T.D. Mischke of City Pages and formerly of KSTP, and another morning speaker at OFON, shared what he found out moving from traditional radio and then finding out what he needed to do to monetize his talent.
But we'll go into that more in a later post.
1 comment:
interesting post. I agree "Journos" have to talk to advertising sales reps and knowing the business 101 seems like a no brainer. Advertisers want to connect with new customers - how can newspapers help with that beyond a print ad is one of the fundamental questions.
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