THE CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT, Thurs

THE CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT, Thurs "THE CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT," Thurs., June 7, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. HIGHLIGHTS • "We’ve only made it to the top of the 2nd inning in the digital age,” said Gordon Crovitz, publisher, The Wall Street Journal. Crovitz also said that in reader surveys, none of its print readers wanted more news; they wanted analysis, interpretation of the news from the previous 24 hours, so the The Wall Street Journal is now training its journalists to write the second-day stories on the day of. • "More graduates are finding web jobs, not newspaper jobs," said Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. The school has been moving aggressively to introduce the Web more and more into the curriculum, but is still primarily devoted to training reporters. He said all journalism students are required to have Web experience; he sees a big future for reporting on the Web. • "It took 35 years for TV to reach 25 million people and earn 1 billion in revenues. It took the Internet just three years," said Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media. She added that the formats, options and choices are changing so quickly, “we have now reached the point where if you are an old media company and you are not deeply engaged in new media, you are a dead media company.” Richard Edelman opened the The New Media Academic Summit, June 7-8, 2007, co-sponsored by Edelman and PR Week, by saying the goal of the summit was to bring together journalists, business leaders and academics to discuss the changing media landscape, the progress that has been made and how to best prepare the next generation of students. Edelman said students that he has met recently were unfamiliar with techniques like blogging and RSS, but all were eager to adopt new media tools. During the Thursday evening, June 7 panel discussion, he quoted Dan Gilmor, Director, Center for Citizen Media, as saying that journalism must by definition be "thorough, accurate, fair, independent, and transparent." Edelman added that while PR can’t claim to be fair or impartial, PR does have to be transparent about what the source of funding is, who the spokespeople are, provide real data and 3rd party sourcing for our claims, and genuinely engage in conversation rather than selling. He said, "Open advocacy is the only way that PR can participate in a meaningful way." Lisa Kirk, managing director, PR Week, gave her perspective on the changing landscape of media and mentioned that just as all publishers are seeking to evolve their brands to respond to the changing media habits of their readers, PR Week as well has deployed an expanded web development team and will soon present the next iteration of its website, with video and social media capabilities coming soon. From her perspective, it appears that in the arena of new media, leadership is up for grabs, and that PR is best suited to take that lead. Gordon Crovitz, publisher, The Wall Street Journal, said he has been examining the past decade of online and /electronic media and discovered the first law of tech: whenever there’s a change, it affects consumer behavior, and the industry always over-estimates how significant the change in behavior is in the short-term, and under-estimates it in the long-term. He says, “We’ve only made it to the top of the 2nd inning in the day of the digital age,” and referenced the early days in the late 90s, early 2000’s, when there was much hyperbole about how things would change at the time. The pace of change in consumer behavior has done nothing but develop at a geometric pace. Newer art forms have allowed traditional media companies to fully to give our journalists a chance to use what they know, and it has also changed the way we distribute media. Nicholas Lemann, Dean, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism , said the distinction between mainstream media and non- mainstream does not map directly onto print and non-print, nor does reporting vs. opinion map directly to these categorizations. History shows us that opinion is the oldest form of journalism, going back to the 1600s. Reporting came along after opinion, and is practiced by fewer people because it is much more expensive to do. It takes some social license to do, skills on info gathering, presentation on the fly, and it tends to have to be a full-time job. Columbia Journalism School is primarily devoted to training reporters, and although opinion-writing is offered as an option, reporting is a requirement, Lemann said. .The school has been moving aggressively in including more Web into our curriculum, but is still largely focused on reporting. They are seeing, however, that more graduates are finding that the jobs they get are web jobs, not newspaper jobs. Still though, his perspective is that although the web is very exciting and it is journalistically by weight primarily an opinion medium, it’s also true that if you look at traffic numbers, it’s really bunching up around traditional media sites that are reporting-oriented. Moderator David Kirkpatrick, senior editor, technology, Fortune, then turned to Edelman to ask why he believes the radical notion that social media is there to be owned by PR, and how it will play out. Edelman quoted Dan Gillmor as saying that journalism must be by definition thorough, accurate, fair, independent, and transparent. Edelman continued that PR can’t claim to be fair or impartial, but that PR does have to be transparent about what the source of funding is, who the spokespeople are, provide real data and 3rd party sourcing for our claims, and genuinely engaging in conversation rather than selling. Open advocacy is the only way PR can participate in a meaningful way. Although Edelman has made mistakes in the past, it has only helped to understand what needs to be done. Addressing old media, Kirkpatrick then turned to Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, asking how old and new media are getting along. Mitchell replied with anecdotes that included a board meeting 13 months ago where broadcast CEOs were arguing over whether people would watch TV online. Now, 34% of people are watching TV much more on the computer than on the TV, and many on their cellphones and iPods. It took 35 years for TV to reach 25 million people and get 1 billion in revenue. It took the Internet just three years. She continued with the point that the next generation is so much more conversant and prepared to enter into this world where the formats, options, choices are changing so quickly, and said that “we have now reached the point where if you are an old media company and you are not deeply engaged in new media, you are a dead media company.” The impact of this kind of change and ability to communicate information as entertainment is profound, and one way to try to play a role with education around the country is by trying to view it from its potential to change the world. Lemann maintains that despite predictions that new media will wipe out old media, he doesn’t think that the Internet will kill broadcast news as we know it. The Internet has the greatest potential for expression and is very powerful, but it will not replace traditional media. In terms of digital content’s impact on newspapers, Crovitz said that in trying to re-think what a daily newspaper should be, The Wall Street Journal did a lot of surveys and found that its readers like having both news and analysis, but they are also feeling overwhelmed by the excess of media coming in. Zero percent of its print readers said they wanted more news; they said they wanted analysis, interpretation of the news from the previous 24 hours, so the WSJ is now training its journalists to write the 2nd day stories on the day of. Fortune and The Wall Street Journal are both using more online media and the ability to link to competitors’ websites for additional news, which is a big change for these outlets, and expanding coverage. The Wall Street Journal is looking to its online component to be more industry-focused, which was never before economically feasible. The paper has been addressing a trend they noticed that while a lot of people are introduced to The Wall Street Journal in college, they tended to fall away in their early 20s until their mid 30s because young professionals tend to start out very specialized. The editors can address that now by trying to filter the news into more specialized home pages, such as with its health industry edition, and it has helped to gain back readers in their late 20s. Steve Rubel, senior vice president, Edelman, who writes the "Micro Persuasion" blog, asked from the audience if mainstream media is doing things like incorporating video and linking back and forth, isn’t there a less clear distinction between “new” and “old” media? Isn’t it just all “media” now? According to Lemann, regional papers have been able to augment their coverage with citizen participation. But more national news organizations are looking at issues from a higher perspective. As a category, a news organization that generates trust is a meaningful category. Crovitz agreed, adding that the editing function is fundamentally different from the new media experience. Even the best of bloggers do not report by providing a broad view of the world; the best mainstream media, on the other hand, provide the connections. Kirkpatrick added that as someone who is a part of mainstream media and who also works with new media, what he writes on the web is radically less edited than what he writes for print. There is a high demand for web content, but the ad revenues are nowhere near where it has to go. From the audience, Henry Copland, BlogAds, claimed that statistics suggest that Walt Mossberg would stand to make more money if he were to leave The Wall Street Journal and earn ad revenue from the web instead. Generally, the panelists seem to agree that this was not too much of a threat, and that The Wall Street Journal and other mainstream media companies still provide invaluable foundation and resources that can’t be found elsewhere. Young people need to be taught the value of both new and old media through education in media literacy from a young age. Journalists in the early stages of their careers these days are finding that they need to be more prolific on the Web in order to stay ahead. From the audience, Dave Weinberger, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, said he knows he can get more detailed, specialized news from bloggers than from mainstream media, such as The New York Times Select. Crovitz replied that The Wall Street Journal is quite happy with its subscription model, which has a million paying subscribers. They are providing a lot of free content in certain areas, and that allows them to address smaller and more specific audiences. Lemann predicted that non-profit journalism, such as NPR or PBS, stands to grow a lot.