Jtm-dc-03-09
MINUTES
Journalism That Matters Collaborative
Teleconference, Friday, March 9, 2007
These are Bill Densmore's rough notes of a telconf on Friday, March 9, 2007, to plan an April 7-9, 2007 convening of the "Journalism That Matters Collaborative" (tentatively at The George Washington University) as a pre-event adjunct to the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
On the call were:
- Geneva Overholser, University of Missouri
- Len Witt, Kennesaw State University
- Bill Densmore, Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst
- Jim Shaffer, dean, Univ. of Maine School of Business
- Peggy Holman, the Open Circle Company and JTM facilitator
- Stephen Silha, Washington News Council and JTM facilitator
SUMMARY
There was concern that "What will happen when all that's left is journalism?", while provocative and open-ended, is inverted -- that what is more likely the case is that the only that that ***won't*** be left is journalism. We kicked this around and decided to all try over the next week to come up with something better, but will stick with this for now and thereafter if we can't. Densmore said GWU seems a likely venue but he will check on details; Witt will develop a budget; Densmore will draft an invitation; we need to talk more about the schedule.
TODOS
- Densmore develop invitation
- Witt develop budget
- Schedule thoughts:
Opening session Tuesday afternoon Social event in the evening then dinner organized as "world cafe" then a panel world cafe -- large groups around tables of four at dinner. moving tables. you quickly surface key themes or ideas. Variations of the same conversation at different tables. Surfacing what is central to the issue and build a sense of community.
Holman: Some kind of pre-conference experiment. Literally bring it into the room.
Next phone meeting
- Will set up by email.
Check-in
- Any thoughts, reflections, or follow-up actions since JtM Memphis?
Reconnect with the Meeting Purpose
Robert Kuttner at CJR on saving newspapers
Bill Densmore references a groundbreaking essay -- one of the most literate, comprehensive summaries of the state of American newspaper journalism -- in which Robert Kuttner attacks the conventional wisdom that says dailies are dying, and envisions a bright future for newspapers as print-digital hybrids. Kuttner doesn't see much hope that new ownerships or charging for content will do it as much as patient innovation and advertising revenue.
Robert Picard on creating new knowledge
Len Witt likes what Robert Picard talks about in a Shorenstein Center paper and (and earlier in a [Robert Picard Neiman Reports] -- the idea of creating new knowledge. He talks about how journalists are interchangeable parts. They can drop into a newsroom anywhere. He says that is a problem because you have less value for each individual cog in the machine. Take a look -- is there a way that jouranlists can make themselves more valuable?
PHONE DISCUSSION:
Shaffer: Foundation of this is a rigid value system. Rethinking that value system would be part of the thinking.
Witt: Used to work for Minnesota Public Radio. Bill Kling took it outside of any institution and was therefore free to allow people to practice journalism. Most public radio can't do decent journalism because they are afraid of their funding. So you have to be real careful of the ownership model you lay over it.
Holman: Stephen and Peggy went back to basecamp site and pulled out the questions after the Memphis gathering.
Densmore: Do we want to focus in on one or two or is it OK to have it a series of big questions?
Witt: It is a lot to discuss in a day and a half.
Holman: The questions wrap around each other in systemic kinds of ways and which of them the emphasis is on depends on who is in the room. There will be a strategic decision governed by numbers of people and who we invite. Be mindful of inviting people who are sparks for conversations in these different areas.
Holman: What do you want to accomplish?
Overholser: How about a research agenda? At lunch yesterday, Michael Copps asked her: "What are the interesting things that we could go to Congress with right now on tax law changes or ownership changes."
- One might be an interesting research agenda.
- Another outcome would be to bring together from multiple silos.
- Another would be to emerge with an action agenda in various areas.
Silha: Could we add new spice and energy to the AEJMC session itself?
Witt: Let's look at the main question again. People haven't stripped it down. People get that there are problems now. Do people understand what it would look like if it ever got to that point. With his new GPS, he can punch in and say where is the closest barbecue place. In the future, not to distant, you will have that in your pocket and you can punch in I need to buy a car or a coat. It will know what TV shows you watch and will be able to define the kind of coat and the place you want to shop, and will walk you to the shop you want to go to. When that happens, why would anyone who is an advertiser want to put an ad in a local or national paper. Everyone keeps talking about how healthy community papers are. Hew as just at Anniston. They used to have 12 reporters. They have six reporters now because Wal-Mart has stolen all their local advertisers away. It has a hiring freeze, it has half the staff it used to have.
Olverholser: What I'm worried about is that there won't be any journalism anymore at all. As the advertising goes away the news gathering staffs are shrinking so much.
Witt: Will anybody in fact pay for journalism? How can you produce enough value from journalism that it is something that people will pay for. If you need one fulltime newsroom person per 1,000 circulation. Would 1,000 people pay $2 a week for that? If you produced it and you sold it as a valued commodity that people pay for then you could do journalism and you would be doing unfettered journalism?
Overholser: Are you thinking we might come up with a model for this at the conference? People are thinking about that -- she just came from Knight where all of the proposals are focused on what will pay for jouralism going forward, which is more customarily how the question is framed.
Holman: Picture a new form of journalism that is articulated. That has been growing with each session and individual experiments have been seeded. The picture inspires people to act.
Densmore: Paint a picture that gives people something to shoot for? Geneva are pictures being painted elsewhere?
Overholser: Yes. Esther Thorson, Pam Johnson and Merrill Brown are doing so. They are working on an economic support model. Someone who just left the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is working on something too. A big question: Are there going to be big journalism organizations that will be able to stand up against big government and big business?
Densmore: Agree with Overholser that having media large enough to be a counter to big government and big business. We can't go back to the pamphleteers.
Witt: He thinks a lot of people are willing to pay to have something like the New York Times.
Overholser: Less sanguine about that.
Holman: She is hearing that the meeting should focus on painting a picture on steps people can take in the emerging mosaic that will support journalism.
Witt: Still likes the what will happen when only the journalism is left. He thinks most journalists don't see journalism yet as totally divorced from advertising.
Silha: Dave Zeeck got it in Memphis.
Witt: Who will come to this? He thinks a good mix is possible.
Witt: What is what we do worth to the people we do it for? Who is nobody willing to pay for it? The economic model isn't there right now to pay for what we produce? If it doesn't have value why doesn't it have value.
Overholser: That's something that is very close to me and that is what is journalism in the public interest? If we were to go to them with an argment about the essential qualities of journalism? It helps in the question of identifying who is a journalism -- not a good route -- but what is journalism? If we are going to build a case with the public, we have to build it for something. What distinguishes journalism from a satied appetite for Anna Nicole Smith?
Shaffer: He likes the market focus -- what's the value and and what will people pay for it?
Holman: Two issues -- the framing question, and ancillary to that is what do we want the outcome of people grapping with that question to be?
Witt: Someone said between $8 million and $12 million, you can run a newsroom for 100,000 population area. That seems like a doable, annual figure. Is it in fact? Is it possible to run a $10 million business that in the past has been an $100 million business. Is there a way of doing that? and would you be able to find the $10 million. Would it come for readers, a new adveritsing model, a public ownership kind of thing.
Overholser: Chris Peck was saying their newsroom is $8 million and that is what they are getting from web revenues so if you jettison the 19th-century manufacturing, that maybe something you can do.
Shaffer: Marketing journalism is what we are talking about. He likes the business focus.
What is journalism in the public interest? What is it worth?
Holman: After discussing this for awhile, can each of you now state the outcome you want from this convening?
Overholser: What is journalism in the public interest and what is it worth?
Witt: What will journalism be like when only journalism is left? How can you develop a $10 million, 100,000 circulation news/journalism information center? How could we do that?
Densmore: I want to know how we can build a new business for journalism.
Silha: What is journalism in the public interest and how do we support it?
Witt: What is social media? One approach to advancing the work of the event beforehand: It is called Crowdvine, a beta site under development, someone from O'Reilly. That would be one kind of thing. People could visit and form their own discussion. People get to know other people before they come to the conference. Could a journalist go out and find a community of 1,000 people and build his own job and still be an impartial journalist.
Q: Who will pay for journalism that matters?
Shaffer: It's sort of like talking about a divorce (between journalism and the old systems of advertising and circulation which supported it). What about when the love is gone?
Witt: How will journalism stand alone?
What will happen when only the journalism is left?
- What will the economic models look like?
- What will journalism education look like?
- What will the professional/amateur, citizen journalism, independent media piece look like?
- What will the audience to news relationship look like?
- What will its relation to democracy and civic engagement look like?
- What role will research have in what journalism might look like?
Logistics
- Venue -- Densmore says GWU is looking good; will pursue
- Registration fee -- Discussed $99 price point; Densmore/Shaffer argued for higher price especially if food is involved.
- Funding -- No specific discussion; pending budget workup by Witt
- Timing of invitation -- No discussion. Should send "HOLD DATE" very soon.
- Invitation Process -- No discussion, see below.
Who will draft the invitation?
- Coaching from this group on content
- Densmore to work on draft (see below)
Who to invite –– Initial list of “attractors”
- Pam Johnson, Western Kentucky
- Brian Murley, Innovative College Media
- Jay Rosen, NYU
- Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
- Dan Gillmor, Citizen Media Center, Berkeley
- Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State
- Peggy Kuhr, University of Kansas
- Bill Densmore, Media Giraffe
- Esther Thorsen, University of Missouri
- Sharon Iorio, Wichita State
- Geneva Overholser, University of Missouri
- Jim Shaffer, Southern Maine University
- Robert Picard, Journalism, Value Creation and the Future of News Organizations.
- OTHERS: Chris Mackin, Tom Stites.
Who to invite broadly – what networks to contact?
- Media Giraffe Project
- Journalism that Matters
- AEJMC
- Media Reform list?
- Others?
First attempt at program
In Michigan, Missouri, Massachusetts and Tennessee, we've been convened career mainstream journalists with new-media pioneers, innovators and so-called reformers to develop ideas for action that might help our democracy navigate through a period of experimentation and turmoil in the conduct and financing of journalism.
In Washington, the overall topic: "What will happen when only the journalism is left?" A key issue is going to be exploration of financing models for journalism, with some particular consideration of alternative ownership to public-stock corporations.
"What happens when only the journalism is left?" Strip away the platforms, the jobs, the institutions, the advertising, and what will sustain participatory democracy? Are we advancing to a news ecosystem more like English coffeehouses and pamphleteering than mass media? What happens when the "press" becomes a digital "pipe"? Who controls the press then? While the fundamental values and tenets of journalism may be stable, its financial underpinnings are not. New voices and new institutions are practicing journalism, raising questions about the objectives and constituency for journalism education. Bloggers are credentialed to cover crowded federal-court proceedings, and go to prison in defense of First Amendment principles. In St. Louis, Amherst and Memphis, the Journalism that Matters consortium and the Media Giraffe Project has convened intimate conversations which foster action about the journalism's future. Our next gathering will be Aug. 8-9, 2007, in Washington, D.C., tentatively entitled: "What happens when only the journalism is left?" The link above will begin to have program details after March 30, and we will email you at least once more about this gathering. For now, please hold those **firm** dates, and let us know if you'd like to help with session planning. You can also view the thinking from some of our earlier sessions from: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/Memphis/
What will the economic models look like?
Conversation starters: Geneva Overholser, University of Missouri, Jim Shaffer, Southern Maine University
POST-CALL THOUGHTS FROM DENSMORE
Here are some **tentative*** subtopics:
- What will journalism education look like?
Conversation starters: Pam Johnson, Western Kentucky, Brian Murley, Innovative College Media
- What will the professional/amateur, citizen journalism, independent media piece look like?
Jay Rosen, NYU, Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
- What will the audience to news relationship look like?
Dan Gillmor, Citizen Media Center, Berkeley; Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State
- What will its relation to democracy and civic engagement look like?
Peggy Kuhr, University of Kansas, Bill Densmore, Media Giraffe
- What role will research have in what journalism might look like?
Esther Thorsten, University of Missouri, Sharon Iorio, Wichita State
