Ima-atlanta

Running notes from Bill Densmore on Saturday morning's panel at the Public Media Conference, 2009, in Atlanta, Ga., on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009:

Kinsey Wilson, of National Public Radio, formerly from USAToday, is talking about what it's been like moving over to radio. He is building on some of the points that Vivian Schiller made yesterday.

NPR's Wilson makes four points

Four points:

• He was struct by optimistism and the sense of vision at NPR, in stark contrast to what is experienced at many commercial newsrooms, including newspapers.

• Now its all about creating networks of passionate users. NPR's isn't fully realized yet. Quality of comments are extraordinary on the NPR site. Lot's of comments between people.

• They have diversified revenue sources, and that is a source of envy as the ad market shrinks. But they are largely dependent on corporate underwriting in digital media and that is a cause for concern.

• He thinks there is an extraordinary opportunity to become a significant if not dominate source of news in local markets.

The seven or eight advantages over newspapers

The seven or eight advantages over newspapers:

• Barriers to entry have fallen
• Big newspapers are saddled with legacy web systems
• NPR affiliates produce the best audio content at a point where mobile is becoming dominant
• As newspapers collapse "and they will" in certain markets, there will be a window.
• Reporters will be cast off and looking for work. There will be a moment to capture them.
• They can promote what they do on air
• Already news organizations devoted to public service "and have that in our blood."

Witt talks about opportunity for public radio to become news powerhouse

Leonard Witt, of Kennesaw State University, says there's a void for presentation of video news that the PUblic Broadcasting Service affiliates could come in and fill. He suggests that each state have two reporters assigned to a new PBS news initiative. EAch produces a story every other day, that's 50 stories a day cominging.

"THat means on your web site, every 20 minutes you would have another story coming in," said Witt. "You'd constantly be replenishing the stories. . . . You can run a newsroom now for 100 people for about $10 million. That is not cost prohibitive."

"yoU all have the problem that you don't play very well." He suggests one of the local stations would have to set up a national facility.

Anna Shoup, PBS Newshour

Anna Shoup says The Newshour is now focusing on the economy and she's talking about a project not yet launched for which she invited feedback. Newshour is partnering with Morning Edition and Marketplace and local stations and the Patchwork Nation Project of the Christian Science Monitor.

Patchwork will be expanded to 22 communities, all the new ones with strong local public TV and radio stations. There will be citizen journalists in those communities and will ask the local affiliates to do on the group reporting they already do but do it in a coordinated fashion with the Patchwork Nation Project.

The goal is to leverage the national network of stations. "We're trying to get really involved at the local level."

Jessica Clark on two ways to thrive

Jessica Clark at the Center for Social Media at American Unversity runs the Future of PUblic Media Project and just released a study earlier this week. HEr question: How do you define public media in an open news environment.

The answer: "PUblic media should be defined as creating publics." Now citizens can convene with the media to arrange a "public" about a given issue.

So for stations, the two ways to thrive:

• Create/curate original, relevant reporting and analysis.
• Directly engage publics around current issues -- both online and off."

Robert Rosenthal -- key is collaboration

Robert Rosenthal, a former top editor at the Philadelphia and San Francisco papers, says media philanthropy funding sources are finally realizing things have changed and are funding specific projects. He says the future is all about collaboration and knocking down the old barriers. It wasn't important when he presided over a newsroom with an $80 million annual budget. That's changed.

He's working on a real model for state coverage in California via the Center for Investigative Reporting, which he now heads and which is based in Oakland.

They are completely forgetting about an old distribution model that implies different products -- print, radio, web, etc. Now you put together a core team with expertise in all those areas, including video. "So when the story is finished you have maximum impact by reaching people at all levels." He sees this as perhaps costly but critical for having maximum impact.

There is a problem of morale in newsrooms. "When you think you are a failure, it is very hard to be innovative... the new organizations that come together out of this are going to be have to be really creative." Central to the new model, he says, is news people who are on the same page with financial people.

Susanna Capelouto of George Public Broadcasting

They did a three-part series in the fall called, "Bad News In News," about the financial failure of newspapers. They refer to the overall story when doing updates. Their website for this function is called, "Georgia Gazette."