Newsecology-breakout-franchise

These are notes taken by Bill Densmore of discussion during a breakout session on March 2, 2009, at the Poynter Institute convening: "Journalism That Matters -- Adapting Journalism to the New News Ecology." This was one of multiple breakouts called by the 85 participants in the four-day event. The title for this session: "Democracy now: Envisioning a model for franchising news."

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THE CHALLENGE: Consider new ownership ideas for local news outfits

Historically U.S. news organizations have been idependently owned by local owners, or have been aggregated into large groups, or "chains" with centralized handling of some administration and business functions, including financial reporting. Other forms of ownership -- such as a franchising or co-operatives -- are relatively rare in the U.S. news environment. This session examined these and ohter ideas. These notes are **not** verbatim and specific comments attributed to a speaker should be verified with that speaker (See: PARTICIPANT LIST.)

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Lisa Loving of KBOO in Portland, Oregon, observes that institutions that have the most success are those that build community around themselves. The Willamette Week newspaper in Oregon builds community through an active blog-comment area, she says. She notes that the Pacifica Foundation has had a successful run as a Bay Area-based owner of politically progressive radio stations nationwide but is now undergoing organizational stress.

Tom Hornig asks what a franchise model would look like. There is discussion.

Michelle Ferrier talks about the idea of a national brand for local online news communities. The brand manager, however organized, might handle technical, legal, marketing, sales and training on behalf of affiliates or franchisees. She said the brand manager might also be able to provide interim staffing for independent operators enabling them to take periodic vacations. Ferrier observed that "burnout" is a big source of casualties among small community new sorganizations. And she said having a national infrastructure to call on would "reduce the startup fear factor," of individuals fearing the unknown.

Ferrier said she was considering a startup in Daytona Beach, Fla., where she formerly ran an online news community for the incumbent legacy daily newspaper. Ferrier now teaches college-level journalism.

Tom Stites said an advantage of a franchse approach is that "you get a network of people who can learn from each other." A challenge he observed was who was going to pay for what. People will pay to support trustworthy institutions that meet their needs, he said. "To say they will pay for information missses the point."

Jim Kennedy said that on the web, no one has really done more yet than institute levels of free. "Will you pay for news is too simplistic a question to ask," he says.

Loving: People pay for cable. But they are paying for choice and convenience, she feels, not content per se. An analogy is that people pay for the service of getting their news delivered via a print product to their doorstep. And for knowing about their kids' schools.

Leigh Montgomery suggests talking to Alley Savino of the Citizen Reporting Project. She says a national brand could help establish the opportunity to teach "Journalism 101" in libraries and other community venues.