Jtm-dc-04-26
NEXT CALL: Thurs. May 3: 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (605) 990-0100 272059#
NOTES OF Thurs., April 26, 2007 PLANNING CALL
Link to PDF program/funding invite:
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/pdf/jtm-dc-announcement.pdf
LINK BACKS:
JTM mission summary (Sept. 2006)
JTM-DC Sessions Program Concept
Key March 9 teleconference notes
The news organization of the future
Previous meeting (03-15) minutes
Previous meeting (03-19) minutes
Notes of 03-22 phone-in
Notes of 04-12 phone-in
Notes of 04-19 phone-in
On this call: Len Witt, Stephen Silha, Bill Densmore, Peggy Holman; Chris Peck joins after a few minutes.
Bill describes the letter pitchs he sent out; quick interest from FreePress's Josh Silver which Densmore will follow. Dianne Lynch clears the way for an approach to Park Foundation; Patrick Marx sais approach Blandin only if there is a clear connection to rural Minnesota.
Discussed the idea of a collaboration with FreePress; agreed that would be OK; and especially good if NAA were supportive, too.
Bill said $119/night rooms at The George Washington University Inn ---- block of 25 -- all set.
- Peggy and Stephen will work on program description for wiki posting soon.
- Bill will have registration website up by Monday, May 6
- After that we should start promoting registration in ernest
- Categories of registrants: Academic, mainstream media, citizen/new media.
Len talks about the need to ensure diverse attendance. Peggy suggests that if we get NAA and FreePress on the phone together, compare networks -- a strategy-planning call with them. Stephen says it would be great to include Jan Schaffer in that call as well.
To what extent do we want to seed the discussion with a description of the Next Newsroom or a specific location for a prototype?
Chris thinks the conversation could go in a direction that would be useful to hear but maybe not where we wanted to go. We may not necessarily want to ask them to vet the business plan. Let them go to where their strengths are.
Since we last talk, a couple of folks have been in contact with Chris who have expressed interest in a particular business plan who aren't likely to be there.
Let's not get bogged down in the business plan. Ask for examples of where it would be good. It could be a wonderful opportunity for there to be a consortium of students or faculty to come and have a learning piece by working on the prototype.
Maybe you would have two:
- the isolated college town
- the urban neighborhood
- the student newspaper at a big university
Peggy -- if you want to seed some white papers of what is out there, we should have some pre-conference interactions.
Bill -- Do we want to put on the table a business plan or a location analysis.
Chris -- With open space, some might go off in a direction that might support a business plan or an idea. Others might not. Trying to anticipate where their open space thoughts would take them and where they are in their careers, where that would likely intersect with a desire to have a more concrete plan outlined.
The umbrella title and the bullets match up well with the audience, says Chris. Let's not try to get bogged down in the particulars of the business. They aren't there, but they might be there. Should let them go with the bullet items.
Bill: Put ours out there as one plan and location, but make it clear it is not exclusive and invite others to submit, too.
Peggy: Likes that.
Chris -- Very comfortable with that.
Stephen -- Has those papers changed since Memphis?
Chris -- Yes. His has changed and will keep changing.
Chris -- Significant funder has $5M for a project and it is not Knight. Wants to do something. Has said to Chris why don't you put this together. A guy with academic and money connections has said I can get venture money. Poynter is rethinking their future and have also said we should put something out there as a project. All of that is conversation. But what he thinks is interesting is
To the extent we have academic support, it would be very helpful to have some participation with both the academic community and the media reform movement in some sort of an advisory board. They don't have to do all that much. You want them involved in the discussion.
We could all quit our jobs and work on this fulltime honestly. I am seeing a little bit of a pathway leading to something now.
People are saying you really do need to start some scratch or with a clear base instead of just evolve. I think its got some really good things as an iterative, evolutionary piece but I think it's bogged down a bit.
I think this idea of starting something and leaping ahead has got legs here.
If you could find people in the academic community and the reform community to get them involved.
Len: We can say you can help shape the future of journalism?
Chris: We need the creative thought again. He expects there will be ideas that can be developed. What could you do that is not traditional journalism that will still convey inforamtion that will get people who are not news junkies to be interested.
Bill -- (Forgot to mention -- mention next time Ralph Nader and civic education)
Peggy -- Encourages Chris to think of JTM-DC as the working session to flesh out the new model(s).
Chris: Have to leave it kind of open. A lot of the way the conversation goes depends on who is there. The bullet items let themselves.
Len: Promote that at the end of this.
Chris: What you see now is there are a dozen initiatives trying to rethink the business model. And the basis framework that we worked out are becommiing much more evident to other people and that is both a good thing and a challenge. Some will get a lot of challenge because the people behind them are masterful in their marketing. The idea of taping into the creative energies and brainpower of these groups with the idea that we are talking about how the journalism will survive or can it survive, that we talk about what the academics need to be doing because one of the things that is a problem with the academic world now is they are struggling.
Len: There is a lot of theoretical work that can be applied to all that stuff.
Chris: The social network piece is really critical to this. What we know about social networks could be applied to journalism. The key thing the social network shows is that people use dto go to the media and tv, now they are organizing around their social network and there is an opportunity to take the news to those social networks.
Bill: MySpaceNews
Chris: But you have to get that down to the neighborhood level. We should talk about social networking as a topical piece.
Chris: He talked to the APME Foundation and Scripps. He also will talk to ASNE. They are in a gigantic money crunch right now. The NAA convention is in NY. May 6-9. Someone ought to go.
Refer back to 03-22 notes for background on basis fundraising and program work.
