Developing a Newsroom Culture of Innovation

Steve Buttry, Gazette CommunicationsSwift Communications

June 23, 2009steve.buttry@gazcomm.com

@stevebuttry on Twitter

Additional reading later

I’ll email links to:• These slides at

slideshare.net/stevebuttry• Tips on multimedia storytelling, Twitter,

liveblogging

What are obstacles to innovation in your

organization(Swift and/or locally)?

Think (and make a few notes)about a time when your team

excelled in the faceof huge obstacles.

Using digital tools is a start• Interactive databases• Interactive maps• Breaking news text alerts• Liveblogging • Video, including webcams• Slideshows, photo galleries• Flash multimedia projects• Crowdsourcing, user contributions• Social networks (Flickr, Twitter, Facebook …)

That isn’t enough

We need to transform:

• Structure• Culture• Mindset• Business model• Relationships (community,

businesses, competitors, vendors)

Complete Community Connection

• Idea born at API as part of Newspaper Next• Not included in Newspaper Next 2.0• Needed to find a place ready to

make the leap

C3’s revenue approach

• Move beyond advertising• Direct sales (tickets, reservations, gift

registries, sports paraphernalia)• Lead generation• Targeted ads• Sponsorships, events• Local search

Community Content

• Driving• Home• Conversation• Calendar• Local knowledge

Driving

• How often do you buy a car?• How often to you drive, gas up, service

car, talk about cars, driving?• Databases, conversations, services

focused on drivers’ everyday needs• Connect auto services with drivers

(emergency repair services)

Personal content

• Births• Youth milestones• School• Graduation• College life• Military service• Weddings• Parenthood

• Divorce• Jobs, pets, holidays,

food, interests, health• Illness• Empty nesters• Retirement• Reunions• Obituaries

Personal Content: Graduation

• Many newspapers gather mugs, names anyway for graduation section

• Launch page for each graduate• Senior, family fill in stories, photos, videos• Fill in school, target ads appear• Fill in career, sign up for email, text alerts• Gift registry

Entertainment

• Traditional entertainment in digital form• Entertainment news• User-generated entertainment, events• Games

Business services

• Direct sales• Local search• Communication & marketing services

Enriched news content

• What’s happening now• Community engagement in news,

enterprise, sports coverage• Storytelling (narrative, multimedia)• Aggregation, curation

Why separate content from product?

• Packaged products come and go• Demand for content is as strong as ever

Content Room

• Combines print, online, broadcast content producers in one organization

• One breaking news team• One visual team• One watchdog team• One sports team• One weather team

Community relationship

• Recruit contributors from community • Independent and affiliated contributors• Help staff engage better with community

Product Planning & Development

• Product planners, editors, producers, anchors produce packaged products (newspaper, broadcasts, web sites), using our content & other sources

• Three primary verticals of products: print, broadcast, online

Production Services

• Ad design & production• Imaging• Copy editing• News page design & pagination

Production Services

• Services don’t have to be done locally• Regional outsourcing to Gazette

Communications may bring efficiency and still retain local knowledge

Ethics

• Independence, integrity and credibility remain crucial to success

• Journalism ethics haven’t changed, but we have to pay attention to audience, revenue performance

• API ethics seminar: Upholding & Updating Ethical Standards

Innovation in a small staff

• Engage the community (not free labor, but multiplying your labor)

• Yes, you lack resources, but you’re more nimble

• Use resources across the company• Write for web, edit for print• Consider innovation “vacations”

About those war stories …

How did your organization overcome obstacles?

In innovation as in news …

Don’t let obstacles become excuses

A short break

Making innovation happen

Take your approach from Nike:

Just do it

Three examples

• Multimedia• Liveblogging• Twitter

Why spend time with Twitter?

1. It improves your journalism2. It connects you with the community3. It changes your newsroom culture4. You can use it quickly5. It shows that you are learning and

changing, too

How Twitter helps journalists

1. Quickly locate eyewitnesses & participants in breaking news

2. Connect with sources, journalists3. Monitor community discussion4. Promote content5. Write tight (no lead longer than a

tweet)

Twitter’s value in breaking newsnot happening in Iran, Mumbai

1. DC Metro crash yesterday2. @jkrums on Hudson emergency landing3. @2drinksbehind on Denver plane crash4. Fargo flooding5. @MissRFTC on California earthquake

Additional reading later

I’ll email links to you:• These slides at

slideshare.net/stevebuttry• Tips on multimedia storytelling, Twitter,

liveblogging

Follow developments

• chuckpeters.iowa.com• stevebuttry.wordpress.com• @stevebuttry on Twitter

Do we want to be the monks or Gutenberg?