I am pleased to be involved this week in a discussion of ways to transform the news business. Nothing could be more important for our industry now and I will be discussing this topic Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern time (1 p.m. Central) in a live chat hosted by the American Society of News Editors.
The discussion is free for ASNE members. You can register now.
Don’t look for a discussion of paywalls in this live chat. ASNE hosted such a discussion at a webinar last month. Whether I’m right that paywalls are a crazy idea or others are right that they are necessary, our industry needs to innovate far beyond the notion of charging for content. I am hopeful that Thursday’s live chat will help us see various paths to a prosperous future. I will be joining four panelists with great insight about digital journalism and the business models to support it:
- Mark Briggs, Journalism 2.0 author/blogger, is former assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. Mark left the newsroom to start Serra Media, which has developed Newsgarden, a tool to let users find the news and deals in their neighborhoods and to help journalists, community members and businesses organize news and advertising by location. He will discuss the hyperlocal opportunities that most news companies are missing.
- Charlotte-Anne Lucas is a web veteran who has been managing editor of TheStreet.com and content director of MySanAntonio.com, both of which became profitable during her tenure. She is project manager for NOWCast SA, a non-profit citizen journalism startup. Charlotte-Anne has clear and insightful views on how to succeed in the digital world. Her blog post Choosing the digital printing press provides a thoughtful look at the tools we need to serve a digital audience and Newspapers don’t own journalism helps us understand how digital journalism is growing and thriving even as newspapers struggle.
- Digital journalism pioneer Steve Outing is Stop the Presses! columnist for Editor & Publisher Online. He was a senior editor for the Poynter Institute and started his own web-media company that closed in 2007. Steve’s column, Getting Money from Readers Who Won’t Pay for Online News, was an important contribution to the paid-content discussion. He suggested that a news organization could keep a large audience by offering its basic content free, but develop a membership model providing high-value to people who choose to pay for the extra benefits, such as exclusive discounts from advertisers. Steve has also written about the possibilities of syndication revenue from the Attributor project. And he had some interesting observations on the future of news business models from last week’s conference at the Aspen Institute.
- Dan Conover has filled newsroom roles ranging from city editor to web editor to cartoonist. Last year, just three years after being named South Carolina’s Journalist of the Year, Dan took a buyout last year from the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. He now freelances and writes for the Xark blog. Dan’s post 2020 vision: What’s next for news? was one of the most thoughtful things I’ve read about where journalism and our business may be heading.
I will join these four in Thursday’s live chat. I will be discussing my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection. Most specifically, I will address my belief that we need a new revenue approach, based on facilitating transactions, rather than just showing ads to lots of people.
Too much talk in the news business these days focuses on protecting the past. This will be a talk focused on the future. I think the ideas we will be discussing Thursday are going to be part of the future. And more ideas will come from discussions like this. I hope you will join us with your ideas and questions.
The live chat is free for ASNE members. You can register here.
The Buttry Diary 
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