futureofnews – Frontline Club

Content is King – David Carr in conversation with Richard Gizbert

Flora Carmichael — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:41:41 +0000

By Charlotte Eyre

Original and innovative content will remain the keystone of the news industry as the media machine progresses, David Carr said in a discussion with Richard Gizbert on Monday.

New York Times media industry columnist David Carr highlighted the problem of making journalism count in an increasingly digitalised industry when he was at the Frontline Club.

Talking to Richard Gizbert, who covers the media industry for Al Jazeera, Carr described how “the sky started falling in 2005”, when old-school media outlets were faced with a sharp change in the industry – notably the advent of digital coverage.

Carr, who writes about new technology such as the iPad in his weekly Media Equation column, outlined fears many have in the news industry: that online news outlets are leading to homogeneity.

“In future, all news sites will start to look the same with their audio content, their video content, their small type, their big type, etc,” he said, going on to warn that “brands such as Reuters and CNN will become nothing more than icons” on the screen.

The 24 hour news cycle is having a negative effect on depth and breadth of content, Carr argued:

“I’m too busy marketing and pimping,” he said. “What I’m doing is getting smaller and smaller. I worry that I can’t think in long sentences any more.”

However, innovative content will continue to garner attention, said Carr, who pointed out that newspapers can be curators, “as good as a curator as anything else”, of the “whooshing of information” online.

Hybrid news coverage is another way forward, he said, giving the example of the Texas Tribune, an independent news blog devoted to state government and public policy.

“When the Texas Tribune started up the local papers freaked out at first but now they are all collaborating,” he said.

Moving onto profitability, Carr dismissed the idea that investments from money men will support the industry long term.

“The problem is these guys hate losing money,” he said. “Look at Warren Buffett, he hates papers.”

All in all, the discussion between Carr and Gizbert highlighted how innovative content and finding a niche is what media industry players still need to do to stay alive in this challenging, changing era of news.

However, Carr’s description of the New York Times finding a ‘ledge’ rather than new ground is a pertinent analogy to remember. Media experts may have some idea about how the media world should move forwards but nobody has, as yet, come up with a definitive solution.

End Times at The New York Times

Graham Holliday — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:33:07 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

End Times

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
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Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

The Daily Show take a tour of the offices of the New York Times. If you want to know what’s black and white and red all over… watch the video above.

The Decline of the Foreign Correspondent

Graham Holliday — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:52:19 +0000

Princeton University recently held a panel discussion on the Decline of the Foreign Correspondent. They talk about the “dramatic shift of traditional media away from
foreign reporting and the growth of web-based citizen journalists and
the effect on coverage of international news and human rights issues” Taking part are,

Loren Jenkins, Foreign Editor, National Public Radio, Sherry Ricchiardi, Senior Writer, American Journalism Review and Professor, Indiana University School of Journalism, Patrick Meier, Research Fellow, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Bob Dietz, Asia Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists. link

The discussion took place at George Washington University on December 10, 2008. You can download an MP3 of the 1 hour 16 minute discussion at the Princeton University website.

The future of news

Graham Holliday — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:55:23 +0000

This could make a good Christmas read. The Media Re:Public report on the future of media in the digital age is published just in time for the holidays and it’s free to download. As Ethan says,

My friend Persephone Miel came to the Berkman Center more than a year ago to take on a challenging question: What’s the future of journalism in a digital age? This is the sort of question research centers love to take on – thorny, complicated, and very important. link

You won’t find all the answers in the report, but you will find some good pointers and thought provoking ideas.