Writer for The Christchurch Press Alex van Wel is immersing himself in convergent thinking - the coming together of all forms of journalism online. He's in America on Fairfax Media's Mike Robson Fellowship, and travelling from South Carolina up to New York. On day one and two he visited Newsplex in the city of Columbia, a centre devoted to the multi-media world.
“Don’t worry about the technology!” barks journalism guru Randy Covington “just focus on the story.”
The Newsplex director has one objective in life: to de-mystify the ‘new’ media, and make it easy for reporters to embrace the digital age.
In his view, those who try to over-complicate the world of blogs, tweets, platforms and tablets should be taken outside and given a damn good thrashing.
With the very real crisis in the US newspaper industry, there’s just no time for it.
Here’s his message to us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKJvCv6a99g
A bit over the top? I don’t think so. Here's a little peek at The State Newspaper in Columbia. Its Online editor Gary Ward is chasing after a fire which has already badly burned his staff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SmZdV2cpk
Of course, it's not as if the internet is delivering a silver bullet. It's the complete opposite, the migration of readers online the root of the problem. “We’re trading analog dollars for digital dimes” laughs Covington, echoing the dry words of Universal CEO Jeff Zucker. Newspapers are left trying to work out how to make the dimes add up to something. Some are moving seriously into moving film and gathering their own quality footage. They know companies are much more willing to pay for pre-roll – the adverts which precede video-clips, because viewers are much more engaged. But at the moment television is often still clipping the ticket, on Stuff at any rate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_ZX35Wgp90
An alternative business model is struggling to be born. All kinds of wild ideas are being thrown about - even a US government subsidy for public service journalism. And there are still mutterings about full or limited pay-walls. One newspaper executive here told me everyone is standing still, looking anxiously from side to side to see who will make the first move. If the damage isn’t too bad and they survive, then we’ll all fall into line, he said, refusing to be named. A few big players – the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph in Britain – have set up specialist units to brainstorm. Everyone in the business is trying to pierce the future, to work out what it’s all going to look like. It could look just like this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5CzQyjw1Gw
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