November 16, 2009

Thoughts from #tfon

Chuck took this picture

That’s a pic from Chuckumentary at today’s MPR conference entitled “The Future of News”, which I watched on the conference livestream and attended during the afternoon.

The panels were stocked with the biggest names of the Twin Cities major media — MPR, STrib, KARE — so as you can imagine, the majority of time was spent talking about the notable moments of the media’s past, how the present (2002-2008) isn’t looking so hot, and not really that much about the future.

A couple notes on this get-together, before my brain is totally fried.

NOTE: The livestream and chats were awesome.  @JuliaSchrenkler and co. should feel really good about the set-up and all the people who participated online.

NOTE: The STrib’s biggest competition isn’t MPR.  It’s Google.  And Facebook.  And its lack of permanent urls.

NOTE: A huge part of media institutions and their reporting processes center on press releases, but I didn’t hear anything about press releases.  I also didn’t hear about user experience, RSS feeds, or click through rates, and that stuff is important to talk about.

NOTE:  It’s a huge flaw to take the “Prom Kings” — the biggest fish in the pond — and use them as examples of our local media ecosystem.  I didn’t hear about the Minnesota News Network for radio (which is huge), or La Presna, or Forum Communications out of Fargo, etc.  If the future of news is about networks, which a lot of people think is true, then we should include existing networks and their businesses in the discussion.

NOTE: The AP didn’t get a lot of mention, either.  If you’re interested in seeing how a lot of regional news happens, set up a Google Alert for “Patrick Condon” in Minnesota news publications.  Condon is an AP reporter responsible for — and I’m just making this up, but it feels true — like 20% of all news content in Minnesota on any given day.  He writes solid AP stories and everybody from the STrib to MPR to the Duluth Tribune picks the story up and runs with it.

NOTE: Nearly every single media outlet in the state has the same website layout and ad model, and none of them are making money on this set-up, but none of them change because of internal politics.  That’s just crazy.

NOTE: This one is really, really important.  I didn’t hear and hypothetical lay-outs of state’s media landscape in the near future.  We won’t have 4 local TV stations, we’ll have 2 and then maybe one.  We won’t have the STrib and PiPress.  They won’t be around.  And existing media institutions don’t want to confront this fact.

Also, some of us were talking about having a similar panel called “The Future of News: Under 35” for some different perspective on the future of local news in the DMA.  I know a few folks who’d be awesome for this, but if you have suggestions for panelists, let me know.

8:37pm  |   URL: http://crazyinternetbeatz.com/post/246705005/thoughts-from-tfon
(No. OF NOTES: 9)
  
  1. chuckolsen reblogged this from mediation and added:
    what Taylor says,...by gosh that’s good enough...profit....
  2. freshmn reblogged this from mediation and added:
    follow yesterday’s event.
  3. mediation posted this