Interview with CSUWire’s founders

A few days ago, I discovered CSUWire The site is the brainchild of Dan Watson and Ryan Chartrand of the California Polytechnic - San Luis Obispo Mustang Daily.

California State University student newspaper editors can post stories from their individual campuses that can be printed in other CSU newspapers. This is a great example of how online media can create community pools of information where none existed previously. What’s even more exciting is that it was - and is - entirely driven by students.

Along the way, the pair have learned a lot about the difficulties of trying to incorporate new projects into set patterns of production - which is a challenge for anyone in online news. With the onset of summer, there’s time for some experimentation. Fall could be big for CSUWire.

Could other similar “local wires” be useful? Certainly. A Big-12 wire? A University of Texas System wire?

We’ll see if others have the initiative to create them.

Wednesday, I interviewed Dan and Ryan via Campfire business chat service. What follows is the edited transcript of that conversation.

Bryan M.: First off, walk me through the process of coming up with this site. What gave you the idea?

Dan W.: Well, Ryan and I have worked on the Mustang Daily Web site this year. It’s sort of been our pride and joy. Our primary goal has been to improve the online experience for the Cal Poly campus. During the process, there have been a number of CSU stories our reporters have covered. We wished we could have a way to communicate with other CSU editors.

Dan W.: To share stories, to share ideas, to share advice. So, it started off as a complaint. Then we decided to do something about it.

Ryan C.: Literally an hour after Dan had approached me with the idea, we had a basic site up with basic posting features. We were and still are really excited about it all.

Bryan M.: When exactly did this occur?

Dan W.: We started talking about it before Christmas break, and set up a basic site. It really started to take off this Spring quarter. But, I had talked to CSU editors throughout the school year. Also, I had a chance to work with an editor from Long Beach State on a special edition.

Ryan C.: Yeah, just a few weeks ago we switched over to Joomla and within a week couldn’t stop adding things every day.

Bryan M.: So the response is good from the editors. How many schools are currently participating?

Dan W.: That special edition never came to fruition. Each CSU school was suppose to contribute two pages. The edition was to be focused on the California budget. A number of editiors did not submit their two pages and the edition was never printed.

Bryan M.: a special web-only edition might be easier to pull off, however. That editors could then flow into their own publications as a package.

Dan W.: Yeah. That’s a great idea. A lot less expensive as well

Ryan C.: Hopefully the wave of the future. Although not enough CSUs are moving to the web THAT fast yet.

Dan W.: But it got some editors working together, and gave Ryan and I even more incentive to start the CSUWIRE system. Each editor that I have contacted has loved the idea. Many have either signed our “CSU User agreement” or has verbally agreed to use the site. But the site is still growing, and it’s a fairly new idea to many CSU editors.

Dan W.: Some, like Chico, need to re-write their copyright policy.

Bryan M.: Well, let’s talk about that. You mentioned that you’ve got five schools active out of 23. What seems to be the main hindrance to getting people to use the site?

Dan W.: The biggest problem is that it’s the end of the school year. Editors are on their way out. Ryan and I knew that student newspaper turnover would be our biggest issues to address.

Bryan M.: So you are having to “reintroduce” the idea to a new group of leaders?

Ryan C.: We’re hoping the new editors for next year that are being hired soon will be much more willing to do something.

Dan W.: This quarter, our goal has been to get the newsroom talking about our idea. To get excited. Often, current section editors step up to take over the editor in chief and managing editor positions before the summer.

In a way, it’s a nice testing period. We’re getting editor feedback, adding new features to the site and discovering what works, and what does not.

Ryan C.: For some reason, it’s been tough trying to get CSUWire built into the everyday process of other school papers. I.E. what the online editor does right before he/she leaves every night.

Bryan M.: Does it seem like editors need to be “trained” to think about this type of community network? I mean, is there an initial excitement, but people don’t follow through as much as you’d think? Just your perceptions.

Dan W.: At the same time, we understand that student editors are very busy. The only way Ryan and I can even work on the CSUWIRE project is often around midnight after our newsroom has collected every page. With this in mind, we are considering changing our system. Ideally, we’d hope for each online editor to post a few stories after their regular duties every night.

Ryan C.: It’s actually started to get frustrating with all the initial excitement followed by no activity. People don’t need to be trained; they just need to care about it and understand it.

Bryan M.: Do you think that maybe they don’t see the immediate payoff, and thus it gets put on the mental shelf (so to speak)?

Dan W.: Then again, I recently had a chat with the Sacramento State, State Hornet editor in chief. He mentioned that he only had three weeks left. How involved is he going to get? He’s not. He’s more interested in graduating that implenting a whole new system into his newsroom.

Ryan C.: It really is a whole new system for the newsroom. Right now they see it as extra work, not a payoff. The mental shelf for an EIC is filled with so much that Dan could go on for hours about what he’s thinking about right now.

Dan W.: The whole point of CSUWIRE is to allow editors to share material in the hope that it opens up a dialogue and encourages collaboration.

Bryan M.: Moving on … what are the plans for the summer for you guys?

Dan W.: Good question. Some newspapers do not publish for the summer and many, like the Mustang Daily, cut done on their publishing schedule. The Mustang Daily publishes once a week for 10 weeks. At the same time, the summer is a great trial and error period. The summer was so important for me to get the Mustang Daily newsroom trained on layout, working as a team and implementing our new Web site. New editors are excited to get started and open to new ideas. Our goal will be to communicate with the new student leaders. To get them posting if their newspaper is publishing, but more importantly, to be prepped for the fall.

Bryan M.: Dan, you mentioned that you are graduating. I take it from the tone of your answers that you still plan to be involved with the CSUWire?

Dan W.: I’ve asked most of the current editor in chiefs to talk to their staffs about the idea. They’ve returned with very positive remarks. Reporters want to get clips in newspapers around California and upcoming editors want to have a way to fill pages with relevant content.

This is not just a temporary system. I’ve loved my time working as a student journalist for three years, and I love working with student media. CSUWIRE will not flame out. I plan to keep CSUWIRE running. And Ryan will be a big part of that as well.

Bryan M.: Ryan, what about your summer plans re: CSU wire? Are you graduating soon?

Ryan C.: I haven’t a clue when I’ll graduate simply because I’m the only journalist with the web skills I have at this school…in other words, a lot of people want me to do things for them. Life here at Poly could get extended over a year because of that, but I will definitely continue to work with Dan and hopefully find a future partner in crime for CSUWire.

Bryan M.: I want to get your thoughts on the “future of journalism” You are going to be going out into this rapidly changing media environment. What do you think of it? What should colleges be doing to help you that they are not (realizing you’re going to be generalizing here).

Ryan C.: Well, here’s my possibly off-the-topic response: I knew the “future of journalism” was online the moment I joined the journalism department (and I’m absolutely in love with the future I might add). I honestly don’t think a lot of editors are ready for this rapidly changing media environment. As Dan said, a lot of editors have never heard of an RSS feed, let alone why Firefox is a great web browser. Poly is starting to move into the future with new positions and courses regarding online journalism and such, but more schools need to start this and make online journalism much more important in their curriculum. People need to understand online wire systems and why they are important before they become editors. Faculty members across the state need to move to the future.

Dan W.: There’s no doubt in mind. The media is quickly evolving. The general public wants the news to download onto a mobile device before going to work. It wants to view content and breaking news on an online news site at work, on vacation, while sitting down and eating. The world is speeding up. People don’t want to be told they have to get the news on TV at 6 p.m. everynight. They want to check their cell phones for news, they want RSS feeds that bring them their favorite news items. They expect a Web site to provide them an overall interactive experience. That means radio files and video files to compliment print stories.

It’s amazing to me that some editor in chiefs are not embracing the future of journalism. The most successful journalists in the future will be the ones that understand technology and do not hold stubbornly to “traditional journalism.”

Bryan M.: Where do you see student media right now? Are we where we need to be? Related to Dan’s comment: why do you think that is?

Ryan C.: Some schools are there, others are still at the starting line. Where some schools have podcasts and a team of journalists for their online version, others have either no Web site at all or simply a “place to store some archives.” The more schools that embrace convergence with other student media groups (i.e. TV or radio), the closer we’ll all be to the “where we need to be” finish line.

Dan W.: Ryan and I have made the Mustang Daily Web site the focale point of our work this year. Before this year, our Web site was an embarrassment. It was updated once a week and received maybe 100 hits a day.

We did a complete overhaul. We started updating daily, and broke news with speed and accuracy. We added a number of “online exclusive columns” on top of video and radio files. We added a blog. We were then able to compete in the California College Media Association “Web site excellence” category and took second place in California. We had a chance to survey other sites that we were competing against.

It’s my feeling that editors are very reluctant to realize that it’s OK to put the Web site as the No. 1 product and the print product as No. 2.

But I feel we’re still way behind. We’re looking at converging the concentrations in the Cal Poly journalism department. It’s inevitable. It’s not about learning “radio” or “television broadcast” or “public relations” or “print.” It’s about realizing that each of these areas come together to create a new interactive media.

Bryan M.: How can that attitude be changed? What will it take for editors to see that?

Ryan C.: It can go one of two ways; they can either one day realize it like a brick coming through their window as they quickly try to “get on board the wave of the future,” or there can be a Paul Revere movement where all editors gather and get face-to-face and say to each other “Hey, look at what we’ve done. Isn’t this awesome? We should all be doing this. This is our future.” I would love to end my career at Poly doing a giant summit like that.

Dan W.: I think that editors need their professors to stress the importance of online journalism. They need their advisors to promote updating the Web site. They need each professor to want to bring what have traditionally been seperate components together. Editors also need to see the results. Our Web site hits went from 100 a day to 30,000 a day. People respond. Also, editors need to go to conferences and here first-hand accounts.

It’s funny, because I think a lot of reporters and editors are using blogs and podcasts. They’re going to ESPN.com on their time off and checking the video files, the radio files and the quick hitting news blurbs. But then they go to work and shun the idea. They have the skills to use and implement these tools. They just need to embrace it. It’s hard to break away from believing newspapers are not as sturdy as they once were. Circulation numbers are dropping and online numbers are growing.

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