Posted by Ralph Braseth (Bryan’s on the road)

ICM’s Bryan Murley sat on a panel at AEJMC in Washington D.C. to discuss the many changes facing journalism and journalism education.

“We don’t face the same problems economically that the industry is facing,” said Eastern Illinois University’s Bryan Murley, who found in a survey of college newspaper advisers that 58.7 percent in 2006, and 53 percent in 2007, thought campus media had not kept pace with the advances in commercial media. “But the industry is requiring reporters to have different skill sets.”

A reporter from Inside Higher Education covered the panel. Read the story here. Interesting reader comments at the bottom.

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Ralph Braseth

Below is a recent e-mail sent by an Ole Miss student doing an internship at Smithsonian Magazine. I’ve been a bit zealous about multimedia. I’ve alientated a few students and fellow faculty members. It’s an on-going fight.

What the heck should we be doing when no one really knows for sure what is going on?

Read the rest of this entry →

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The Business Beat

This post was written 40 days ago about an hour before the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

I’m attending the Newspaper Association Managers’ advertising national conference in Tunica, Miss., today as a speaker and attendee.

Advertising professionals from 30 states are in attendance for professional development and to learn about utilizing the power of the Web to develop new revenue streams.

One session this morning was led by Elaine Clisham, the director of marketing for The American Press Institute. As of late, much of her job entails taking the info generated by “Newspaper Next” and getting into the hands of industry professionals.

About 30 minutes through her presentation and while talking about innovative ideas for newspapers, Ms. Clisham brought up BigLickU as an excellent example of media innovation. Keep in mind, this is a national conference of ad professionals.

Ms. Clisham was gracious to offer an interview to CICM and had this to say about BigLickU.

API Director of Marketing Elaine Clisham on BigLickU

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The Business Beat

I first caught wind of the troubles facing local affiliates after talking with Lost Remote’s Steven Safran. I was doing an interview with him outside the NAB show in New York last fall.

Safran basically said local TV better start doing more local TV. Their studios that remain unused the vast majority of the day should be cranking out local content 24/7.

I started talking to other local TV GMs and news directors who expressed concern that the networks no longer needed their big expensive towers to reach audiences. I asked for an example and the first mentioned was Katie Couric on-demand (not sure why anyone would demand Katie, but I digress).

Now CBS has cut distribution deals for its programming with 10 other companies. Offering CSI and Letterman online will impact local TV news. It’s no secret that many of us couch potatoes watch the local news because of the national programming leading into and out of local TV news. What happens when we watch CSI online at 8:00? Bye bye news audience, or at least part of it.

Now, rather than restricting its programming to one branded hub, fans of CBS shows–including “CSI,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Survivor,” “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric”–will now have their pick of online venues. Spreading the wealth, CBS’s other distribution partners include CNET Networks, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media, Veoh, and Akamai Technologies.

“It’s really all about the user,” said Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive. “In remaining open to all online distributors and community builders–big and small–we can learn more about our existing audience, be exposed to new ones, and flexibly cater to their changing consumption habits.”

What you didn’t see mentioned in that list was CBS local affiliates and I believe that spells big-time trouble for local stations and local news, althought I hope not.

But here’s another basic problem: Newspapers have stolen TV’s platinum sword — video — and are chipping away at what was once the sole domain of TV.

Lots of newspapers doing great video. The Time, WaPo and the list goes on and there doesn’t seem to be a newspaper anywhere that’s not getting in on the fun.

Gannett, as they move from their newsroom to their “Information Centers” claim to have already trained almost 400 new video journalists.

And now radio, YES RADIO, is doing video news. (Thanks for the tip Cyberjournalist peoples).

So does this spell trouble for TV? If I was a betting man, and I am, I’d bet $100 most local GMs have a few concerns that will soon become very public (keep in mind, I’m a school teacher and $100 is a lot of money to me).

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We are continuing our series of video interviews with the teachers from CICM’s new media workshop that took place in Nashville, March 29 – 31.

Of all the new media teachers at the conference, Jack Lail seemed the most unlikely. I suspect that had something to do with his age. As Lail said, “I’m not a 20-something geek.”

No he certainly isn’t. What he is, I’ve come to discover, is one of the founders of newspaper people-turned -new newspaper people. In some form or fashion, Lail has utilized technology in his excellent journalism work since 1994. He learned how to use technology like many people still do.

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Check out Jack Lail’s blog Rambling Mumblings.

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