I’m not sure what to make of this, but Paul Pennelli is no longer affiliated with College Publisher.

We’ve talked with Pennelli several times in the past. See here and here for previous interviews. Paul has always been supportive of new media efforts on college campuses, and quick to respond to e-mail requests. I’m e-mailing the current contact at CP to find out what this might mean for CP, and I’ll let folks know once I get a response.

Update (4-18-07, 9 p.m.): Another example is in this AP video of the newly released “multimedia manifesto” by the VT killer, which features a 15-second Microsoft ad. Sorry, MS - now is not the time, this is not the video for pre-roll ads.

Yahoo! News has video from the Virginia Tech shootings, including this video of a cell phone capturing audio of gun shots being fired. But you know what you have to get through to get to the video? @$#%@ 30 seconds of an M&Ms video! This is the problem with pre-roll commercials - they are inappropriate at the beginning of some stories - including any stories involving the deaths of human beings. This isn’t the only pre-roll I’ve had to sit through today that irked me.

I understand that Internet video costs money, and advertising pays the bills, but there are times when advertising should be kept out of the equation. This is one of those times.

The Business Beat

A good journalism professor once told me that comparing and constrasting can be useful tools in telling a story to an audience. Some may argue that comparing Google to news/information companies is apples and oranges, but each of the following companies mainly sells advertising to generate revenue.

The New York Times Company publishes The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 15 other daily newspapers, owns (is selling) nine television stations and two New York radio stations; and has approximately 35 Web sites.

Established 1851

$3.3 billion revenue in ‘06

$(543) million income ‘06

$721 million long term debt ‘06

11,585 employees

The E. W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in national lifestyle cable networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations, electronic commerce, interactive media, and licensing and syndication.

Established 1878

$2.5 billion revenue ‘06

$353 million income ‘06

$766 million long term debt ‘06

9,000 employees

Gannett Co., Inc. is a large diversified news and information company.

Established 1906

$8.0 billion revenue ‘06

$1.2 billion income ‘06

$5.2 billion long term debt ‘06

49,675 employees

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally assessible and useful. Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page.

Established 1998

$10.5 billion in revenues ‘06

$3.1 billion income ‘06

Zero debt ‘06

10,674 employees

While analysts look for revenue growth in the mid-single digits for the three news companies mentioned above, Google could see growth in the 50 - 100 percent range.

Information compiled from MarketWatch, E-Trade and company Web sites.

Hi everyone. Bryan Murley asked me if I would write a post on the topic of Facebook, its relation to the media and what can be learned from it. Well, I got a bit long-winded, but I felt a need to be as comprehensive as possible.

Facebook has been a relevant part of my life in the past few years. I’ve found police officers on the social networking site using it to arrest a student. I’ve protested the addition of a “news feed” without optional privacy settings. And I’ve broken a story about how a student columnist was fired after posting some controversial comments on the site. Of course, I’m still a regular user, too.

All of this has gotten me thinking quite a bit recently on how Facebook might be more relevant to the media than just the next news story in the tech-journalism world.

So, after the jump, read about my thoughts on how the media can learn from the path Facebook has blazed to see how news organizations can begin to matter to their readers again. Also, there’s a rather funny anecdote about me doing the “milk challenge.”

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The Business Beat 

In prior posts we began to examine Gannett’s business strategy for the upcoming year based on the company brass report to major investment house, Credit Suisse. The 51-minute audio post is pretty boring and filled with enough business jargon to choke any self-respecting journalist.

So, we made a few crib notes to spare you.

We’ve already heard from CEO Craig Dubow and Gannett’s president of its newspaper division, Sue Clark-Johnson.

Here’s a summary from president and CEO of USA Today, Roger Ogden. 

* 2007 marks the 25th anniversary of USA Today, the paper has always focused on easy access of news/info for readers, and that will continue

* USA Today dropped 1.3% of circulation last year and continuing drops may be anticipated

* Five percent decrease in page ads in 2006

* Six percent increase in ad rates for 2007 (fewer readers, but more expensive?)

* Fifteen percent loss in auto ads in 2006

* Increased focus on Web in 2007

* Major online redesign scheduled for launch this fiscal quarter

* More user interactivity to be built into online site

* Renewed focus on podcasts and blogs

* Will increase partnerships with TV (Good Morning America and ABC News) in ‘07

* Online revenue increased 25% in ‘06, projects 18-20% growth in “07

* USA Today online measured 50 billion ad impressions in ‘06

* Expects overall revenue for USA Today to be up in the mid-single digits for ‘07

Next time, we will finish up with Gannett’s broadcasting plans.

CICM’s Business Beat

General manager of The Daily Tar Heel, Kevin Schwartz made a post yesterday on the CMA list-serv regarding Gannett’s acquisition of The Central Florida Future, the student newspaper of the University of Central Florida. You can find the story of the sell in the news column on the right hand side of the page.

Here’s the brief story as it appeared in Florida Today paper.

This is Gannett’s second acquisition of a student newspaper. The Florida State paper was the first.

Is there a pattern here?

Is college media in the crosshairs?

At a media conference in December, 2006, Gannett’s corporate brass gave a detailed business report to Credit Suisse, a major investing house. It’s basically an annual report without all the mind-numbing statistics.

The report is available online in podcast form until March 7.

You cannot directly link to the podcast. Instead, go to this site and click on the Credit Suisse report which will give you an option to listen.

This 53 minute Gannett report is required listening for anyone interested in the future of journalism. A theme repeating throughout was the development of “niche: audiences.

This is a major report for a major stockholder. It’s very interesting that Gannett’s Chairman, President, and CEO, Mr. Dubow, makes mention of the aquistion of the Florida State student paper (10:10) on the podcast.

A CEO mentioning the aquistion of a student newspaper at a major stockholders meeting?

This is a company with 90 daily newspapers including USA Today and numerous commercial TV stations.

This is but another wake up call for college media.

Colleges have a prime “niche” audience and it looks to me like the corporations have us on their radar.

This news comes on the heels of Landmark’s announcement of BigLickU.

I strongly urge you to listen to the full Gannett report mentioned above. It’s downright spooky listening to the media money people talking about the future of journalism.

Steve Outing wrote a list of 10 words of advice for small newspapers for Editor & Publisher. Here’s the bullet point version (Outing’s list in bold), but you really need to read the whole thing. I’m adding college media-specific comments in italics.

1. Copy and build from the industry leaders
   Outing lists a number of for-profit newspapers that are doing innovative things online. I’d add that you should be paying attention to what some of the most innovative college media online sites are doing. See our College New Media Map for some sites who have been breaking ground in the online arena. And we’re always trying to find others. Remember, imitation isn’t only the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also a way you can navigate change.
   
2. Don’t hire print-focused employees
   Obviously, college media can’t not hire people just because they think online news is just a “fad” or print journalism is the highest form of journalism. But you shouldn’t promote those folks to newsroom leadership! We’ve been saying for over a year that if you want to get with the changing face of the media environment, the people who run your online presence need to be at or near the top of the chain of command. And those students who come to you with a print-centered mindset will change their mind eventually … we hope. If you don’t think this is still a problem, listen to Howard Owens: “I’ve run across far too many recent J-school grads that are as traditional in their thinking as any crusty old city editor you care to name. I’ve talked to other hiring managers about how hard it is to get recent J-school grads to take positions in the online departments — they all want to work for print. I’ve seen shiny new grads in newsrooms who won’t pick up a video camera or file a web-first story. It’s a pretty amazing phenomena. Instead, you need to develop an interview process that helps you discover who is really passionate about online.”
3. Hire a hot-dog programmer, one way or another
   Admittedly, this is a huge challenge for college media. Programmers cost money - lots more than reporters. That said, several papers have taken the step of hiring web programmers for their publications. Troll the computer science department, or even the computer design/art department. If you’re on a big campus, chances are there are some web gurus who are running weblogs or web sites who might have what you’re looking for. And if you can’t hire one, contract with one, or work with College Publisher to get your site to do what you need.
4. Find (free or cheap) help and go crazy with experimentation
   The first part of this equation is not a problem. We’ve got all kinds of free and cheap help around. The challenge is experimentation. And this is more of a problem than we’d like to admit. The truth is, we all fall in love with consistency and predictability - even college students. Experimentation takes risks, and it requires sometimes failing. But it must be done. Find the people who like to take risks (reasonable risks, if there is such a thing), and give them license to try new things. Again, open up the doors of the newsroom and look around on campus. Find someone who’s done something on YouTube and ask if they want to work with your staff. Come up with other experimental ideas.
5. Make a class assignment
   If you have a good relationship with your journalism department, find a professor who has the right attitude about new media (easier said than done, unfortunately), and see if she will work with you to come up with a class assignment that both challenges her students and meets a need for your media.
6. Join forces with other small papers
   Here’s a beauty of the Internet - it’s easy to connect. There are all sorts of groupings of newspapers that you can try to get together to solve common problems/challenges with new media. Look at the example shown by CSUwire last year.
7. Develop lots of localized online communities
   This is going to take work, and probably a dedicated staffer to help cultivate these communities. It’s also going to take an attitude that is willing to open up the gates of the news site to the readers. It’s a myth of online life that “if you build it, they will come.” You still have to engage the people in any kind of online situation, or the initiative will wither.
8. Utilize the camera-toting army
   If you’re not hosting or soliciting photographs from students on your campus, you need to. No excuses.
9. Mix up professional and citizen reporting
   If you want to get students passionate about your online site (and your news organization as a whole), there are two ways to do so: 1. Piss them off. 2. Give them a sense of ownership. It’s easy to find people (columnists, usually) who are adept at number 1, but much harder to commit to number 2. In the long run, number 1 is going to do more damage than good. The best way to achieve number 2 is to promote “citizen” (i.e., average student) content alongside your “professional” (i.e., student staff) content. This doesn’t mean you have to lower standards. But promote the contributed content in prominent places on your site. Don’t “ghetto-ize” it with a “citizen journalism” page.
10. Play off of what else is available online
    Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Creative Commons, etc. There are tons of useful tools available for free online. Make use of them. But read the Terms of Use closely.

J.D. Lasica points out a workable way news organizations can handle “up-to-the-minute” breaking news coverage:

For years, mostly in talks at conferences, I’ve been suggesting that when news organizations cover breaking news stories, reporters and editors post updates with categories such as “what we know” and “what we don’t know at this time.”

This sounds like a reasonable way to cover breaking news online. Not only does it add a layer of transparency to the process (”we’ve verified these facts”), but it also adds qualification to the reporting (”These are things we can’t verify”). I’m wondering if any college media organizations have tried an approach like this?

Still, seeing this Lasica post reminded me a little bit of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s famous “Known Unknowns” quote (listen to an mp3 of the quote here):

Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don’t know we don’t know 

Should we call this the “Rumsfeld method”?

Lots of folks in the tech mediasphere are mentioning the tragic death of CNET editor James Kim. We should add our condolences to Kim’s family and friends.

Check out the tribute stories and multimedia on CNET’s tribute page: James Kim: 1971-2006.

Newsosaur writes a lengthy post explaining some of the lessons media outlets can learn from this tragic episode - Getting Personal, including this:

Although there is enormous continuing value to the classic forms of reporting, the mainstream media need to understand that they are competing not only with each other but also with new forms of instantaneous and emotional expression, including self-expression, that have compelling appeal for their readers and viewers.

One of the first stories I covered in college was the death of a fraternity pledge during what many thought was a hazing incident. In 1986, we didn’t have the resources to provide a space for family and friends to respond to this student’s death. I wonder how we’d do things differently today. If anyone has similar multimedia packages or remembrance pages or experiences covering tragedy on campus in a new media model that have been successful on their college sites, pass them along.

Two stories a world apart, one challenge for following up on the wisdom of crowds.

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