Thanks Dean Li!

Posted by Sheila Conlin

I was so pleased to accept the top video journalism award from Associate Dean Denise Li last Wednesday evening.


It's called the Tropaia Award and is designed to recognize a graduating student for their GPA, capstone work and service to the program.

Katie Balestra won, in part, for her articles in the Washington Post. I won, in part, for the video profile I did on Jim Hummel that appears on this blog.

I had to look up the word "Tropaia" and here is how the university describes it:
The word “tropaia” is ancient Greek and refers to a monument constructed to celebrate a military victory. Today, trophies awarded for excellence may draw close comparisons to the ancient structures. Each year students, faculty and some alumni are recognized for their academic excellence and outstanding achievement during the tropaia ceremonies.
Thank you to the decision makers in the School of Continuing Studies for this recognition of my work. I'm honored to be one of this year's recipients.

Former Newspaper Editor & Publisher Goes Online in Minnesota

Posted by Sheila Conlin


I know this blog is focusing on former TV news people who've gone online. But this article points out how ANY news person going online is facing many of the same struggles when it comes to finances. Since part of the goal of this blog is to see if we can figure out what money making formula will sustain journalists going online - it seemed like a good link to add to the collection.


This article is by David Carr who writes the Media Equation Column in the Business Section of the New York Times.

He is writing about MinnPost.com and after looking at the site, I'm not AS bothered by the PayPal logo on the front of Jim Hummel's site. The Minnesota site has a "members supported news" button at the top of the home page screen. (And Jim has revamped his home page to add a similar "Please Donate Now" button and reduced the size of the PayPal logo from the version you saw in the video piece on this blog.)

Please check out the article and the Minnesota site and let me know what you think.

Could Google - Save Online News? Should Google?

Posted by Sheila Conlin in , ,

I ran across this article in The Atlantic magazine written by James Fallows. While the focus, initially, talks about saving newspapers it does go on to talk about helping other media giants like those in television and radio circles. Could there be a monetization solution in Google? Should there be? Here's the introductory paragraph. Please read on to see more of his argument. Mr. Fallows' blog is attached to link on his name above and he has a summary of the article's main points on the blog.

Let me know your thoughts.

How to Save the News

Plummeting newspaper circulation, disappearing classified ads, “unbundling” of content—the list of what’s killing journalism is long. But high on that list, many would say, is Google, the biggest unbundler of them all. Now, having helped break the news business, the company wants to fix it—for commercial as well as civic reasons: if news organizations stop producing great journalism, says one Google executive, the search engine will no longer have interesting content to link to. So some of the smartest minds at the company are thinking about this, and working with publishers, and peering ahead to see what the future of journalism looks like. Guess what? It’s bright.

By James Fallows

What I've Learned So Far

Posted by Sheila Conlin

This has been an enjoyable journey. But it's not over yet.

One of the reasons I chose this topic for my capstone is that I have friends who've lost jobs through no fault of their own. Thinking there must be SOME clues from people trying to make a go of journalism online that we can ALL benefit from. Hence, the capstone project/blog you see here.

Most of the journalists who are losing jobs are in that situation because fewer people are reading newspapers or watching TV news or listening to network radio stations. The general public is still absorbing news and information. But they are getting it from the Internet while they ride a metro bus or train to work. Or they hear radio headlines while in the car and go "read more about it" online at the office (while they are suppose to be doing something else). The days of being home to watch Walter Cronkite at 6:30pm are long gone. But we have NOT lost the desire to know about events in the world or to get information about topics near and dear to our hearts.

I look at all three of the people I'm profiling in this project as being very brave. It takes a lot of guts to quit your job - sometimes without another one lined up. One of the three had a job to go to. Another sort of had a plan. And the third simply left out of frustration. But they all have started something new in the world of online journalism. And I am excited to watch how they progress to their one year anniversaries and beyond.


Jim Hummel is a nice guy. And a good journalist. But many people are raising questions about his business associates. He says they don't influence his reporting. But public perception can be a tricky thing. I think he's doing good work that nobody else in the market is doing right now in the video arena. And he's right. There is something unique about seeing a bad guy's face as he/she tries to explain themselves when they get caught wasting taxpayer money. So I am interested in watching him try to find corporate sponsors to make up for the seed money that launched his effort. I hope he can pull it off.




Jill Burke gave up a solid job as a weekend anchor, newscast producer and reporter for KTUU TV 2 in Anchorage, Alaska to try something that had not been tried in that state before: an online news magazine that the nameplate on the site says is "News and voices from the Last Frontier." They are fortunate enough to have financial backing that could sustain them for 3 years or until they can get on their feet. Maybe we need more funding sources like this as more and more reporters move to the Internet to record accounts of what's happening in the world.




The last person I have not yet done my video profile of but hope to do one soon.


Rick Kupchella is an energetic soul. He has poured so much into his two projects and I can't wait to travel to Minnesota to follow him around with a camera to do a proper video profile. But suffice it to say that one venture is strictly online. The other one is working with advertisers to craft hour long specials that can run on television airwaves (maybe on the Internet too?) to talk about health issues that we all need to think about. He has a very impressive list of sponsors and they will be launching their first on air special later this month.
I will bring you more on both of those programs in the days ahead.

But so far in this hunt for "clues we can all use" about reporting news online and getting paid for it - I would say I've found a few common denominators.

First - being experienced at your craft is very important. Having name recognition and what Jim Hummel calls his "brand" is very important. But you can't rest there. You have to be constantly trying to spread the word about what you are doing.

Another clue is that you are better off if you team up with others. The Alaska folks would LOVE to team up with other news organizations in the state. But right now most see them as competition. Not as a complimentary organization. (That sounds like a missed opportunity for all.) Rick's group has developed partnerships with radio stations in Minnesota for the online venture and he's found that the widgets they put on the radio station websites are driving tens of thousands of people to his website "Bring me the News" every month. At one point he said to me - "Who knew widgets were so powerful?"

And the final observation is that it takes a lot of energy to do these online ventures. I recall a long time print reporter coming to one of my classes last year and saying he fondly recalls the days when he could work on one story for the day - and be having a beer with friends by 5pm. Now he has to write and research stories - plus blogs all day. His 'day' would often start long before he arrived at the office and he would still be working after getting home at night. The Internet doesn't go to sleep. So if you are the driving force behind an online news venture - you won't get to sleep very much either.

But rather then get saddened by that reality - you should know that ALL of these people are VERY excited about what they are doing. They have an energy and an enthusiasm that is truly contagious. So I want to bring you their stories so you can get excited too. Maybe get some ideas about how you can make it work. And I hope to find stories of other Internet entrepreneurs to share with you in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks for taking the journey with me so far.

And please stay tuned.

Sheila Conlin

Harvard and Huffington and Hummel

Posted by Sheila Conlin in , , ,




I want to thank a couple of people who thought enough of the Jim Hummel piece on this site to recommend that others see it, too.

First, Joshua Benton at Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab looked at it as another example of conservative groups funding independent "anti-government-waste" journalists sites. I'm not sure Jim Hummel would appreciate that label - but it IS one way to look at the experiment he has launched in Rhode Island.

The second recommendation comes from one of my professors in the Georgetown program (Yes she teaches Journalism in Albany at SUNY - but was a visiting professor in 2009 in Washington, DC).

Claudia Ricci wrote about it on Huffington Post.

Thank you both for your support on this project.

If you have not seen those stories I urge you to check them out.

Thanks -

Sheila




Profile #2 - Jill Burke in Alaska

Posted by Sheila Conlin

I have never been to Alaska. But I hope to one day.
Until then, I will see it thru the eyes of others, like reporter Jill Burke.

Jill has been working in Alaska for a number of years. But her reporting, until last August, was always on TV.


Now, she is working for an online news magazine called Alaska Dispatch.com.

This organization has a very different "monetization model" for it's online product.

Click on the video link below to find out more.

Thanks for your time.

Sheila

Former TV Reporter Jill Burke now with Alaska Dispatch.com from Sheila Conlin on Vimeo.

Jim Hummel Video Profile Piece From Rhode Island

Posted by Sheila Conlin in , ,

I traveled to Rhode Island on a mission. I lived in the state for 2 and a half years - many years ago. My return was prompted because of my master's program and something one of my former colleagues was doing. I had heard Jim Hummel had left the TV station where we both worked to launch an online news site.


In this graduate program, we have done a lot of focus on how the Internet is changing the way journalism is happening. People have been let go (read "fired") from newspapers, radio networks and television newsrooms by the thousands in the past few years. Many of the managers say they aren't making enough money on the advertising. So they can't keep as many journalist on the payroll.

The Internet has changed the way all of us do a lot of things.

When I was a rookie reporter, I hauled much heavier gear - occasionally - as a one man band. The lighter gear does make that part of the backpack journalist's job easier. But it's still a lot of work. I shot for the better part of 2 days and got back on a plane to return to Washington.

I'd forgotten how much more work goes into longer pieces. This one runs more then 10 minutes and my normal package length is 1:30. (That's a minute thirty for non-TV news people reading this entry.)

But it's a story that explores a growing side of journalism - the independent reporter trying to make a living doing news online.

Please let me know what you think of it.

Thank you -

Sheila

I'm back from Rhode Island!!

Posted by Sheila Conlin

And I have a sneak peak of the Rhode Island reporter I'm doing a video profile of on this blog.

Click on link below to see the "teaser".

What do the experts say about "monetizing" websites?

Posted by Sheila Conlin

If you look at these three websites you see three very different models for monetizing news and information.

In Rick Kupchella's "Bring me the News" site he boasts, in a video tour he gives of the site, that you will not see flashing adds and obnoxious pop ups. But they have sponsors that pay to put their "information" on the site.




But on Jim Hummel's site you have a very different model. He is a non profit news website that gets some funding from a government watch dog group. As well as accepting donations from the public. Here' is how he describes the latter on his site:

"The Hummel Report is in 501 (c)3 non-profit application. We do not sell advertising. We sell good government and we only accept donations."

Our third site is the one where Jill Burke works is much more of what I expected to see on a news and information website. It's a three column page and the column on the right is all about ads. I will be speaking with a manager there when I return from my 3-day shoot in Rhode Island and will be able to elaborate on their monetization plan - after that.

I also contacted a gent who makes his living helping corporations monetize their websites. I have sent him some questions and am waiting to hear back on his analysis of the three sites.
His name is Bill Hartzer. You can see his site by clicking here.
On his site he has this about our topic:

Monetizing Your Website

Just because you have a lot of visitors on your web site doesn’t necessarily mean that your web site is going to make you a lot of money. And you don’t have to have a lot of visitors in order to make a lot of money from your web site–you’ve got to have the right visitors looking for what your web site has to offer.

I realize that there’s a lot of different types of web sites out there–and it seems as if just about everyone has a different goal in mind. Bloggers blog to put their thoughts down online and share their thoughts with others, and other bloggers are passionate about their chosen topic (and thus they typically use Google AdSense to monetize their blog). Online businesses sell products using online shopping carts: their goal is to get someone to buy a product. Still, other web sites’ goals are to simply brand their products (many corporations’ products are too expensive to sell directly online). In any case, if you own a commercial web site you have a purpose for putting up that web site–and you want to somehow make money from that web site. If you don’t have quality visitors who are ready to purchase something or who are in part of the buying process, then you won’t be able to monetize your site; and you won’t make any money.

================================

Why Am I Doing This Topic?

Posted by Sheila Conlin



Hooray for my capstone advisor for pushing me beyond my comfort zone. It truly is one of the best ways we learn and grow.
(Intellectually I know this - it's the implementation that is harder to come by if left to my own devices.)
I have been working on my skills to improve the layout of this blog for the past 5 days. And have been struggling with importing templates that end up having holes in the middle of them (and my limited skills prevent me from fixing them.) So I try a third and fourth template. And decide maybe the ones blogger supplies can be customized - just fine. I am struggling to create a look that is mine and mine alone. If you are reading this - you have seen my latest look. Please let me know what you think of it.
But the title to this blog is not referring to templates and colors and graphics. It's the topic that I've chosen for my final project as a graduate student in journalism at Georgetown. Why this one?


I am honored to be getting a degree from such a wonderful institution of higher learning. At the same time I feel obligated to come up with a research project that might help some of the people who want to work in the field I've enjoyed for more than 30 years. Journalism is a highly addictive way to make a living. But the industry is changing and there are fewer and fewer slots for the kind of journalism I do now or use to do when I worked in local TV newsrooms.

Statistics like this from the Pew report on the State of the News Media in 2010 - do not paint a pretty picture for TV news reporters in the future.

"Almost all the indicators for local TV are pointing down. Audiences continue to fall for newscasts across all timeslots. Revenue, too, was in a free fall. Looking ahead, most market analysts project revenues to grow only slightly, but that is hardly taken as good news given that it is a year that includes both the midterm elections and winter Olympic Games. Stations may be nearing a point where they can no longer add new newscasts or new revenue opportunities, such as sponsored segments, to their old ones."

All three of the people I'm profiling in this project use to WORK in local TV newsrooms. I worked with two of them IN local newsrooms. And thought all of them to be very brave to try a new venture in the unproven world of online news.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the Pew report reminds that there IS no model for making money in online news operations. But all of them have bills to pay - and families to feed. So they must be doing SOMETHING to make a living. Perhaps there is something we all can learn by looking at what they are trying to do.

I had a rough stretch where I lost my job after about 12 months of work - four years in a row. It was more than 10 years ago. But that feeling of being abandoned is always in the back of your mind. I read about people in local newsrooms who are encouraged to retire early or pick up a camera and do 2 or 3 jobs for less money then they had been making as a reporter and I think maybe this project could help them. I think of some of the students in my program who are 20-somethings or 30-somethings and I think - maybe they can benefit too.

Much of my research will be in written form. But since I've been producing stories with pictures and sound for decades, I feel as though some of my storytelling will have to be video stories.

Please share any stories you have along this line with me.

And stay tuned.

Pew's view of News Media in 2010-specifically online news

Posted by Sheila Conlin

We know that advertising revenues are down for all kinds of news producers - newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and online. Local TV news and radio are the hardest hit - down 22% in 2009 - according to the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. Some of the drop they attribute to the sagging U-S economy. Some to the explosion of the Internet and the way people get news and information in this changing landscape.



They do not have figures for online NEWS websites. But they say online sites, as a group, only lost about 5% of their ad revenues. (They speculate news online sites "fared much worse.")

But some of the other statistics seem to tie into the research objective of this project. So I'll share some of them with you.

"And as we enter 2010 there is little evidence that journalism online has found a sustaining revenue model. A new survey on online economics, released in this report for the first time, finds that 79% of online news consumers say they rarely if ever have clicked on an online ad."

"But if a new model is to be found it is hardly clear what it will be. Our survey, produced with the Pew Internet & American Life Project, finds that only about a third of Americans (35%) have a news destination online they would call a "favorite," and even among these users only 19% said they would continue to visit if that site put up a pay-wall."


So if ads on the sides of your site are not the secret to making money with online news and information sites - perhaps we should consider widgets and social media tools. Another clip from the Pew report reads:

"So what about the new media experiments growing around the country? There are certainly exciting things happening, from former journalists creating specialty news sites and community sites, to citizens covering neighborhoods, local blogs and social media."

"In 2009, Twitter and other social media emerged as powerful tools for disseminating information and mobilizing citizens for purposes such as evading the censors in Iran and communicating from the earthquake disaster zone in Haiti. The majority of Internet users (59%) now use some kind of social media, including Twitter, blogging and networking sites, according to a new PEJ/Pew Internet & American Life survey."


There are a lot of other insights in the Pew report. If you'd like to read "more about it" - click here.


I am just gathering information for my capstone and thought you might want to see some of the information I'm finding as I go.

Stay tuned.

Heading to Rhode Island

Posted by Sheila Conlin in

I recently had a conversation with my capstone advisor about this project and he reminded me of my desire to use my skills as a video journalist to contribute a bit of video story telling to this project. He's right. I DO love being a video story teller. So I will travel to Rhode Island to shoot video pictures and conduct interviews to see how Jim Hummel, one of my profile subjects, is trying to make a living doing investigative journalism online.

To be successful in the world of online journalism, I'm learning, you have to have a brand - which is often your name. And you have to be good at self promotion. I think this is one of Jim's strong suits. Here's how a Rhode Island magazine is portraying him.



He has a unique approach - from what I've seen so far. This is from his website:

"The Hummel Report is in 501 (c)3 non-profit application. We do not sell advertising. We sell good government and we only accept donations. Thank you for your support."

That's right - like giving grandma's dishes to Goodwill or donating a car to The Salvation Army - you can get a tax deduction for the contributions you make to his site. It's an approach that is worth exploring. Maybe there are some lessons to learn here for other journalists who will try and venture out on their own. I'll keep you posted on what I learn. The trip happens from Wednesday, March 31st till Friday, April 2nd. Then I'll need to look at my tape and write a story and track it and edit it. So you won't see if for a while. But it will be a story worth waiting for. Please come back to see it in a few weeks.

Meet Our Trio of Former TV News People

Posted by Sheila Conlin in , ,




Rick Kupchella | rick@bringmethenews.com
Click here to see the site.
Rick Kupchella has worked as an investigative reporter and television news anchor in Minneapolis and St. Paul for more than 20 years. He worked eight years before that – in New York, Washington, D.C., Michigan and Kentucky. Winner of more than a dozen Emmys, he’s also been recognized repeatedly by the New York International Film Festival, the “Best of Gannett,” the Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Eric Sevareid Awards (presented by the Minnesota Broadcasters Association). Rick has also served as president of the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and worked on campaigns to advance journalism at the state capital and Supreme Court. At BringMeTheNews, he continues to produce news stories of his own and works to advance journalism by helping the public find the best news stories in the state – every day.



Jim Hummel brings you "The Hummel Report" - Click here to see it.
It's a multimedia partnership that marks the first of its kind in Rhode Island. Each week, an investigative report will debut exclusively on WPRO radio (630-AM, 99.7-FM). Online video and ongoing news updates will also be posted to the Hummel Report Web site at . The Web site will also contain a database of public documents and information maintained and provided by the Ocean State Policy Research Institute. Further distinguishing the Hummel Report from other media outlets is its formation as a non-partisan, non-profit entity.

Who will be involved in the Hummel Report?
Jim Hummel is the Executive Director of the Hummel Report and owner of Beyond the Sound Productions Inc. Mr. Hummel acts as the senior investigator and is responsible for the investigations and production of the video stories. Recognized for his WLNE-TV/ABC6 “You Paid for It” segments, Hummel spent 13 years as chief reporter for ABC6. Hummel’s career highlights also include 13 years at The Providence Journal and receipt of the Radio and Television News Directors Association’s prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting.



Jill Burke is a reporter in Alaska. This is a shot of her on assignment in Point Hope, Alaska. She is now working for an online news magazine called Alaska Dispatch - "News and voices from the Last Frontier" which you can see by clicking here.

Jill did investigative journalism at the CBS station (KTVA) for 3 years and then was an anchor and reporter for the NBC station (KTUU) for 4 years.

This is how she describes her work:

"What I love about working online and at Alaska Dispatch is that we have an opportunity to tell stories more in-depth than traditional television news allows, and to employ for each piece the story-telling tools we feel serve the story best, whether it’s through words, pictures, video or some combination of the options a multi-media platform offers. It’s a true privilege to have the opportunity to work in an industry undergoing huge changes from within an environment that is also adaptive (independent, small, online workplace). More importantly, to have the chance to do it among journalists who share the same mission and vision -- telling Alaska’s stories of people, place and time in the world with depth and context –is a responsibility we take seriously and a joy to be a part of."

National Awards:
2009 - SPJ Sigma Delta Chi Award, public service, for 6 weeks of coverage of the criminal trial against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens
2009 - Edward R. Murrow Award, news series, Crisis on the Yukon – for a series of stories on the economic impact of low salmon runs in one of the nation’s poorest communities.

These are the three people who had major investments in TV news who are now steeped in the challenge of presenting people with news and information online. How are they doing it? Are they making any money at it? How does their work day shape up? How is it different from what they did in TV news?

Just some of the questions we will explore in this project. Stay tuned.