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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.