Are Journalism Conferences Worth It?

Submitted by Lisa Williams on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 14:50.

This kind of thing is exactly why I'm considering not talking at journalism conferences anymore. I talk, but it seems to me that nobody hears anything but what confirms what they already think. I came to ONA to support my colleagues working on the Knight News Challenge, which exists specifically to bring new ideas into the news industry. That said, I attend to contribute new ideas, and I expect to get the same in return. With the notable exceptions of Gary, Jennifer, Courtney, Aaron, and Jan, I didn't learn anything that I didn't know two years ago. I'd get that kind of idea density in twelve minutes of your average Bloggercon.

If news organizations think that the whole point of adding community features to newspapers is to "beat" the local blogosphere into submission, then things are much, much worse than I thought. Newspapers should, in fact, invest themselves in the success of the local blog ecosystem because doing so is good for them. Trying to build a sexier walled garden is unforgivably stupid.

Chris, Ponzi,Lisa, keep the porch light on for me. Can't wait to come home.

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Feh!
Submitted by Visitor on Fri, 10/19/2007 - 12:43.

Sorry to hear it.

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I'm with you on many fronts
Submitted by Visitor on Fri, 10/19/2007 - 02:16.

Hi Lisa:
you and i met at the opening rception and shared a glass of wine. i haven't seen you since to complain about a panel i attended yesterday. i brought up an idea and asked for an answer or their thoughts on "brand protection" becasue as UGC folks, we hear it all the time form our GM's and other leaders who worry about what incorporating ugc does to the reputation built over 50 plus years.
Well, these two "Know-it-all," arrogant jerks essentially tried to lambaste me with their cocky attitudes and went on and on about how they created UGC and how slashdot and linux.com are the be all of UGC. i was livid and almost walked out.
It was the elephant in the room and they had nothing to offer.
Anyway, I don't know if i'm coming back to THIS conference next year. I feel like I've given more than i've gotten in return.
I'm heading to the airport in two hours...

Angela Connor
aconnor@cbcnewmedia.com

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Wow, that sucks,
Submitted by Lisa Williams on Fri, 10/19/2007 - 07:04.

Maybe we're enacting a version of The Abilene Paradox, where everybody agrees on something that nobody likes. So, you don't get what you need AND I don't get what I need.

Isn't that fixable?

Well, I'm happy to talk to you about it. And I don't own a high horse. The thing is, I started new sites, so I didn't have any brand to protect. I can tell you about what we (the users of our sites) did to make sure our community didn't bond around twisted values that were destructive, and maybe that will help you. But I'm interested in what you will ask, because I haven't worked where you have, and I can't predict what's going to be a burning issue for you.

In fact, why don't we all get together and do it on IdeaLab?

My two cents just from your comment above:

1. Why have UCG at all? Why not aggregate instead? If you're covering a local area, why beat the bushes to get everybody to blog on your site when instead you could embed yourself as the hub of a local blogosphere of many sites, who will love you because you are acting like they know you're alive, and will return the favor? The advantage to this is that both parties -- the media company and the bloggers -- maintain the maximum freedom, because each one is responsible for their own content on their own site. I think there's a fundamental difference between aggregating headlines and a line or two from local sites and having people publish things on your (virtual) letterhead.

I point to (link to) things all the time that I would not publish on H2otown, my local site. Hell, I write things on my own personal blog that I wouldn't print on H2otown.

If you do do UGC, I would try to be totally agnostic about WHERE content originates -- from your newsroom, from contributors to your site, from outside sites that cover topics your newsroom covers. What goes up the top is what's fresh and interesting, period.

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My two cents
Submitted by Visitor on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 17:19.

I believe there are a growing number of people in the news industry who don't see bloggers as people to be "beat." For my part, I believe that newspapers should be doing as much as it can to become a part of the local conversation and cultivate a local blog scene -- and that means talking with local bloggers, supporting local blog events and showing bloggers link love when they write great posts.

The point I was trying to make in my post is that we need to start listening to people like you who have a tremendous understanding of online culture and technology. The purpose wasn't to highlight competition between your site and WickedLocal. Rather, I wanted to highlight the fact that reporters and editors need to take more cues from sites like yours if they want to stay relevant to the conversation online. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all... :)

Keep on truckin' Lisa.

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Cooperation vs. competition.
Submitted by Lisa Williams on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 18:13.

Yeah, it was really this post, which someone wrote after reading yours, that I objected to. It's so important in blogging to separate what you know from what you think you know and clearly label both. The most frequent mistake I think journalists make when looking at what I do is to assume that what motivates them (scoops, public service goals, etc) also motivates me.

I mean, the public service goals are nice, but I'm not saintly. It's not like I'm motivated enough by voter education to do the site for that reason alone, even though I think it is good. I'm really motivated by discovery and affiliation. I like discovering things, and I like linking to people. There's nothing wrong with competition, but I can get more of what I want by cooperating with people.

Which reminds me...is blog success like The Prisoner's Dilemma, a famous bit of game theory which posits that people almost always get more by cooperating rather than competing or defecting?

Okay, now that's interesting. See, I *did* get something out of ONA!

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Our competitive background
Submitted by Visitor on Fri, 10/19/2007 - 00:07.

I think posts like that stem heavily from the highly competitive nature of the media industry. In markets with two papers, the staff of both generally slug it out, try to scoop each other and laugh when the other falls on its face.

So when a local blogger pops up who is doing a good job, I think a lot of media types default to that competitive mode rather than say "Hey, ya know, we can all really help each other out here."

Back in Orlando, one of our neighborhood bloggers (she's a bit inactive nowadays) has her own magazine and radio show about her town. I think in the "old days," it would've been a cold day in hell before we'd allow someone like that space in our publication. But I met no resistance to the idea from my bosses. Reason: she's an important part of the local conversation, so we decided to be a part of that rather than defaulting to that territorial mode. In print, perhaps that mentality made sense. But online, it's all about fostering an economy of conversation among everyone -- same as the cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma experiment. When newspapers work together with independent bloggers, the newspaper gets some traffic from the blogger and fulfills its role as a hub for local discussion while the blogger uses the PageRank and heavy traffic from the newspaper site to amplify their blog's voice. It tends to work out pretty well, I think.

And on a personal note, I very much enjoyed your talk on Wednesday.

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