FTC workshop - Journalism in the Internet Age

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Thu, Dec 03, 2009, 10:00 pm  //  John Servais

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The FTC workshop webcasts are posted and available for viewing.
FTC workshop - How will Journalism Survive the Internet Age

Thursday, Dec 3 - 9 p.m. D.C. time

Last night I was pretty burned out. The workshop was intense and fascinating and ended yesterday evening. It was a two day affair and today was a day off. A warm sunny day and I hiked the Mall visiting memorials, monuments and museums.

You can follow the link to the FTC site and watch the videos of the speakers and panel discussions. The FTC is not sure how long they will be online but were responsive to my suggestion that keeping them online would be a step forward in this new age of open transparent government on the Internet. I would also like some of the participants to be held accountable for what they advocated. If you do a close reading of who the 74 participants were, you will see they are the leaders in online news and opinion in the US - with the exception of only a few of us who are marginal players. Even we few are innovators seeking new models of how this can work.

I learned that virtually all the ideas and concerns I have about how to make an online news site work are the ideas and concerns of the big players. Even the numbers - like how much less a news website generates compared to a newspaper - 85% less. Is there a market for civic reporting ? I think yes, but most speakers thought no, even though they couched the answer. A concern I have is writers seem to confuse the words "newspapers" and "journalism" - using newspapers when they mean journalism. I found other online managers who also noted that happening a lot. I learned that the legacy organizations - the print media - are freaked out and worried they will not survive even a couple more years. They are trying to get laws passed to aid their dead tree organizations at the expense of online innovators. Online players spoke up for a level playing field and trust that solutions will be found, as history has shown repeatedly.

The biggest concern throughout the two days was how can money be made with online news. Why this should concern the FTC seems to be related to how the laws might be skewed to help news corporations survive and be subsidized by taxpayers and the government. Yes, many were indirectly asking for handouts. It was not said that way. Indeed the tone was, gee, our society needs this and democracy cannot survive without this and so, just like education, police and sewage, the government should help out. Yes, even Rupert Murdoch the multi-billionaire was asking for government help. He wants laws changed so he can save his organization. That was why he showed up.

Here is what I think we will see. We will see an explosion of local online news sites all over the country in the next couple years. The business model is not quite there, but it is close. We will see newspapers continue to fold. The ones that survive will report pretty much local news only with their own reporters. They know we are getting our national and international news online and on TV now. They will give up on that.

Local sites - even in major cities - will spring up to challenge local TV stations and newspapers. Next March a major online news site will open in Washington D.C. that will be all local news. It will aim right at the readers of the Washington Post. The point is that new and easier-to-use digital readers will be coming out over the next couple years and they will make reading online as relaxed as it is to read a newspaper or magazine. Apple is expected to come out with their iTablet in January. The Kindle is taking newspaper deliveries now.

It was funny to listen to newspaper publishers and editors talk about keeping their newspapers alive by increasing their online presence. Duh - online is not a newspaper. They are deer in headlights trying to figure this out. They actually think they have a right to the advertising that is now leaving their print products. They think it is theirs and someone has stolen it. I listened to them talk about how they - and they alone - are the guardians of democracy and their crossword puzzles (and the advertising those puzzles attracted) have helped pay for reporters covering city hall. Really. Crossword puzzles was given as an example by one speaker. The truth is the newspapers print anything they think people will read so as to induce people to turn the pages and see the ads. That, gentle reader, is the ugly truth about newspapers. And now people turn to online and TV for their civic news. I watched this all play out over two days.

More than anything, this workshop confirmed many things for me. I will come home with a renewed sense of what we can do here.

In closing, I want to share with you an experience I had today. I visited several places. My thoughts at one of them were quite clear. You can read about something, see it on TV and think you understand it. You can read what others think. Then you actually visit it and you get an entirely different, and personal, impression of it.

It uses no space at all - but it occupies a huge space.
Fingers touched it automatically - they just need to touch.
And run over the indentations.
My mind went to thinking about wondering what they - each - was thinking.
Valley of death at the bottom - sun shining. So what.
I left four times before I left.
Hair on back of head rose as I left.
She is - she showed incredible artistic skill.
It is so many. So many.
And now we do not give care to those who lived.
yes - the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Wednesday, Dec 2 - 10:30 p.m. D.C. time.

Will post tomorrow. Veerrry slow computer tonight - and am very tired. Great day.

Tuesday, Dec 1 - 10 p.m. D.C. time

The theme all day today can be summed up as: How to get ad revenue! Content providers say aggretators steal. Aggretators say they drive people to content sites. By the end of tomorrow there will be no consensus. The idea of this workshop is to bring different perspectives to the same table and cross examine. It is working. If the FTC decides later to change regulations or laws then a hearing will be held next March.

I feel so fortunate to be here - in the room with the super stars of the news media. To also be a participant is incredible. Several here know of NwCitizen and one told me he was delighted to meet me. NwCitizen is what they refer to as "Citizen Journalism." The human dynamics of the workshop are fun. As a panelist I was seated in the front rows. I choose a seat to the side so I can easily watch others' reactions to the speakers. They do react. I'm in a room full of people who make things happen.

Rupert Murdoch blasted the aggretators (Google, but not by name). Ariana Huffington sliced & diced his points by explaining how robot.txt works - and that Rupert could have his papers off Google today if he actually wanted them off. Called his bluff. As did Jeff Cohen the product manager for Google News. Ariana is a compelling speaker - the best of the day.

Newspaper and legacy news honchos - with the exception of Reuters-Thompson - blasted blogs for even posting their headlines - suggesting a revision of the 'fair use' rule of copyright law needs to be eliminated. A couple online original content publishers - including Josh Marshall - pointed out how AP reporters often write their stories based on what they first learn at an original content site - but never attribute the source. Online sites always attribute and link to the original sources. A double standard exists.

I enjoyed hearing this because it corroborated my local experience. The Herald routinely steals stories from the Weekly and NwCitizen - and did so with the Whatcom Independent. It never credits them with breaking a story first or raising an issue first. Sam Taylor refers to NwCitizen articles as "rumor." The newspapers steal and then lie about it. And cry that if they go down then journalism will die.

The legacy news organizations used the words "newspapers" and "journalism" interchangeably today. The "new news" organizations called them on this. The two words are not the same and a strong minority of speakers and panelists expressed optimism that journalism will survive the demise of newspapers.

A heady day. You can watch via the webcasts on the FTC site. I don't know if today's sessions are posted for viewing yet, but they should be soon. Tomorrow's will be live and then posted later. You can also check Google news for many articles on today's workshop. One that does a fair job in 200 words is PC Magazine. But there are others - most giving too much space to what Rupert said and not how he was rebutted. While he was speaking - for 15 minutes - a lot of photo journalists were in the room. But others knew much more about what they were talking about than he did. We'll see if their remarks get reported.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to make the lead statement on the panel "New News." Each of us eight panelists will open with a 3 minute statement. Because the phrase "citizen journalism" has been used frequently today, I will start by explaining how NwCitizen operates. Then I'll go into what the future for this model might - hopefully - be in the next couple years. One presenter today categorized sites like NwCitizen as "ankle biters." So, I wonder if the domain name is taken yet - anklebiters.com. Many monikers in history started out as gross insults - such as "Tory" which was a horse thief. That ankle biter name has a future.

My stay at the William Penn House is most pleasant. Wonderful people and a very relaxed atmosphere. A reading room upstairs with comfortable couches. No laundry, but a valet service a block away. My room is the size of a large closet and the bed is a narrow double decker - but no matter. I leave at 7:30 a.m. and return at 9 p.m. Very relaxing. So - till tomorrow evening, good night.

Monday, Nov 30 - 10 p.m. D.C. time

Always good idea to allow a day to get adjusted. The hostel was too rough for this old guy - plus there was no way to hang my clothes. For young ones traveling for fun and education, rumpled clothes are fine. And it was just a little too basic in other ways which are best told about over a beer. So I took the advice of Hue Beattie who had been out here a few weeks ago and checked out the William Penn House. They had a room for me and it is only $50 a night. The Quaker's house. Feel very fortunate to be here.

Visited the Newseum - the museum about the news industry and the history of news reporting. Lively place with lots for the kids and shallow portrayals of the news media. One little corner of one room devoted to the new "Digital News." Nice exhibits on Ed Morrow, Tim Russert, murdered reporters - and nice exhibits on non-news reporting things like the Berlin Wall and the pet dogs of Presidents. Excuse me, First Dogs. Incredible six story building of glass and steel.

Tomorrow I'll be in the audience all day listening to speeches and panel presentations by leaders in the news media. An incredible opportunity. The former managing editor of the WSJ, and Rupert Murdoch who fired him, and Robert Thompson who replaced him - all on the same day but not together. Arriana Huffington and Josh Marshall. I hope to meet and shake some hands as some of these are personal heros. (not Rupert)

My panel will be on Wednesday (not Tuesday as earlier and mistakenly reported) - and it is the last panel. It will start at 1:30 p.m. Bellingham time. I'll have an opening statement of a couple minutes. Then, doing the math, I figure maybe I'll be contributing my thoughts for maybe 4 minutes - about 200 more words. Not much chance to say much and we will be answering questions in some manner. I've no idea how it will work. I'll sit where they put my name tag and hope my brain keeps working.

All in all, this will be an experience that should benefit NwCitizen and what we are trying to do here. We are citizens who are informing each other about local issues and accepting comments from anyone who is willing to use their own name. The way we are doing it is somewhat unique. Plus the fact this site was started in 1995 adds to the uniqueness of the site. It is a good place to base my perspective, and my only wish is that more grassroots bloggers were on the panel. It seems I'm almost a token. I'll do my best to speak for them.

Monday, Nov 30 - 1 a.m. D.C. time

Arrived at the Hostel International and have a lower bunk bed. Safe and warm. We are in good shape. Good trip starting with our Bellingham Airporter Shuttle and the smooth efficiency of Southwest Airlines. Spent time reading the bios of panel members. There will be 74 participants, with 19 of them giving 15 minute speeches - presentations is the correct term. 55 of us on 7 panels over two days - Tuesday and Wednesday. I am definitely the only guy from a locally-grown political news and opinion website. No corporation behind me, nor educational institution or think tank.

More tomorrow. Yep, this is old time blogging. I will update this each time I add to it in reverse chronological order. Am using the computer at the Hostel. $3 an hour. Till later.

Sunday, Nov 29, 2009, 11:30 a.m.

Today I leave for Washington D.C. to participate in the Federal Trade Commission's workshop titled, "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" I will be on the last of seven panels over the two days. Our panel's subject is "New News." The FTC invitation was a surprise and I will be representing a small effort here in the far Northwest. Others on the panel come from large corporations and educational institutions. My perspective is of one who has grappled for decades with how we citizens can get more news than the controlled and censored offerings in a one daily newspaper town. This has involved alternative and weekly newspapers and Northwest Citizen being one of the oldest political blogs there is. I'm still looking for an older one.

So, I fly today - thanks to the generosity of 17 readers and writers of this website who contributed $1,585 to sponsor my trip. That is a very appreciated show of support and faith in me and I will do my best on the panel. I will also be attending all the other panels as the FTC has provided us with reserved seating up front. As a news and political junkie, those two days will be real fun. And I hope to meet some who may be of help to NWCitizen in the future.

Because I need to fly this Thanksgiving weekend, the plane fare alone is $440 there and $160 back. I will have my first ever experience staying in a hostel - and that saves a lot of money. You all have provided enough for me to make the trip. Thank you. Very much.

Finally, I hope to blog daily during the trip. Both about the workshop and also about the trip. It is risky to predict what one will write about on a trip - so we shall see. But I do have a plan for blogging.

Related Links:

-> FTC workshop - How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age

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