Since you’re already on something of a break if you’re reading blogs instead of working… here are a few more things to read.
If you haven’t already seen this on other blogs, please, please go read about Jay Rosen’s latest project. Rosen won a Knight News Challenge grant, and he has gotten 13 media outlets on board (many of them are newspapers!) with BeatBlogging.org. In a post on his blog PressThink, Rosen wrote, “My idea was to run parallel experiments to see whether ‘beat reporting with a social network’ is a viable pro-am method in journalism— or just an attractive concept.”
The newspapers involved in the new project are the Houston Chronicle, The (N.J.) Star Ledger, The Dallas Morning News, The (Cincinnati) Enquirer, The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, The San Jose Mercury News, The (Harrisburg, Penn.) Patriot-News and The Seattle Times, plus The Chronicle of Higher Education, MTV News, Education Week and Wired.com.
On a side note, Jay Rosen wrote a perspective for the Imagining the Future of Newspapers blog, and NAA will publish his essay in the coming weeks.
Also, Mark Potts has concluded his series of posts on the future of newspapers (and newspapers' current challenges) and offers good, solid advice on what newspaper leadership should be doing in the years ahead. It’s worth your time to read the series. Potts was a leader at Backfence.com. If you don’t have time to read the series, here’s part of the last post:
“Aside from shaking off all of those attitude problems, there are many things that newspapers should be doing right now, as aggressively as possible. Not all of these will work. But tiptoeing into these changes out of fear of failure will only guarantee more failure. The building is on fire; drastic measures are needed. Chances must be taken,” Potts wrote. His prescribed measures include engaging your audience, thinking outside the box, embracing competition, going hyperlocal and using technology. These aren’t just Web 2.0 buzz phrases Potts is throwing out; he offers specifics on how to do each one.
So, after you’ve read Rosen’s piece, please read Potts’ pieces (1, 2 and 3), then read and comment on the Imagining the Future of Newspapers blog.
You have a lot to do.
Go!
Now!