NAA launches "Imagining the Future of Newspapers" weblog

There's a new resource for newspapers worried about surviving and thriving -- and for we educators trying to figure out how to prepaer our students for the future.

The Newspaper Association of America launched as new blog today called "Imagining the Future of Newspapers." Find it at this URL: http://www.naa.org/blog/futureofnewspapers/ I've also added it to the Links (to your right).

Vice President Randy Bennett writes in his welcome: "Some observers are mired in the haze, predicting the imminent demise of the local newspaper franchise. But other more thoughtful visionaries see brighter days ahead, if newspapers embrace market trends and re-think product, marketing and organizational strategies."

Transforming the Architecture

As newspapers struggle to survive with heavy emphasis on the Web, bulked-up local coverage and leaner staffs, they are dramatically revamping the way newsrooms operate. Read all about it this link on American Journalism Review's web site: http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4402

The newsroom of tomorrow may be arising today in Atlanta, where the Journal-Constitution's editor, Julia Wallace, has fearlessly upended the organization chart and reinvented the news process.

Or tomorrow's newsroom may soon take shape at the San Jose Mercury News, where Executive Editor Carole Leigh Hutton foresees bold changes and warns, "Everyone here knows that the position they hold today may not be the position they hold in six months. I make no commitment that there will be a business editor or a sports editor or a city editor, because that may not be what we need."

Or it may emerge across the landscape of Gannett papers like the Des Moines Register, where Editor Carolyn Washburn's newsroom, known now as the Information Center, is expanding online work, adding futuristic touches like a Data Desk and merging or eliminating some traditional beats and editing jobs.

From AJR, October/November 2007
By Carl Sessions Stepp
Carl Sessions Stepp (cstepp@jmail.umd.edu), AJR's senior editor, teaches at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Journalism's metamorphosis = journamorphosis

My inaugural post is short and sweet. I've created this blog primarily to encourage my students at Western Illinois University to become and stay aware of how dramatically the journalism business is changing. Broadcasters and traditional journalists alike are adjusting to the public's changing habits for "Keeping up with the news." The Internet revolution has been something to behold this past decade, and it has forced traditional media companies to rethink how to organize their newsgathering operations and, even moreso, their modes of delivery. Across campus, our broadcasting department already has adjusted its curriculum (perhaps more foresight; definitely more resources). But I teach in a journalism program that needs to change the skill set we're giving our students. We aren't doing it yet. I hope to provide links and news about what's changing in the "newspaper industry" (what'll we be calling it in a few years?) so they can know what to expect when they join the ranks. Stay tuned! (by the way, I feel I should say that someone else gets credit for making up the term "journamorphosis." I don't remember where I first saw it used, but I liked it and have been using it to capture the transformative nature of the business these days.)