Citizen Journalism
Lex Alexander, Greensboro News Journal
Susan DeFife, BackFence.com
J.B. Holston, NewsGator
Moderator: Dan Gilmour, "We the Media"
Dan: If this is about conversation, the first rule is to listen. What is the state of the art with big media.
Lex: The state of the art starts with listening. The more of that they’re doing, the closer to the state of the art they are. If they’re not doing that, nothing else much matters. If you’re not engaging in dialogue and discussion with your readers, the best promotion and technology isn’t going to get you very far. An extension of the listening, the dialogue, the blogging is a means to an end. … We structure our letters to the editor as a blog; our K12 blog gets some fair comment. We have a fair bit of participation.
Dan: BackFence.com is doing important work; these are people with a news background. Is it possible to do it from scratch?
Susan: Well, we did do it from scratch. We looked for the gaps; hyperlocal news. We were concerned about the user interface and (business model). There is a groundswell for the this hyperlocal content. We’ ve given them a place. We trust the intelligence of our area user and their ability to express themselves. We value the diversity of the experience. Eventually, you want to get down to the community level, the block level. Once acclimated to the concept and they see how small that it is, it can get smaller. … We think we’re providing that place that local advertisers can afford.
J.B.: What kind of brand equity do you have. If you’re a newspaper, you know that local news is what you’re all about. Brands are trustworthy; brands are trusted. There are 80,000 new blogs every day. Best arbitrator is who do you trust. … RSS is a simply way for folks to subscribe to stuff that they want to read.
(The room is just absolutely packed!!!)
Dan: What if there’s no real business model?
J.B.: We’ll be here as consultants next year! That’s the fuel that makes the engine go. BackFence is a terrific brand opportunity. That’s the kind of model that has lots of monetization opportunity. That’s not the question anymore; there’s investment money out there.
Susan: We’re trying to create a dialogue on a platform that’s easy to use that we can expand (nationally). It’s the fuel that helps the model grow.
Lex: There will be a way found to compensate the citizen journalists. You can have a pretty exact count; you know who is drawing the hits. If you put your mind to it, there’s a way to compensate them.
Susan: Why do people contribute to a BackFence? Because they want to share information about their local community. Second, people like to have an identity online. People want to be a star. Communities want to share; what they want from us is a place to do it.
Dan: To the extent that the public does journalism, I want to help them do it well.
Lex: We’re not making people do journalism. We’re offering people an opportunity and platform to express themselves in different ways. It covers the spectrum of social experience.
Lex: The first thing small newspapers should be doing is listening. Then offer as many opportunities in a partnership so that they can do what they want to do.
The recurring question: Does everything have to have a business model???
Susan on how much is technology a problem: Know your audience. We don’t do RSS right now because less than 5 percent use it (and far less of our audience). Are we using blogging, wikis? Yes. Does our audience know they’re using them. No. My caution is don’t get too caught up in the technology.
Lex: If you’re listening to your audience, and your audience is engage, they’ll tell you what matters. The readers are going to find the important issues before your readers do.
J.B.: We post a number of links to any given story; helps readers navigate through the jungle. That’s very popular; it’s not a matter of right or wrong.
Susan: Newspapers are hemorraging readers fast because they aren’t relevant to their readers. That top down model isn’t working; that they know best. We don’t purport to replace journalism. … Our goal is to create a place where people can talk to each other, and they are articulating the questions quite well.
J.B.: A voice that has more authority can rise up quite quickly; voices that have never been heard before.
Dan: This is a symbiotic movement; that they can be collaborators.
Lex: A story that requires a certain level of skill, you can one of your professionals partner with someone who has knowledge of the subject if not the tools to write it.
Lex: We get 20-25 story tips for every reader contribution; we label those stories so that readers know that readers like them generated the story (knowing which stories are worth doing in the first place).
Lex: We let people write in their own voices.
Susan: There is a real tension between journalists and citizen journalists. There is a collaboration (possible). A tension between edited and unedited content. There is a place for both.
Dan: The minute you touch it (edit it), you own it.
Susan: We let the audience have it’s voice (not to make the lawyers happy, which it does).
Lex: Our website impressions are up already. Nobody has said to me that what you’re doing has to make a profit. However, I work for for-profit business. This offers us the best opportunity of staying IN business. We will be OUT of business if we keep doing what we’re doing the way we’ve done it.
