The evolving newsroom…
September 3, 2010
I actually remember not too long ago when anything in the Washington Post print edition that was written by a washingtonpost.com reporter had to have the caveat “Special to the Washington Post” at the tail end of the piece. These two newsrooms were entirely separate entities, and it was the one with the .COM address at the end that was treated like the red-headed step-child.
How times have changed…and the ground has shifted under our feet over the last decade. Bets are now placed on how long the delivery model can survive.
As much as I love the daily morning ritual of retrieving my Post from the driveway (and yes I immediately pull out the Style section while I recycle Sports and Metro), it’s now online where I find and share the columns, stories and photo series that capture my attention the longest. Yes the Post still has the Loudoun insert, but if they’re smart, they’ll start putting more contributed content online from the region’s readers as well.
WUSA 9 , DC’s CBS affiliate, is starting to do that… If i can get my act together, I will soon start blogging for the hyperlocal Leesburg, Ashburn, and Reston communities – of more than 50 communities around DC where WUSA 9 is gathering news and content. In Ashburn, for instance, it’s everything from Donald Trump’s opening of (what was once) Lowes Island Golf Course to Redskins training camp… even a crime report from the local Subway shop.
Not that you need more proof, but even USA Today is at it again… completely overhauling its newsroom to center around content hubs… Chris O’Brien of the “Next Newsroom Project” captures the shift in his blog.
Could there be a more exciting time to work in media, even PR? No way! ”Publish or die” now haunts everyone, every day. Today’s newsroom is really just the corner Starbucks.
Ain’t That Good News?
February 20, 2009
Nice to wake up and see a story that starts by characterizing your industry and livelihood as “sleazy. disingenous. scumbags.” But that’s what I was led to believe about Public Relations by reading USAToday’s book review of “PR: A Persuasive Industry? Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media,” a new book out by Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy. Pretty fascinating that they engage in so much hand-wringing around ethics of the profession. Sure there are unscrupulous characters out there in PR, just as there are in advertising, lobbying, sales, politics, you name it! At the end of a day, don’t sell, hawk, pitch, or market a product, company, or person if you don’t believe in what they’re about at their core. But to single out PR is crazy and misses the critical role the industry plays in our information exchange society.
And with the industry growing at 30% a year, I bet there are probably a lot of out of work, once purist journalists who are giving it a second look. It will continue to be wild ride in this information ecosystem we call the modern news cycle. I’m happy to be part of that…
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Tonya is a Community Content Producer for
WUSA9.com, DC's CBS affiliate.