On Saturday, Temple University was host to La Nueva Frontera Digital, A Multimedia Experience for Journalists. The one-day multimedia and digital journalism conference, sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Philadelphia Associations of Black Journalists, was a look into the tools that journalists will need in coming years, and a networking opportunity to link the ambitious with the anxious. The fearless with fearful. The unemployed with the self-employed. No matter where each attendee fit on the spectrum, one thing was universally understood. News organizations must adapt now.
The conference focused on acquainting journalists with new multimedia concepts utilized by a variety of forward-thinking organizations. Mainstream media was represented by organizations like Washingtonpost.com, MSNBC.com, TIME.com, and Philly.com. Smaller organizations, like Dan Levy’s ontheDLpodcast, Professional Podcasts LLC, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., and others also participated on panels.
The message heard throughout the panels was simple. Get out there and do it. Try new things. Don’t be scared. The takeaways after the jump…
Keynote: Online News — A fast-changing phenomenon
- New Media people are open and embracing. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions, and contact people with the best experience in the medium you seek to learn.
- Steal what you like. Take a look at other organization’s content, see what is good, and make it better.
- Don’t be afraid to fail. Experiment as much as possible on the web.
- Embrace training opportunities. Sign up for cheap new media classes at community colleges and public high schools.
- Find your niche. Figure out what medium you are talented in and pursue it with heart. Is it beat blogging? Multimedia storytelling? Videography?
- Personality-driven blogs perform better. Ju-Don shared several of the most successful blogs on Washingtonpost.com, and while breaking news blogs do well, niche, character driven blogs fare best.
- The copy editors’ approach to headline writing is dead. In era of SEO, sharp, witty, punny headlines do awful. “The Perfect Storm” alludes to bad weather, not a sports piece about the Tampa Bay Lightning. Keep it functional.
- Other notables: Early on, Washingtonpost.com paid per-post to get writers interested in doing extracurricular work online. They’ve since nixed paying for content and decided to factor in web contributions to merit raises.
Podcasting/Vidcasting
- Podcasting costs nothing. Use free platforms like Audacity, GarageBand, and free hosting options to produce your show.
- Podcast listeners are valuable. Although subscription rates might be low, a podcast listener sought your content and wants to hear what you have to say. — Dan Levy
- Interviewees appreciate the niche audience. Especially in corporate situations where the podcast listeners are networked with one another, an interview may save an interviewee hundreds of phone calls. — Steve Lubetkin
Backpack Journalism and Writing for the Web
- The future is self-editing and assigning. As a Digital Journalist with CBS3, Brewer decides which content she will cover each morning and shoots and edits the material herself. — Nicole Brewer
- Know everything about your audience. Know how they get and how they use your product. The Web is valuable for editorial and advertisers alike because metrics are so well-defined. — Wendy Warren
Keynote: Journalism 2.0 — Multimedia skills facilitate storytelling
- Content is cross platform. News organizations will increasingly rely on cross-platform content. Audio-slideshows appear on the MSNBC television network and television spots show on MSNBC.com.
- Do you like pictures? Of course you do. Use them often. And don’t be afraid of high-resolution.
- MSNBC.com stats are out of control. An average user stays on the site for approximately 45 minutes (Ed. note: Unfortunately I didn’t record the exact metrics. Elsewise in statistics, the site doesn’t do half bad; on Election Day the site had 250 million page views and over 20 million unique visitors, a record).
- First impressions are very important. If your embedded video players and slideshow applets don’t work, consumers will remember. Transversely, technical quality is a reason to come back. — Karl Stolleis
- Audio quality is paramount. Although shaky, poor-quality video can be overlooked because a consumer doesn’t always recognize shoddy production, audio quality matters. People know what sounds good or bad. — Karl Stolleis
- Brand your content. Show people something they recognize every time. Consistency in content and production makes production exist in the background. It works the same way as good writing; mechanics disappear when the writing is great. — Karl Stolleis
- Set yourself apart with production quality. Small newsrooms should invest in better technology and better editing suites to set themselves apart from sub-par standards used broadly. — Karl Stolleis
- Content is king. No matter what technology is used, content is what matters. — Wendy Warren
- Be the lone voice in the wilderness. Philly.com’s Please Touch Museum interactive combined elements of fiction and non-fiction photography, video, and story telling that was different than projects created by any other news organization. And it worked. — Karl Stolleis
- The first big project will streamline future projects. After finishing the Please Touch Museum interactive, the Inquirer staff feels comfortable that they’d be able to churn out better work, faster. — Karl Stolleis
- The first big project will pave the way for other projects. Once you show them what you can do, editorial and business will be more easily convinced to allow work on other innovative interactive products. — Frank Wiese
- Other Notables: The Inquirer considered advertising options with the Please Touch Museum interactive, but when it came down to it, editorial and advertising couldn’t come to a solid agreement on how to approach it. Why not monetize something like this? — Frank Wiese
Developing a Show, Audio, and Video Content for the Web
Visual Journalism Online
Steve Lubetkin of Professional Podcasts taped the conference:
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