Arianna Huffington Discusses the Acquisition via Huffington Post

Tim Armstrong’s Internal Memo About Huffington Post Deal via Techcrunch

SEO Speedwagon: The rapid rise and sale of Arianna Huffington’s Post via Slate

Why AOL wants the Huffington Post via The Economist

AOL‘s Tim Armstrong and NPR‘s Vivian Schiller are headlining in a discussion about reinventing media companies. I have often pointed to NPR as a brand that has worked strategically to reposition itself in a quickly changing media environment, and for all the naysaying about AOL’s ability to rebound, I have to admit I’m rather intrigued by the new management and new approach they seem to be taking. I wouldn’t count them out just yet. As I often tell people who ask me what I think about this legacy company’s or that legacy company’s chance for success, the only companies that are obsolete are the ones sitting on their hands waiting for the answers to appear. As long as companies embrace reinvention and innovation, there’s hope.

ONA has created a waiting list for those still eager to attend. Check out the lineup for yourself. If you can’t make this year’s conference, look for the ONA’s regional events and meetups.

If you have suggestions for events in your town, send an e-mail to director@journalists.org. If you’re in the New York area and want to help plan ONA events, let me know.

(Disclaimer: I am a former ONA board member and conference chair and did some early work helping the conference committee this year. I also help coordinate New York area events.)

Here’s the lineup:

Thursday, October 23

Opening Dinner – 6:00 p.m.
Belmont University – Massey Ballroom
1900 Belmont Boulevard.
Nashville, TN 37212-3757
Speaker: Rick Hancock, Assistant Professor-Professional-in-Residence, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Topic:The Entrepreneurial Journalist

Friday, October 24

First Amendment Center
John Seigenthaler Center
1207 18th Ave. S.
Nashville, TN 37212
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Facilitating Change
“Nothing stays the same except change.” It seems the biggest obstacle, virtually speaking, is change. Journalists must adapt and change their mindset in order to thrive. With lessons from authors like Chris Anderson, Thomas Friedman and dozens of authors, this session will help you open your mind to receive the multimedia tools you need the most.
Dr. Sybril Bennett, New Century Journalism Program, Belmont University.

Snapshot: Shooting for the Web
Oh Snap!!! People really do need different pictures on the web and that means you should learn how to use the new technology to improve your portfolio. Whether you are posting stories or an online resume, quality counts. Learn how to shoot for the web so you won’t have to “shutter.”
Val Hoeppner, manager, Multimedia Education, Diversity University

Using Multimedia to Tell Better Stories
Like Nike, Just Do It. Here’s your opportunity to get hands-on training. You’ll learn how to use the latest technologies to tell better stories. You’ll be exposed to numerous websites and software to improve your story telling exponentially.
John Girton, Tennessee State University

Saturday, October 25

First Amendment Center
John Seigenthaler Center
1207 18th Ave. S.
Nashville, TN 37212
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Shooting for the Web
Make multimedia part of the daily reporting process and get the most from your photography, audio, video and staff. Val Hoeppner shows you the tools you need and how to produce multimedia stories efficiently, effectively and economically.
Val Hoeppner, manager, Multimedia Education, Diversity Institute

Multimedia Storytelling with John Girton & Paul Cheneweth
This is an extension of the “Using Multimedia to Tell Better Stories” session. So often there isn’t enough time to learn how to do at least one thing well. Here’s the extra time that you need to really master flickr, Skype or several other online applications.
John Girton, Tennessee State University
Paul Cheneweth, Web Developer, Belmont University

The Business of Blogging
Blogging can be everybody’s business. Is a blogger a journalist? Is a journalist a blogger? The answers will vary, yes, no, maybe, who cares? The fact is that blogging is yet another way to extend your brand, your business and your bottom line. Learn how to maximize your reach, exposure and potential by adding this tool to your overall marketing strategy.
Dr. Sybril Bennett, New Century Journalism Program, Belmont University.

Closing Dinner
Speaker: Ju-Don Roberts, managing editor, washingtonpost.com

Learn more about this session and the media institute on NABJ’s site.

Another friend and former colleague of mine, Steve Fox, took the plunge into journalism education last year, too. Well for Steve, it was more like a graceful dive. While an editor at washingtonpost.com, Steve taught in the journalism program at the University of Maryland for several years and has lectured at many other universities during the time I’ve known him.

Steve spent the better part of the last decade as a senior editor at post.com, leading, at various times, the politics, nation and newsdesk teams. At the end of 2006, he teamed up with Jay Rosen, of New York University, and others to launch Assignment Zero. Now he spends his days molding the next generation of journalists at the University of Massachusetts.

See what Steve says motivated him to make the transition and where “true innovation” can be found.

How long were you in journalism and why did you make the transition out of the newsroom and into the classroom?

Why is a bit complicated.

My first editor back in Peekskill, N.Y. told me in 1984 that I would burn out, that no one lasts forever in daily journalism. I told him he was nuts, that I had always wanted to be a journalist, why would I ever leave?

That, of course, was before the 24-hour news cycle and the dominant corporate bottom line within newsrooms.

When the 2000 election debacle happened, I thought “this was the biggest story ever and I’m a part of it…”  Then 9/11 happened, anthrax, the DC sniper, the midterm elections, the Iraq War….and on and on.

It seems that the news cycle since the 2000 election has been continuous.  I don’t want to say that I burned out but the combination of a news cycle that never takes a break and a news company that became more and more about the bottom line and less and less about true innovation was what pushed me to make the transition.

Unlike corporate journalism, academia makes you feel like you’re having a real impact and allows you freedom to experiment in methods of delivering journalism as well as subject matter.

What are the biggest challenges facing journalism schools?

The challenges facing journalism schools mostly lie with the pace of change.  Many schools are struggling with how to revise their curriculum to deal with multimedia reporting and convergence.   Some schools understand that the concepts need to be developed across all classes, while some are creating silo.  Many are struggling with hiring.

Journalism schools need to understand that they need to hire experienced professionals to come in and help bring change to their departments — yet many departments remain fixated on the notion that new hires need to have experience AND doctorates.  That is slowly changing as schools make “professional hires” but the pace of change needs to speed up.

What advice do you have for new graduates trying to get their first new media job?

What I tell my students is to be an expert in one delivery form yet be familiar and have a working knowledge of many.  One of my students really likes video editing, yet can also write and put together a decent package.  She’s ready for the new media newsroom.

The other big thing is mindset.  I try to tell my students to go into the profession with an open mind.  We may not know much about the future but we do know that the industry will continue to change and change rapidly.  The “next big thing” is out there and we have no idea what it is.  Amazingly, at The Post, some of the folks least resistant to change were the young reporters.  You have to have an open mind.

What are the biggest challenges facing online newsrooms?

It’s against my nature to make vast statements about news operations I haven’t been a part of, but speaking generally I think the focus on the bottom line is forcing talented journalists out of many online newsrooms — and will continue to do so.  The end result is partly good news for journalism schools but also means that many MSM journalists and editors are going out into the open marketplace to act as bloggers, citizen journalists, etc.  And THAT is where the true innovation is taking place.  Until online newsrooms realize that they have to start being pro-active and less reactive, this bleeding will continue, and with it less users going to the respective Web sites for their information.

Do you see any potential for online newsrooms to partner with journalism schools? If so, what are the possibilities?

Yes! I think the possibilities are endless!  But, again, whether online newsrooms will take that innovative leap remains to be seen.  On the upside, online newsrooms get free labor, but I can already hear laments about quality issues.

How is teaching different from or similar to what you were doing in the newsroom?

The similarities lie with the teaching aspect of editing.   Unlike newsrooms, you most times don’t see an immediate result with teaching.  There are more subtle results and they can be much more fulfilling.   As I mentioned earlier, the lack of a corporate bottom-line and the inherent academic freedoms that come with teaching allow for much more innovation and explorations of “true journalism” than in corporate newsrooms.

Photo by Aaron Roberts

Over the next week or so, I’ll share their responses to questions about their current roles and the challenges facing journalism and journalism schools.  

Let’s start with Retha Hill, director of the new media lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Retha is the former vice president of content at BET Interactive, where she launched BET.com seven years ago. I know Retha from her days at washingtonpost.com, where she was an executive producer for special projects and an editor for local news and arts and entertainment.

What are the biggest challenges facing journalism schools?

The biggest challenges facing journalism schools is preparing students to enter a vastly different world than the one many of the professors are familiar with. Newspapers and broadcast news are facing market loss, and the younger demographic is simply not that interested in news as we traditionally define it. Not only are they not reading newspapers or watching the nightly news, but only 29% of them regularly get their news from traditional news dot coms. That 29% has held steady for the last 6 years. If NYTimes.com, washingtonpost.com and the rest are to grow their audience they need new ways of reaching that audience; and the new journalists really need to be adept at getting information to this largely disinterested demographic. That means knowing how to create compelling content online — so j-schools have to teach them both the fundamentals of reporting but also the fundamentals of web page design, flash, video production, etc. But it goes beyond that to teaching these students to be innovators. To constantly think outside of the box – not to build a better news site but to reinvent news sites and think about how to reach younger people where they are.

What advice do you have for new graduates trying to get their first new media job?

Get as much experience as possible in the real world — whether that is building your own web site, volunteering at a local web site and definitely having your own Facebook or Myspace page. And you have to learn the craft. There is nothing that makes a hiring decision maker salivate more than a young person with good news and online experience.

What are the biggest challenges facing online newsrooms?

75 million gen-yers aren’t interested in their current product. That begs for change. Newspapers have done this before — going from party-affiliated rags to independent newspapers, going from yellow journalism to investigative, muckraking papers, replacing prejudiced reporting with reporting that better covers the entire community. This one is harder because of the technology and fickleness of the under-26 crowd — Myspace is hot today and cold the next; Facebook is the bomb now and will probably go the way of Friendster in a few years.

Do you see any potential for online newsrooms to partner with journalism schools? If so, what are the possibilities?

I think there is much potential. AT ASU, journalism students work at azcentral.com (the online site for the Arizona Republic and News Channel 12), doing the news updates, for example. They get the experience and the news site gets a supply of reporters who can rapidly update breaking news. I could see this being replicated in TV and newspaper online sites. Online news sites could also use the university journalism programs as sounding boards for new content applications.

How is teaching different from or similar to what you were doing in the newsroom?

Before coming to ASU this semester, I spent most of the last 13 years working with younger new media people or training traditional journalists to be online journalists, so I’m still doing that here. At the New Media Innovation Lab, I have students who have worked online and some who haven’t, but they are all open to news ways of doing journalism and that’s great and refreshing from some of the newsroom types who resisted change or are reluctant to truly embrace, say,  user-generated content.

Many of them had blogged on occasion, but most admitted to letting their blogging lapse. I understand being busy — in fact, this blog has been on my to-do list for quite some time. However, I have a job in new media, and because some of them want to get one, my first suggestion was to dust off those blogs and start writing again. Online managers, I told them, would appreciate some evidence that they were familiar with certain tools and techniques of the Web.

Other suggestions:

1. Pick up a video camera. They’re cheap these days, and a little experimentation goes a long way. Projects such as washingtonpost.com’s onBeing prove that there is power even in simple interviews that allow the subject’s voice to be heard above all else.

2. Take supplemental classes. Some of the students were graduating this semester; others, in the spring. But because their curriculum isn’t heavily focused on multimedia yet, I encouraged them to seek out classes at community colleges or other institutions.

3. Self-teach. The cheapest, if not easiest, way to pick up new skills is to teach yourself. When I began my foray into online journalism nearly nine years ago, I didn’t know html or much else about producing content online. However, I was convinced I could pick it up, so I bought a copy of “HTML for Dummies,” and the rest is history.

4. Learn more about the Web. I talked to them about different ways to approach online journalism, but my point was that they should do more than use the Web, they should become students of it and all the ways the Internet and technology are changing journalism and the discourse between the producers and the consumers of news.

5. Make use of free tools.  There are many free tools and tutorials on the Web. Tools such as Audacity, for audio editing, provide students with an economical way to learn new skills. There are a host of tutorials on html, css and flash, and most multimedia programs will allow a 30-day trial period. A resourceful student can get a feel for just about any technology out there. 

6. And my standard refrain whenever I talk to students or academics remains the same. Know the basics: Memorize AP style, keep honing your reporting and writing skills, brush up on grammar, understand the basic tenets of journalism. All the technological savvy in the world doesn’t compensate for a journalist who falls short on the basics.

 Have any other suggestions? I’m sure the students would appreciate them.

Since January, my small but dedicated group of conference planners talked weekly with few exceptions. Josh Hatch, of USAToday.com, joked that he can’t imagine what he’ll do with himself during what had become our usual Thursday call.

Josh ran the content/design track for the conference committee, Danny Sanchez and Laura Cochran coordinated the community/convergence track, and the phenomenal Amy Webb — and I’m not just saying that because she’s taking the reins from me to lead next year’s conference — ran the business track and pitched in on most of the other events to find panelists, etc.

Jon Hart coordinated the ever-popular legal session, while Adnaan Wasey put together the educator’s session. Liz Lufkin and Monte Enbysk coordinated our general sessions, including the keynoters and superpanel. Chet Rhodes and Mindy McAdams ran training for us. Tiffany Shackelford and Chrys Wu had loads of fun as our publicity coordinators and succeeded in getting folks to Toronto in record numbers.

Steve Fox and Dan Berko stepped in to expertly run the student newsroom. Anjali Kapoor rallied the Canadian folks, guided the student journalists and led our on-the-ground efforts to get all the gear ready for conference attendees.  Executive Director Lori Schwab was the logistical mastermind and board member Jody Brannon, last year’s chair, joined us each week to give sound advice.

I’ll have a much lesser role in conference planning next year — I’m transitioning to the ONA board and will serve as adviser to the new team of planners. With that in mind, I’d love to hear your feedback and ideas for next year’s conference. Conference attendees will also get an e-mail survey.

For those of you who missed it, the conference went off almost seamlessly last week in Toronto. We had three dynamic days with a mix of hands-on training, panel discussions, general sessions and networking events.

For the first time in the organization’s history — it’s almost 10 years old — we sold out registration for the conference and had to turn people away. I’m thrilled because it tells me the conference and the organization are relevant to those interested in or immersed in new media. We aimed for a mix of print and broadcast journalists, non-journalists, educators and technologists to round out this year’s panelists.  In shaping the conference, we tried to offer topics that transcended medium and spoke to the needs of our diverse constituency. Although I’m pleased with the lineup we created, there were many fabulous ideas that we left of the planning room floor because of lack of time, space or availability.

If you think this conference isn’t for you or could be better, get involved in planning. Amy Webb is in need of volunteers.

If you missed the conference or particular sessions, be sure to check out the following sites for conference coverage. ONA will also offer the full conference on CD at some point. (Feel free to link to more coverage in the comments):

• ONA student newsroom – indepth conference coverage.
• Cyberjournalist.net – brief roundup of what other coverage.
• BlogTalkRadio – audio interviews with some of those in attendance. (See player below)
• Social Media 
• Poynter