Joanna Geary, Web Development Editor for The Times talked to CJS about how she started her career in journalism.

Learning where, when, why and how successful journalists like Joanna first found their feet in the industry is a topic that has fascinated me because since the age of sixteen, I’ve been working toward getting a paid job in journalism. Now I’m at CJS there’s an even greater sense of wanting to make that goal. 

My formidable friend, Harriet Masterson graduated from Reading University the same year as  I graduated from Winchester University.  Next week she’ll begin her first ‘this is what I’ve dreamt about’  job with the production company, Spank . Harriet is a hardworking, sincere and creative woman. I know she’ll cringe when she reads this but I’m bursting with pride .

‘What happens now?’ I asked her, when she telephoned me with the news. ‘I mean, the battle for three years was getting IN and now… your IN. ‘

She replied dreamily, ‘I know..it hasn’t quite sunk in yet.’

Harriet and I aren’t competitive friends. Perhaps a reason for this is we’ve always taken the next step together and have been level footing in our general life aspirations. So now she’s started her career we’re for the first time, out of sync. Jealousy isn’t the emotion I’m feeling,  I’m just desperate to join her in the world of work, so, what do I need to do to get there?

Cue Joanna Geary’s talk.  Joanna inspired me because she struggled to get where she is. Always the second choice for jobs and unable to afford the course I’m on, she eventually got her break as a business reporter for the Birmingham Post.

When they found out she was blogging outside of her work, she was given a new challenge: creating a network of thirty-five blogs in two weeks. She exceeded expectations, creating a dynamic, regional network. Something no other regional paper was doing at the time.

Joanna  was building  a strong network in London, through Twitter. When she tweeted, ‘ going to London, any one want to meet?’ a  journalist from The Times responded and following on from this she was offered a job  at The Times.

Joanna is a woman who has made things happen for herself.  She’s created a brand for herself through blogging and Twitter.  She was using her blog to ask questions no one else in the industry was asking. She was never overly conscious of the fact ‘the right people’ were reading and watching what she was doing. I mean, her following didn’t inhibit her writing. I find her older blog posts sometimes rambling, sometimes unstructured but to me that mirrors a free-flowing thought pattern, similar to my own.

I know it will be tough, really tough, getting that first paid job in the media. But Joanna is a great example of someone who doesn’t fall down when the business structure around her is. Last August 40% of her colleagues were made redundant at The Birmingham Post. The remaining 60% had to reapply. Some journalists who’ve lost their jobs have started creating hyperlocal sites. So, there is no straight route into getting that job anymore. t’s all zig zags. But, thats ok. I’ve never followed straight lines. Isn’t  it much more fun drawing your own and making a new pattern?

Something of a blog hiatus as I have had multiple laptop traumas – am actually looking forward to catching up with it – just shows this blogging business is addictive.  I need to add a post from the ministerial conference in Malmo, our Europetitions and also our Virtual Town Hall meeting in Chorley.

But more immediately – just had an excellent day at the Future eGov conference.  As promised here are my slides which have the stats in and also actually reference the Don Tapscott diagram properly:

Lots of really good content at the conference.  I really appreciated sharing the session with Hugh Flouch from Networked Neighbourhoods as a lot of my work is predicated on the existence of his – and he is able not only to engage a local community but also to articulate what he is doing.

I also enjoyed the final question time debate – and I am intrigued by the idea of a post-democratic society from Tom Harris – will have to read more in case this is just a really good sound bite….

Couple of general observations:

• The issue of moderation of sites is really key – and less is more – we need to really adjust our thinking about risk and support the idea of self-moderation wherever possible – we have to trust the community
• I really liked the phrase “online is a catalyst and not a cause” – can anyone remember who said it??

Another thought which is really a hangover from Malmo – I think we have to be careful about assuming that social capital results in social outcomes – there is no guarantee that a highly ‘capitalised’ community will behave in the way that we expect.

I see on Hold The Front Page today that some JP weekly titles are to pilot a paywall scheme, whereby users pay £5 for three months’ access to parts of the titles’ websites.

I can understand completely why regional publishers want to do this.

Their idea of transfering the print concept of display advertising online has largely failed and publishers have so far struggled to monetise their web operations.

I also understand that they need to monetise this part of their operation. Journalism doesn’t pay for itself.

I also see the argument that what they offer is sufficiently niche enough to charge for it.

However, I fear that by hiding content behind paywalls in a medium where people expect free content and where they have never before paid for local news content may be too much of a stretch.

I think it could also play straight into the hands of an emerging sector I keep prattling on about here – that of community media.

Organisations like Talk About Local and , to a lesser degree, Manchester’s People’s Voice Media, which are encouraging local communities to empower themselves by running their own local news sites and becoming community reporters will surely benefit from regional press paywalls.

The sites and social media that they’ve helped people to set up will surely only grow in popularity.

Existing community sites like the Salford Star and Ventnor Blog on the Isle of Wight already offer a decent alternative to mainstream news organisations.

By going in this direction, regional press publishers run the risk of alienating their online readers and increasing the lack of access to local news which is already gaping because of declining circulations of the printed product.

They’re playing into the hands of local bloggers and sites – and let’s not forget the spectre of the BBC’s free content.

The social and democratic ramifications of introducing paywalls really ought to be discussed and raised somewhere more important than my humble little blog!

AM hoping to run my third social media surgery early in the new year.

I’ve already run a couple for South Leeds Health for All, but I’d like nto expand this to all groups in the South Leeds area.

It’ll be a couple of hours of your time – but time well spent!

If you’re interested in raising the profile of you group or organisation in the community or, indeed, if you’re a community-minded individual wanted to get their voice heard, I can help you set yourself up online by using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and blogs etc.

There’s no charge for my time (I’m just that sort of guy!) and no charge for using any of the social media programmes you’ll be using.

Post a comment below if you’re interested.

…to blog.

So forgive the empty spaces, they’ll be filled shortly with posts and thoughts about hyperlocal publishing, networks, social inclusion, bringing the authorities – and their services – to the people and how the heck advertising can still be a viable business model.

So watch this space and drop us a line if you blog on similar subjects as we’d love to read your thoughts: communityinfopoint@googlemail.com.

The “New York Times” started two local neighbourhood-blogs for Brooklyn and New Jersey in March, a project that made Jeff Jarvis proclaim that “a wall just fell”, because it openly includes and actively promotes citizen journalism. Eight months after the launch, I interviewed editor Mary Ann Giordano for an article about hyperlocal blogs I wrote for German journal epd medien. The full article is not online and it is in German, but this is the full (English) interview, which I thought might also be of interest.

How has The Local been received?

The Local has been very well received, by all journalistic measures. Our readership is high, our repeat readership is very healthy, we draw many comments on our posts and we seem to have a loyal following of readers who see us — rightly — as a prime source for community news. But a better way to measure our success is to see how many posts are written, reported or tipped off by readers — community members who volunteer to write, report, shoot video, take photos or all of the above, because they are excited about The Local and they are interested in their communities. By our recent assessment, a solid 40 percent (and more) of our first 1,000 posts (we reached that milestone for both blogs around early October) were contributed wholly by members of the community. By my loose calculation, another 30 to 40 percent of the posts that our reporters or interns reported and wrote were inspired by readers’ tips or conversations in the comments. So we are well on our way to our goal to create community blogs, “covered by you and for you,” though there is much more that we can, and will, do.

What is the feedback from the people and the possible advertisers from the communities the two blogs cover?

The feedback from readers is largely good. We heard some criticism before we actually started the blogs, from people who were resentful that their communities were being “invaded” by the “mainstream media” institution of The New York Times. But that virtually disappeared. Readers sometimes don’t like what we write, or ask for some different things — more news seems to be the message we are getting in both Brooklyn and New Jersey — but they are largely complimentary of the sites. And, particularly in Brooklyn, they seem to turn to us immediately after the whiff of hard news in their neighborhoods (crime, a building collapse, the election).

However, we have garnered virtually no local advertising, mostly because we have not made much effort to get it. The business side of The New York Times has a wait-and-see attitude toward hyperlocal, which is probably very wise in this depressed economy when it takes effort just maintaining the advertising we already have. Some local businesses have reached out to us to place ads, and perhaps in the new year there will be more efforts to tap into this source of revenue. But for now, that has not been one of our measures of success.

Do people regularly become citizen journalists for you now? Or do they mostly point you towards important issues?

Both — see above. We have no shortage of content from the communities, much of it quite good. But we also get a lot of people pointing our staff reporters and interns towards stories and waiting to be delivered the news. Our response, more and more lately, is — “you tell US. What is going on outside your window? What do the police on the ground say? What happened at that community meeting?” And more and more they are coming back to us with quotes or photos or tips that find their way into posts.

What does your daily work look like? How does it differ from the work of classic print journalists? What were/are the reactions from the rest of the NYT?

The Local consists of two reporters: Tina Kelley, in Millburn, South Orange and Maplewood (where she lives), New Jersey; and Andy Newman in Fort Greene-Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. They start early in the morning, covering news, reporting stories, aggregating and curating content from other sites, supervising interns and recruiting local contributors who they then work with to produce posts. I supervise, direct, edit and read every single post before it is published, and also work directly with contributors and interns on their posts. The day is long — we are often up late, publishing breaking news or getting up late posts or using the relative quiet to plan and organize. And we are “on deadline” all the time. But we publish very sparingly on weekends, so do have those two days of rest. We communicate almost exclusively by e-mail or G-chat; except when we have meetings, we rarely talk. Since we each work independently, in different places, we miss out on the camaraderie and sociability of the newsroom, but such is the life of the lonely blogger! I think the greater newsroom has curiosity and interest in what we are doing, and we hope to include them more as the endeavor goes forward. The top management of the news organization is solidly behind our efforts. Eventually, the lessons we learn about collaborative journalism can be — and will be — incorporated into the greater newsroom, but first we will continue to test them in the laboratory we call “The Local.”

Do you think you will be making money eventually?

I sure hope so. A lot of people smarter than me think there will eventually be a pot of gold at the end of the hyperlocal rainbow — by some estimates $100 billion to be shared by local news sites/bloggers (by the way, we are best described as a news blog, because our main purpose is to impart real information and news, not opinion or ruminations). But for now our prime benefits are journalistic, as we explore this type of coverage and hone the techniques that go into it.

Is this an experiment, or is it the future of journalism? What do you think?

I think — and I only feel comfortable speaking for myself — that it is the future of journalism. Nothing will replace trained, professional journalists; although critics won’t admit it, I think that has been proven over and over again, with the best blog fodder still coming from news organizations that employ paid journalists and produce classic investigative and news reports. We believe the reason that our sites rise above many others is that we have experienced and talented journalists at the helm. But, overall, the old pull-up-the-drawbridge-and-issue-edicts approach is largely past. Instead, I believe that there will be a wiki approach to news, where we invite people into every aspect of the process while we supervise, guide and enhance the coverage. In the end, we think this will build a better report — and it already does: a published post with comments, corrections, updates and overall reader/community involvement can result in more precise journalism. That, in turn, builds reader trust. And that will, in the long run, save journalism, rather than kill it, I believe.

Guest post by Jack Rutter, co-founder of  Cutmedia.com

The idea for this blog post came from the reems and reems of online column inches i have come across recently covering hyperlocal. Having an interest in it myself via Cutmedia.com and the first flagship publication Kingsroad.co.uk, i thought i should give my thoughts and allow anybody that is interested to check out the stories I have come across recently.

Recently I went to an event held at Channel 4 by 4ip where they are very keen to try and help young start ups with funding on projects that will help to shape the media industry. Whilst working out if Cutmedia.com could benefit from a partnership with 4ip i met a lecturer from Goldsmiths University called Angela Phillips. She is currently looking for funding with one of her projects, which is also focussed on hyperlocal, although that is all she would tell me!

We discussed the opportunity of hyperlocal and after a while got on to the topic of journalists and how they need to be innovative and play a more proactive role on the business side of their media work. I certainly think they need to pay more attention to how money and profit is generated as part of their business.

Many people in and around journalism fall in love with the romantic idea of the discipline and fail to understand how money and their wages are paid, which i think is  very dangerous. For them journalism is firstly about holding people in power to account, getting a scoop before anybody else and producing killer articles that demostrate the written skills they were born with and secondly a business. I think that this is naive,  especially in the light of the redundancies that have happen across the industry over the last year or so.

There are many ways in which publishers can generate revenue for their businesses and i expect that they will keep evolving over time as the publishing industry reinvigorates itself. The main task publishers face is to create robust products that can pay for for editorial so journalists can go and hold people in power to account, get that scoop and show us all what great writers they are.

Content alone does not pay the wages and the quicker they learn that the better.

New business models for journalism is something that has been discussed in the following articles:

• http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/11/01/the-future-of-journalism-is-entrepreneurial – Jeff Jarvis
• http://www.unlimitedmagazine.com/blog/?p=1264 – Unlimitedmagazine.com
• http://www.groundreport.com/Media_and_Tech/The-Hyperlocal-News-Market-Key-Players-and-What-Th/2910236 – Rachel Stern

• George Monbiot: Local newspapers are dying – but are they worth saving? (blogs.journalism.co.uk)

(image credit GooseGoddessS)

We posted just last week about ‘local’ being the new ’social’ for news publishers and it seems the guardian.co.uk (perhaps even taking editorial inspiration from the Moreover Blog!?) agrees.

The Digital Content Blog has posted a nice write-up of just a handful of the developments over in the States where many online news outlets are already trying to take advantage of this new ‘hyperlocal‘ buzz. AOL and some former eBay execs are both taking interesting steps in this direction, with AOL looking to expand it’s recently acquired Patch network and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar bidding to kick-start his local news service Peer News. Not forgetting that we have blogged in the past about YouTube’s efforts in this area and with foursquare regularly being touted as the ‘next Twitter’ is hyperlocal getting you excited?

A bit overdue (I’ve been talking about doing this for a couple of months), but at last there’s now a Ning app for OpenlyLocal local data so anyone who has a UK Ning hyperlocal site (well, anyone in the 90+ councils we’ve opened up data for) can now have information about their council right there in their site.

Like the OpenlyLocal Google gadget (see OpenlyLocal info on your website, Part 1: Google Gadgets), it’s fairly straightforward to use. You need to be the owner of the Ning community to add it, and then it’s automatically available to users as just another tab (like Forums, Videos, Photos, etc). Once you’ve done it you (and the other members of the community) can see the council’s key data, upcoming meetings, members and committees. More features and functionality will be added, but it’s already a very useful addition to any hyperlocal site.

This is what it looks like in action:

So how do you add the OpenlyLocal application to your Ning community (NB Ning Apps need to be added by the network creator). It’s a breeze, and should take no more than a couple of minutes (probably a lot less):

1. Go to the ‘Manage’ Tab on your network:
2. Click on Ning Apps and you’ll be shown the Ning App directory. Quickest thing is just to search for the OpenlyLocal app:
3. Choose the OpenlyLocal application:
4. You’ll then be redirected to the Tab management screeen, where you can change the name of the Tab for the app . By default it’s “Council info :: OpenlyLocal”, but might be better to be just “Our Council” or “Council watch” if space is tight. *Important*: If you do change the name, you must click the Save Tab Settings button, otherwise just click on the link:
   
5. You should now be shown the OpenlyLocal page (if not, just click on the tab), and you should click on the ‘edit settings’ link (in the top RIGHT of the info area, not the ’settings’ link just above it and to the left).
6. Select your local authority, and then “Save Changes”
   
7. The app will then get the data from OpenlyLocal (but some may be hidden – if so so just reload the page).
8. That’s it.

There’s more features coming, but I hope you’ll agree it’s an essential addition to any Ning hyperlocal community. Comments as ever welcome, and the code behind the application will be shortly uploaded to the OpenlyLocal github tools page.

p.s. To remove the app, just go back to the tab management page and click on the ‘x’ beside the tab.

The idea for this blog post came from the reems and reems of online column inches i have come across recently covering hyperlocal. Having an interest in it myself via Cutmedia.com and the first flagship publication Kingsroad.co.uk, i thought i should give my thoughts and allow anybody that is interested to check out the stories I have come across recently.

Recently I went to an event held at Channel 4 by 4ip where they are very keen to try and help young start ups with funding on projects that will help to shape the media industry. Whilst working out if Cutmedia.com could benefit from a partnership with 4ip i met a lecturer from Goldsmiths University called Angela Phillips. She is currently looking for funding with one of her projects, which is also focussed on hyperlocal, although that is all she would tell me!

We discussed the opportunity of hyperlocal and after a while got on to the topic of journalists and how they need to be innovative and play a more proactive role on the business side of their media work. I certainly think they need to pay more attention to how money and profit is generated as part of their business.

Many people in and around journalism fall in love with the romantic idea of the discipline and fail to understand how money and their wages are paid, which i think is  very dangerous. For them journalism is firstly about holding people in power to account, getting a scoop before anybody else and producing killer articles that demostrate the written skills they were born with and secondly a business. I think that this is naive,  especially in the light of the redundancies that have happen across the industry over the last year or so.

There are many ways in which publishers can generate revenue for their businesses and i expect that they will keep evolving over time as the publishing industry reinvigorates itself. The main task publishers face is to create robust products that can pay for for editorial so journalists can go and hold people in power to account, get that scoop and show us all what great writers they are.

Content alone does not pay the wages and the quicker they learn that the better.

New business models for journalism is something that has been discussed in the following articles:

• http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/11/01/the-future-of-journalism-is-entrepreneurial – Jeff jarvis
• http://www.unlimitedmagazine.com/blog/?p=1264 – Unlimitedmagazine.com
• http://www.groundreport.com/Media_and_Tech/The-Hyperlocal-News-Market-Key-Players-and-What-Th/2910236 – Rachel Stern

• George Monbiot: Local newspapers are dying – but are they worth saving? (blogs.journalism.co.uk)

There is an amazing vibrancy, vibrancy and passion about hyperlocal blogs.

With the bottom falling out of newspapers self-motivated people are filling the news gap themselves.

No town, housing estate or tower block is too small or disconnected to support these grassroots newsgatherers.

But to a qualified journalist turned press officer like myself the potential for danger in the ice field of libel law is terrifying.

Chatting to the excellent Philip John of the Lichfield Blog at a recent Black Country Social Media Cafe it’s clear this hasn’t escaped attention.

The idea of registering a company for a blog is an excellent way of getting yourself some protection.

Why? Because British libel laws are amongst the most draconian in the world.

At some point I’m convinced someone will lose their house in the not too distant future over an internet blog post. It’s potentially that serious.

This isn’t a shot across the bows for local bloggers from an old hack who doesn’t ‘get’ social media. Far from it.

In the words of former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans “I love newspapers. But I’m intoxicated by the speed and possibility of the internet.”

This is more a call to action for the blogging community to be as legally aware as they are SEO-savvy.

Of course, not everyone should have to take a law exam before they are allowed onto WordPress. That defeats the object of Web 2.0.

What I am arguing for is as the blogging community slowly self-organises legal advice, or a place where a blogger could find it, is an overdue must.

It’s excellent that Talk About Local have further enhanced their reputation by spotting this need and they now have a place to go.

They have also drafted a nine point manifesto themselves to help. Maybe a tenth should be “Be legal.”?

This would be self-preservation. It could also help construct foundations for a bridge of trust between bloggers and local councils and other organisations.

With the advent of no win no fee legal firms sniffing around blog comments it’s also increasingly important.

SIX things every hyperlocal needs to know about media law:

1. Libel law covers the web – legal action is rare but you need to know what you blog about could become actionable in every jurisdiction on the planet. Technically.

2. It is big money – Living Marxism magazine folded in 2000 after two television reporters and ITN won £375,000 after being accused of sensationalising images of an emaciated Muslim in a Serb run detention camp in Bosnia.

3. It’s useful to know what libel is – there are defences against libel. Here is a link with British Libel laws explained 

4. Don’t touch court reports – The rules around court reporting in the UK are so strict, so complex and carry unlimited penalties that all but the foolish would look at it. Take freelance reporters’ copy direct if you like. Don’t lift it from newspapers. And don’t try it at home. Contempt of court is about as much fun as serious illness.

5. Have a copy of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists by your side. It’s the media industry standard. It can save lives. It could save yours.

6. Use the Talk About Local site designed as a signpost for finding legal advice.

LINKS

Philip John: Getting serious about #hyperlocal blogs. Great piece about media law http://bit.ly/VCf1D

Social By Social legal issues for hyperlocals debate http://bit.ly/2EnY9M

My earlier blog about what hyperlocals mean for Local Government http://bit.ly/nkPrD

Great presentation on media law for bloggers and journalists by Paul Bradshaw http://bit.ly/22NeNs

DO YOU HAVE a news item or an issue you would like to see broadcast on the Hedon Blog?

If so then send your comments in the box below. Or e-mail your photos or YouTube video link to hedonblog@gmx.com

I just heard a guy interviewing a local gleaner, a woman who picks up fennel bulbs out in the fields of Castroville. I know there are people (including myself) who forage for various items in the woods and lots around here. But I know little about gleaners, although, of course, this is the perfect area for that activity.

According to the California Story Fund:

“Unlike in Europe, where gleaning is considered a right, gleaning in California requires the cooperation of field owners. While illegal gleaning occurs, most of the gleaning in Salinas Valley is done in cooperation with large growers, who also distribute over 10 million pounds of surplus crops to food banks and other programs.

The gleaners come from communities throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Some work with church groups, some work with labor groups, some are high school students, some are elders, some speak only Spanish.”

The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas is having an event today, “The Gleaners: A Harvest of Stories,” 2–4 pm. I’m going. See you there?

Betancourt: How Social Media is Taking the News Local; http://j.mp/2Rbukt

Here is an interesting piece from Mashable on the convergence of social media and local news. Publishers seem especially keen on exploring more and more local content, with social media seemingly a great compliment to this trend.

As people access this specific hyperlocal content, and engage in it at the same time, then I’m sure both publishers and users will see the benefits.

The first time I met Jeff Samsanow was actually at the same event where I rekindled my friendship with Unknown Studio co-host Scott C. Bourgeois. It was an Edmonton Tweet-up at a bar that no longer exists — or rather, the structure still exists, but it has a new name. That’s Edmonton for you.

I think it’s safe to say, after only knowing Jeff on Twitter beforehand, that I liked this guy right away. We chatted for a bit, discussing such things as roadkill and where we could go in the next ten minutes for dessert. It was the start of something wonderful, and it involved cheesecake.

Sadly, I wouldn’t see Jeff again for a long time… Months later, in fact, at a chance encounter at another downtown pub when Mack and I were crashed (it was a good crash, though, and I don’t mean drunk either). This time, Jeff showed up with community pillar Brittney Le Blanc, as well as his awesome wife Sally Poulsen, who I also liked immediately. And not just because she always calls me dude, but because she’s hilarious and smart. If Sally and Jeff weren’t already married to each other, I’d marry them both, then suggest that they also marry each other in a strange union the likes of which probably aren’t legal in Canada, but which would shock the human race into an era of peace and love.

So you can imagine my delight when the two of them agreed to be guests on the Unknown Studio. And not just because they’re awesome people (which they are), but because they’re entrepreneurial community participants not content to sit on the sidelines and whinge about the things that make them sad. They’re down there in the trenches getting shit done.

I think that’s part of the reason why, back in June 2009, they launched TheEdmontonian.com, a hyperlocal news blog featuring content for and by citizens and well-wishers of Edmonton which you should read… after you finish reading this.

The Space Ghost effect

I think it would be fair to say that Jeff and Sally are fans of the Unknown Studio (please, one or both of you, correct me if I’m wrong). And as you’ll hear in the episode we recorded with them, what they’re trying to do with TheEdmontonian and what Scott and I, it turns out, are trying to do with the Unknown Studio is to provide hyperlocal infotainment — a word you’ll learn I also dislike.

But our two squads (can two people be a squad, I ask you?) being of similar minds, I noticed a bit of a Space Ghost effect taking place… You see Space Ghost, himself the host of a talk show, would often ask his guests questions about himself. “What do you think of my show?” “What do you think of me?” “Are you getting enough oxygen?” I’m extremely self-critical, and I don’t want to be the guy who has people on to talk about himself. Myself. Me.

And I don’t think it came across that way, it’s just a little niggling my brain has placed in front of me.

Enough about me

Regardless of limited self-flagellation, I will say this: I read The Edmontonian every day, and have since it was launched. Not every post, but I’m on there checking it out, seeing what my compatriots have discovered from having their fingers on the pulse of the community. And between the morning headlines, the light-hearted stabbing at the reputation of such hallowed concrete and glass monoliths as Commerce Place, and the actual interviews, reviews, and other stories they publish, it’s a great online resource. One of the best hubs the Edmonton community has online.

And they and the other little hubs are all in good company.

Mine.

(Sorry, I just had to get that in there.)

The word “community” is one of those words which crops up at any gathering of online people. How to build a community, how to get involved in a community, how to make the community feel involved with you – and, to me, it’s great that that’s the case.

But for newsrooms which, until recently, knew the community didn’t really have an alternative for local news and information, getting to grips with playing a part in a more vocal community can be a challenge.

Which is why, I believe, every newspaper or online newsroom should have its own Flickr group.

For “traditional media”, it can be hard to get involved in social sites such as Flickr, largely because in the past we perhaps haven’t behaved in the most suitable way – we’ve tried to own the space rather than interact within it, and therefore working to the rules of the space we’re seeking to have a presence within.

Flickr is perhaps the easiest to get involved with. The people on there are there because they like taking photographs and like sharing photographs. For many, the thought of being published is something to get excited about.

In one respect, establishing a Flickr group for a newspaper contradicts the idea that newspapers and online news providers now need to establish themselves within communities which they don’t control. After all, you can set the terms and conditions of your Flickr group.

Crucially, however,  it’s still quite a big leap from the position many newspapers find themselves in – still shouting for content to be sent to their website, and then not telling users when it might be used.

Setting up a group on Flickr, and handing control of that Flickr group to a group of reporters in the newsroom, sends a strong signal to the many hundreds of Flickr photographers in each area that you appreciate their work, and that’s why you’ve arrived to participate in their community.

And I think that applies to hyperlocal sites too – what better way to find the people who are active in your community online than by creating a group on Flickr which you can then use to show pictures on your site? It is possible just to pull pictures in using a keyword-based RSS from Flickr – but surely it’s better to give people the chance to drop pictures into your group fully aware of how it might be used?

Along with Alison Gow, I set up the Liverpool Daily Post’s Flickr group at the end of 2007, inspired by a conversation with Craig McGinty during the Digital Editors Network.

Almost two years on, there are 23,000 pictures in the group, hundreds of active members, and a thriving community which spends a lot of time talking on the Flickr group forum – and which isn’t afraid to criticise the journalists running it. They are also more than happy to sing the praises of the journalists running the group. Alison is still heavily involved in the LDP Flickr group.

The LDP and its sister paper, the Liverpool ECHO, have both produced in-paper supplements full of pictures submitted to the Flickr group – all of which have been very well received both online and with print readers.

Trinity Mirror newspapers across the country have Flickr groups.

So, how to make sure starting a Flickr group doesn’t just become a smash and grab for user generated content which damages your paper’s online reputation? Here are some of the things I’ve learnt along the way:

Getting a group going:

1. When creating the group, make suree you state clearly the intentions of the group. If you want to be able to print the pictures people have placed in the group, make sure you say so clearly.

2. Set a limit to the number of pictures people can post every day or each week. Not doing this was an early mistake on the part of the LDP group – one bloke posted 1,000 in a week (good for the overall number, not a great community experience for everyone else.

3. Don’t just expect pictures to start flooding in. Go and find them. Search for pictures from your area or interest and spot the photographers who are quite prolific and contact them, asking if they want to join. It’s best to send a private message to them, rather than posting a message underneath the photo.

4. Promote it in print – explain to people what Flickr is and why they should get involved. Photographers who discover Flickr via your paper are grateful for that.

5. Approach local photography groups – do they want to get involved via flickr?

Once the group is going:

1. Tell people when pictures will be published in the paper. In the case of the LDP group, the only time people became upset was when pictures were used without the user having prior knowledge. This is partly a clash of cultures – we never used to tell readers when their letter would be printed, so why tell them when a photo is being used? Because we’re now part of a photo community that isn’t shy to accuse someone or something of not playing fair. And also because we always should have treated reader content with greater respect.

2. Get a conversation going. Flickr groups have forums on them, so it makes sense to use them. If there is news which might be of interest to your group, post it on the forum which comes with each group. In the case of the LDP group, Alison and reporters in Liverpool regularly told people which cultural events were coming up which might be of interest to photographers.

3. Encourage people to select other pictures they like, or suggest other members’ work for publication.

4. Try and stick to a set day, or set place, where pictures will be published – but make sure you do publish the best photos.

5. Answer direct messages. Flickr, like many social group sites, has a messaging service. The LDP has done a great job getting conversations going, and now often gets tip offs about stories via Flickr.

6. Promote your group across your newspaper website. It’s quite easy to use something like Flickriver or Flickrslidr to embed a dynamic gallery of images on the site.

7. Don’t be afraid to tell organisations about the Flickr group. In Liverpool and North Wales, Flickr groups have been used to host competitions which had a prize of exhibiting work in a well-known location. Partners have included Liverpool Cathedral, Merseytravel (who chose a picture to put on display in the new ferry terminal) and the National Trust in North Wales.

8. Don’t delete critical threads in the forum. When the Birmingham Post and Mail launched its Flickr group.People will just go and talk about it somewhere else. And as journalists, aren’t we supposed to be good at listening.

This isn’t meant to be a definitive guide, but more of a “here is what I’ve learnt.” If you’ve had a different, or similar, experience, please let me know…

INTERESTING piece onGuardian.co.uk yesterday about whether local newspapers are worth saving.

Blogger George Monbiot’s piece I, too, mourn good local newspapers – but this lot aren’t worth saving is damning in its criticism of the local press and comes to the conclusion that because of conflicts of interest, a lack of investment and a lack of relevancy, local papers actually died a long time ago.

In his blog, he says… 

“They are the pillars of the community, champions of the underdog, the scourge of corruption, defenders of free speech. Their demise could deal a mortal blow to democracy. Any guesses yet? How many of you thought of local newspapers?

“But this is the universal view of the national media: local papers – half of which, on current trends, are in danger of going down in the next five years – are all that stand between us and creeping dictatorship.

“Like my colleagues, I mourn their death; unlike them I believe it happened decades ago.”

He goes on to add:

“Most local papers exist to amplify the voices of their proprietors and advertisers and other powerful people with whom they wish to stay on good terms… But they also contribute to what in Mexico is called caciquismo: the entrenched power of local elites. This is the real threat to local democracy, not the crumpling of the media empires of arrogant millionaires.”

Monbiot makes a number of sweeping generalisations in his piece, basing much of his argument on one (admittedly typical and horrendous) incident with his own local rag supporting plans to build a new supermarket (which presumably he was opposed to).

I know some newspaper news editors and editors who would fall into the same trap as Monbiot’s local rag and would toe the line.

I remember covering Leeds United’s plans for a new Leeds Arena next to Elland Road back in the late 1990s.

Local residents were rightly horrified at the noise and impact an extra 80-odd rock concerts and ice hockey games each year would have on their lives, which were already blighted by Leeds United matchdays.

Yet I remember my boss (who’s no longer there)  saying to me that I needed to downplay the local opposition ‘as we’ve only just got back on good terms with Leeds United and I’m not going to let these people ruin that for us’.

Luckily for me I wasn’t managed too tightly in those days so I managed to go ahead and do what I wanted (which was support the residents).

But it’s a perfect example of how local newspapers have taken their eyes off their readers and are more concerned about their own interests. And Monbiot’s right, this was happening years ago – the rot’s well and truly set in.

I set up the South Leeds Information Project to establish a community newspaper 12, 13 years ago because I could see then that there was a huge and vitally important chunk of community life going unreported.

It’s what I had described to me rather sniffingly as ‘lower tier’ stuff – you know, covering local events, parish council meetings, community campaigns, the work of local groups, services and organisations etc etc.

For me, even as a trainee reporter, I always believed that not reflecting your community and readers, no matter how parochial your story, was a sure-fire way to hurt your business in the long-term.

That and having demotivated and skills-challenged ‘reporters’ office-bound, copying and pasting in press releases word for word - and then expecting a byline for their efforts.

It’s why social media and online community media (which doesn’t necessarily rely on substantial patronage from powerful local individuals, companies or bodies) is now starting to emerge as a realistic alternative to mainstream press in some towns and cities.

In some areas, however, I think the local press still has a relevance to the communities it serves.

Take the paid-for weekly Wakefield Express in the past two years – it’s campaigned to boost literacy in the city by working with local schools to encourage children and adults to read; it’s running a campaign to make a local run-down and dangerous railway station safer and better (a perfect example of taking local authorities to task); it’s about to launch a campaign highlighting unsung community heroes and has an annual Christmas appeal.

It regularly takes a scathing stance on what the local council’s doing (or not doing).

Some of its sister papers have this year campaigned and supported struggling traders with ‘Save our shops’ initiatives.

Over the years at my various papers, I’ve set up and run campaigns to highlight poor cleansing/litter control in parts of the city; highlighted the poor condition and dangers facing some of the city’s parks; run community awards and really dug beneath the surface of one run-down community which was always getting a bad press in the mainstream media and highlighted the good work that went on there.

So holding councils and bodies to account and showing communities in their true light is still alive and well in the papers I’ve been involved in, thank you very much. It can be done, but you need the vision and motivation to do it.

But I do take Monbiot’s point that the industry as a whole is failing its readers and democracy in general. If it wasn’t, then the Beatblogger initiatives to be run by the Guardian’s Sarah Hartley probably wouldn’t be necessary.

Some good work still goes on in the regional press, but not nearly enough.

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair,

Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

In my other blog, Musings of a New Media Maven, I have posted regularly the growth and potential — or not — of hyperlocal news blogs.  Last week, I did a post here about MarylandReporter.com, a news site and aggregator that will cover the state political/legislature beat.

And now we add two more players in the game.  First up is DNAInfo.com, which focuses on Manhattan local news.  It’s the brainchild of Joe Ricketts, founder of Ameritrade and a member of the family that now owns the Chicago Cubs.   Rickets says he used technology to take the financial services sector to the next level, and he wants to do the same to help distribute news, information, and advertising.  One of the contributing editors is Sree Sreenivasan,  dean of student affairs at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a professor in the digital journalism program.  He is also co-founder and former president of the South Asian Journalists Association and speaks regularly on journalism and technology issues.  His seminars for media professionals on using social media and technology are always standing room only.

But I digress.  The site breaks down Manhattan by neighborhoods and subjects.  Looking at the beta site, it seems like DNAInfo is doing a pretty good job of offering a good mix of news for those who live in the borough.  For example, one of the front-page stories is entitled “NYPD Arrests Most Wanted Criminal in North Carolina.”  It’s an interesting story for Manhattan, and it only appeared in one other newspaper — the Rocky Mountain Telegraph.  The site has a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page, potentially expanding its reach.   The effort appears to have deep pockets in Ricketts but no advertising that I can see so far, so it will be interesting to see how this site will grow — and thrive — going forward.

Next is the Texas Tribune, which calls itself “a non-profit, nonpartisan public media organization” whose  “mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern.”  The online publication and blog covers all things Texas, including the legislature, political parties, universities and state departments, among other things.

The site also has a group of heavy hitters backing it — the chairman is Austin-based  venture capitalist John Thornton who believes in public media; editor-in-chief/CEO Evan Smith was the editor of Texas Monthly magazine for 18 years; and managing editor Ross Ramsey, formerly owner and  editor of Texas Weekly, a newsletter on politics and government.  The list of reporters and contributors reads like a who’s who of Texas media outlets, and it has the prerequisite social media presence, with blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts and a YouTube channel.

The principals say their site is a supplement to, not a replacement for local newspapers.   “The reason we started the Trib is not because your local paper doesn’t believe in journalism in the public interest. It does, and it produces as much as it can. But in this severely depressed economy, human and financial resources are not as plentiful as they once were. So papers have had to make hard choices. In the end, most of them have eliminated people and pages, and as a result, coverage of policy and politics has been cut way back. This has created a substantive void.”

And this mindset is illustrated in a Nov. 8 profile of the Texas Tribune done by the New York Times.  While media outlets around the country were responding to the shootings at Ft. Hood on Thursday, the Tribune instead lead with stories on the 50 highest-paid state employees and a local elected official who had switched parties.  Why?  “It wasn’t our story. Should we have just been one more news organization rushing to Fort Hood? I don’t think so,” reporter Matt Stiles told the Times.

The Texas Tribune has already raised $3.6 million in capital.  It will not take advertising, instead focusing on underwriters, similar to what’s done on public radio and television.  It is also soliciting its readers for donations to become founding members of the online publication.  The principals think the Texas Tribune is the future of journalism.  “But what we think doesn’t matter. If you and hundreds of thousands of people like you support this noble experiment, it will be.”

And last, but certainly not least, Digital Journalism Task Force member Dr. Michelle Ferrier has done part one of a review on her blog, Digital Content Architects, of CommunityQ, a web site that can be used by local newspapers to create hyperlocal sites and citizen journalism platforms.  Ferrier used CommunityQ to create and host the now defunct MyTopiaCafe.com, a hyperlocal site covering Florida’s Volusia and Flagler counties.  You can read Ferrier’s post-mortem on her site here.  She’s asking for your comments.

If the future of journalism is indeed entrepreneurial, we have to start thinking with a business hat on.

It’s a big change in mentality for some journalists. I’ve been to several events and meetings recently where hacks have insisted people will have to pay for news “because journalists have to eat”.

This is upside-down thinking. People don’t buy iPhones because Steve Jobs needs to eat. They buy them because they are an innovative product which satisfies a demand people are willing to pay for.

And so it must be if journalists are to be entrepreneurs. I’ve put together a list of criteria a new business idea might need to satisfy to see it become successful. I don’t think a successful business will need to satisfy all of them, or maybe even 50%. But ignoring these questions means another financial failure…

News start-up checklist

1. Is it a new idea?

2. Does it have a defined target audience?

3. Does it provide niche (i.e. hyperlocal) content?

4. Does it satisfy a desire that is not being fulfilled by someone else?

5. Or does it do something better (faster, cheaper, more effectively) than someone else?

6. Does it actually have income potential, or will it rely on funding?

7. Does it use the power of crowd-sourcing/community?

8. Would it be fulfilling for journalists to work for?

9. Does it publish/exist on more than one platform?

10. If it has content, is it sharable?

11. Does it require a lot of money to run?

12. Does it have boot-strapping potential?

13. Does it scale?

14. Does it fulfill a public service?

15. Is it a legally sound idea? What about copyright?

16. Would it appeal to venture capitalists, angel investors?

17. And…does it have a cool name?

That’s what I’ve come up with so far. I think if you answer these questions at the early stages, you’ll have a greater chance of your start up succeeding. What it says is a sustainable business – journalism or otherwise – begins with a solid well-defined customer base.

You need to know who these customers are, and be really clear about why you are providing something they can’t get elsewhere. Innocent Smoothies was begun by three British students in 1999 who realised there was a demand for healthy fruit smoothies, which wasn’t being satisfied by anyone else. It now has a revenue of £128m.

US start-up “incubator” Y-Combinator is looking for new media business ideas which embrace this form of thinking:

What would a content site look like if you started from how to make money—as print media once did—instead of taking a particular form of journalism as a given and treating how to make money from it as an afterthought?

Add more to the list in the comments below if you have any. And while you’re here, read the comments of one reader on an earlier blog entry. Some interesting criticism of the notion journalism is entrepreneurial at all…

Brighton’s Argus is to tap into the city’s network of PCSOs to provide content for its network of hyperlocal websites – blogging their beat you could say.

Web editor Jo Wadsworth told me that the officers will be working alongside students that have also been recruited to cover stories for the 25 sites.

After training from Jo, the community police officers will be able to upload their appeals and news directly to the sites and she’s also hoping they’ll develop into forums similar to one currently running in Preston Park.

As reported in the Press Gazette this morning, the newspaper has been working with the training organisation Journalist Works, activity which has been going on for over a year with the students pitching in material to the websites for the past six months.

The contributions are unpaid and are in many ways treated as an extension of the sort of work experience commonly on offer across local newspapers, the difference being that the blogs allow those participating a greater sense of ownership of the project.

To that end, the bloggers will receive traffic stats and other analytics plus training seminars on practical skills and going offline with social events is in the pipeline for next year.

The content expected will largely be text and pictures although the students are already creating weekly video vox pops (the latest here) and moving activity into social networks including Twitter and Facebook.

See one of the hyperlocal sites in action here.

The Wall Street Journal plans to add a New York Report, adding traditional city desk beats; http://j.mp/ZVNx

Location: Nassau County, New York (Long Island) 

Focus: news and information covering Hempstead, Uniondale, Roosevelt, and Garden City municipalities; heavy multimedia; sections include news, business, politics, sports, features, and religion

Started: February 2009

Staff: student project of Hofstra University School of Communication undergraduate and graduate journalism program led by Assistant Professor Mo Krochmal

Funding: university

Site: nassaunewslive.com

From About Us

Located in Dempster Hall, Nassau News Live starts with the goal of creating a trusted serious news website and fostering new connections between Hofstra and the people living in the surrounding communities while enhancing the education of journalism students with the opportunity to work in a 21st Century news organization.

Students will collaborate to produce and report area news in real time with a combination of pressure-tested live blogging and live video webcasting as well as multimedia interactive news packages, information graphics and digital and still photography.

Sample Stories: “Supporters, Staffers of Nassau County Democratic Party Celebrate, Wallow, and Wait on Election Night”; “Mayor Hall discusses Village of Hempstead’s waning recession”; “Restaurant servers finding a tough economy”; “Unofficial Nassau County election results”; “Nassau County high school football playoffs announced”

1/3 of all netizens visit MSN monthly: time for a relaunch and integration of Facebook and Twitter; http://j.mp/lOguV