Throughout the presentations and discussions, some concepts came up over and over again. These ideas resonate beyond each newsroom into the organizations at large, and even into the news industry as a whole.
- Change has to come from the bottom up. Command-and-control hierarchical systems of management have worked well for getting the daily paper out on time, but they put too great a burden of leadership on top editors and potentially miss out on great ideas and innovations from below.
- Change the task and the culture will follow. Too many organizations depend on a small cadre of web workers to maintain their websites. Job descriptions have to be changed to give everyone a stake in the web, which will lead to culture change faster than any edicts from above.
- Scaling newsroom projects is more efficient. Everything from multimedia to database creation must be planned for scalability, because one-shot projects waste precious resources without providing enough utility for readers.
- Staying competitive requires better coordination between the newsroom and advertising department. The idea that newsroom innovation is meaningless if the other side of the building doesn’t sell it led to a call for additional work to bring advertising sales reps up to speed on the new medium.
- Be a guide, not an oracle. The internet demands connections and context for stories, which means linking out of the newspaper’s website to relevant community resources. It is vital to be seen as a one-stop site for all relevant community information.
- Hyper-local means a variety of geographies and communities of interest. Some information is specific to a district or even block, other data must be divided along interest lines, like Little League or pets.
- Training is not option. Doing new things in new ways will require learning at all levels of the organization. But training must be strategic. It must be thoughtfully laid out, be systematic, and be done… now. It must also stay in the budget.
- Data is the driving force behind newspaper website utility. Databases, calendar listings, and more are all the new focus of newspapers looking to serve their communities well. Databases and allowing the audience to contribute also frees newsroom staffs to do journalism.
- Outsourcing is a viable option. Every new tool does not have to be developed in the news organization. In fact, many off-the-shelf tools are perfectly suited to newsroom tasks and are inexpensive to use.
- Look outside industry for innovation inspiration. For too long newspapers have looked at each other. It is time for fresh ideas, and many of them can be found in government, Silicon Valley, universities and other places.
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