May 18, 2010
Robert Niles: The News Publisher as Community Organizer
Web entrepreneur introduces journalist-entrepreneurs at KDMC boot camp to a new role: organizing around helping solve community problems
On Tuesday, Robert Niles of Online Journalism Review walked the campers at KDMC’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp through a process that positions the news start up as community problem solver. This is a very smart approach, and one that any news provider should study and adopt.
Here’s a quick recap of his six steps:
1. Assessing the community (watching and listening).
Ask yourself: What are three problems facing your community?
“Problem solving is the benefit” a community publisher can offer audience and customers, Niles said. “If you’re not addressing the pain that they have, its easy for them to overlook you.” Example of a problem cited by one boot camper: Resistance to change undermines economic development.
2. Creating an action team (relationship building).
What are three resources you can utilize to solve one or more of these problems?
Examples: A local advisory committee, a local non profit.
3. Developing an action plan.
What are three tools or methods you can use to connect those resources to your community?
Examples: Invite to write posts for the site, stage face to face meet ups, use tech tools, advertising
4. Mobilizing to action.
What are three ways of getting the community to notice what you’re doing?
Examples: Use social media (needs to be more specific)
5. Implementing the action.
What are three ways to get participation in your solution?
Examples: Make it about them, offer them something, appeal to their desire to be heard, ask them what they think.
“You have to create a way that encourages positive, constructive contributions to the conversation. (That is) how you distinguish yourself” from sites where the comments are cesspools, Niles said.
6. Evaluating what you’ve done, and applying those stages to community news publishing.
What are three ways to evaluate your success or failure?
Examples: Google Analytics, coverage in other media, user surveys
7. Repeat.
“You’re always repeating this process,” Niles said.
It’s interesting how far this conversation takes us from the strict definition of the journalist as an impartial information provider and I saw a few squirms in the room at boot camp. But It’s essential that journalists re-imagine their roles in the dynamic digital environment. (The ability to constantly re-imagine her role, by the way, is now a key skill that a journalist must develop.)
When I advise community news start ups as part of my work for the Knight Foundation, we frequently discuss the qualities and skills they want in a project manager. Community organizing experience (not journalism, I am sorry to say) is usually at the top of my list.
Niles says the community that a news entrepreneur gathers is, effectively, replacing the employer news organization as the main source of support.
“When the music stops, always have a char. Always have a fall back, always have an option, always have a place to sit.”
The community is now the chair .
Related - Susan Mernit: Product development basics pay off at Oakland Local
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Tags: knight foundation, entrepreneur
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