Newspapers across the country are facing new challenges.
“There’s been a wholesale change in how news is presented to the public,” explained Leon Alligood, MTSU journalism professor.
And editors from across the Southeast will meet at MTSU to hear about those changes and some new ways to connect with readers in the 21st century.
Print media especially is going through big changes.
Earlier this month, two major newspaper chains, the Philadelphia Newspapers LLC and the Journal Register Co., filed for bankruptcies, and several others are facing unmanageable debt loads.
The debt comes from falling revenue, as more readers drop subscriptions and move to the Internet for news.
“There’s an idea of trying to get out the news first,” Alligood said, explaining Internet readers expect more news, more often. “Newspapers don’t wait until next printing cycle.”
Papers are running shorter updates on their Web sites and longer more in depth pieces in print the next day, he said.
“As we’re doing all this we’re reducing the number of people in newsrooms,” he said. “No telling how many hundreds or thousands of years of experience were lost. Newsrooms are young, lean and mean now.”
The migration of readers, loss of revenue and new media landscape produces a need for a new business model.
“We need to find a way to make money as well as provide this valuable public service,” Alligood said.
These challenges will be discussed at the American Press Institute’s “The New Newsroom” workshop Friday, March 13 at MTSU.
The School of Journalism and College of Mass Communication are co-sponsoring the one-day workshop, which will focus on how newspaper newsrooms are reorganizing and delivering news across multiple platforms 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We’re going to have top editors from newspapers from the Southeast – Kentucky, Tennessee, north Georgia, western North Carolina …” Alligood said, explaining they will discuss the challenges of delivering the news 24/7 across multiple platforms.
“There’s not much difference between newsrooms of a TV station and a newspaper right now,” he said. Some newspapers have even begun cross training reporters and editors to shot video, take pictures and compile slideshows to be use on Web sites.
Editors will learn how to use these forms of communication, along with other Web services like RSS feeds and Twitter, to connect with audiences, he said.
“How news was defined back in 1800 is different from how we define news today,” he said, adding the key for newsrooms of the future is to keep and grow the public’s trust.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
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