Six competencies of next generation news organizations

Here’s my latest post for Leadership 3.0 at Knight Digital Media Center:

Media Management Center presentation outlines jobs for news providers of the next generation of news (which is here now)

 

I sat in on a Webinar by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University this week. Annette Moser-Wellman presented in information-rich outline of “Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization.”

Moser-Wellman’s list provides a great blueprint for organizations that are looking beyond the next round of cutbacks to becoming an organization that can thrive five years from now. To set the stage, Moser-Wellman gave an overview of just-around-the-corner technologies. She gave particular emphasis on the growing role of mobile in virtually everything we do, including the way we consume media and the way advertising finds us.

Here’s my shorthand version of her list of roles for the next-gen news organization:

1. Platform strategist. Know the platforms, know the players, know how users consume information and what content works best where. Start by looking at what people need and develop strategies to meet those needs.
2. Marketer. It’s all about establishing your brand by showing how your content is different and targeting information to specific groups.
3. Community builder. The traditional role of the news organization in a community is changing online. It requires the ability to connect people with like interests and to engage them in news gathering.
4. Data miner. Organizations must build capacity to store, access and retrieve information through meta data such as tagging. Organizations can develop new revenue streams by repackaging information in different ways. Semantic technology on the horizon will increase the potential for properly tagged content to find interested users.
5. Complete storyteller. Communication is becoming more visual, as evidenced by maps and timelines and interactives that report news and put it in context.
6. Entrepreneur. News organizations must operate in a selling environment. “News organizations will need to figure out what the end consumer is going to want and what they are willing to pay for.”

Read more here.

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“Mixed messages” in the newsroom

From my latest post for my Leadership 3.0 blog at Knight Digital Media Center:

“Mixed messages” from leaders hold back organizations. Adoption of clearer, more consistent message is one of the ways leaders can unleash tremendous potential that’s just waiting for clear direction. Improving communication can foster collaboration. Newsrooms need collaboration more than ever. The assembly line model of print production must give way to a more dynamic, multitasking organization.

Read the full post here.

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