Summary
Futures Lab is a newly developed vodcast by Reynolds Journalism Institute. It will be released every week starting in 2013. Its goal is to inform the newsroom leaders nationwide about the latest innovation in the news industry. As the digital storm is transforming the news industry, our goal is to help journalists keep pace with fast-moving world and experiment new ideas in the newsrooms.
The vodcast is around 10 minutes, with show host Reuben Stern walking the audience through three to four stories of various formats, including in studio interviews and TV packages, to touch on innovations in all forms of journalism. The show will be delivered directly to newsrooms through various platforms, such as website, email updates and mobile phone applications.
This semester, we have worked with our mentors Reuben Stern and Olga Missiri on planning and producing the pilot show as our capstone project. We started from designing the market research in order to understand the consumer behavior and potential competitors, and went into brainstorming story ideas, shooting and editing stories, to finally getting feedback on our final products.
With the fruition of the pilot show, the production team is ready for the scheduled releases of the show starting next semester.
I. Futures Lab Editorial Mission Statement.
RJI will help newsrooms leaders across the country make their organizations more innovative by providing these executives a weekly video digest of fresh ideas, techniques and developments that can move journalism forward. Our reporting will include:
· Behind-the-scenes case studies of cutting-edge work,
· Profiles and interviews with leading innovators,
· Tips on integrating new technologies across multiple platforms,
· Insights from the latest industry research, and
· Management tips for fostering innovation at all levels, in all types and sizes of newsroom.
This program should be easily viewable across computers and mobile devices. Content should be available for automatic download/delivery, with customizable notification when new content arrives.
Ideally we'll figure out a way to make this social as well, so the intended news industry audience will be able to share their own expertise and learn from each other, too.
Anticipated launch is early 2013.
II. Market Research
A. Potential competitors
· American Journalism Review
http://www.ajr.org/ajrabout.asp
American Journalism Review is a national magazine published by Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. It covers various issues in journalism, including radio, TV, print and online media about the story coverage and journalism ethics. The magazine publishes six times a year and each issue is focused on a particular problem. Most of the content in AJR is from outside sources done by freelancers.
· OJR: The Online Journalism Review
http://www.ojr.org/
The Online Journalism Review is an online publication by Annenberg School of Journalism at University of Southern California. It emphasizes on the development of the digital and web journalism, while also holds seminars and lectures on the new media and multimedia. Most of its content is in print story format from the freelancers.
· Editor and Publisher
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/
Editor and Publisher is a monthly magazine on the issues in print journalism. Most of its reporting are in print story format, and its content also include employment resources and data information about the use of various tools, including social media and various media platform
· Nieman Journalism Lab and Nieman Report
http://www.niemanlab.org/
Nieman Report is a quarterly publication, which has been published for over 60 years. Nieman Journalism Lab is the online edition produced by Nieman Foundation at Harvard. The lab is trying to help journalists to keep pace of the latest technology development.
· PBS Media Shift
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/
PBS Media Shift is an online source for journalism in nearly all areas. And it provides tips and insights in the use and trends in social media, business reporting, education reporting and news in the legacy media. It pays more emphasis on the online and new media.
· Media Bistro Morning media news feed:
http://www.mediabistro.com/
Media Bistro Morning Media News Feed is a news aggregation service that gathers reports about journalism from various news media and freelancers; there are almost no original materials from the website itself. The articles on the site cover all areas of journalism.
· Media Bistro’s 10,000 words:
http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/
The blog provides insights and suggestions for journalists to integrate technology into their reporting. The emphasis of the articles is heavily on the use of latest technology and social media.
· The Next Web:
http://thenextweb.com/
The Next Web blog focuses on the international technology and business news. It is one of the world’s leading technology blog. It covers news all over the world in areas including the integration of technology and journalism.
According to DoubleClick, an Internet advertising services, The Next Web has a worldwide audience of 1.3 million unique users. More than 82% of its visitors are male, and 39% are between 25–34 years old. Around a third of TNW's users have a Bachelor's degree. Some 23% of its visitors come from households that earn between $75,000 and $99,999 per year. Audience interests are venture capital, distributed and parallel computing, development tools and project management software.
· All Things D
http://allthingsd.com/
All Things D, or called All Things Digital, is a online website specializing in technology news, startup company news, analysis and coverage. The content online is an expansion upon the All Things D conferences, but it also provides coverage on the new trends in all areas of journalism.
· Poynter Media Wire:
http://www.poynter.org/category/latest-news/mediawire/
Poynter Media Wire is founded by the Poynter Institution, which is a journalism school in Florida. It is a websites that mostly covers news in the media. A minority of articles will touch on the tips and insights of how to practice good journalism.
B. Market Survey
RJI Innovation Survey
Introduction:
We are working with Reynolds Journalism Institution and Missouri School of Journalism to develop a vodcast for the newsroom staff nationwide. The vodcast is designed to benefit you and your newsroom. We will bring you the latest information in journalism related innovation, and be the expert you can count on. The survey takes less than 10 minutes.
In order to ensure that the vodcast best meets your needs, we would appreciate some information from you about your needs in the newsroom in perspective of technology, ethics, management and others.
Your responses will not be published, and will remain anonymous as we share information with RJI.
Thank you for your time and feedback!
1. What kind of news organization are you in?
· Newspaper
· Radio
· TV
· Web
· Other, please specify ( )
2. What size is the media market are you in?
3. How many people work in your newsroom?
4. Which journalism industry-related information sources do you read/consult regularly?
5. What is missing from their reporting/information?
6. When and where are you most likely to consume these?
7. What devices are you most likely to use to access this information?
8. When it comes to innovating in your organization, in what areas could you use the most help?
9. Do you regularly watch online video? Why or why not?
10. How much would the following format elements appeal to you if used to deliver information about journalism innovation?
Very appealing (1) (2) somewhat (3) (4) not at all (5)
Hosted studio interviews
Video of presentations by experts
Produced video packages
Text articles
Email updates
Printed publication
11. What is your age?
· Below 25
· 26- 35
· 36-45
· 46-55
· Above 55
Thanks for taking our survey. If you would like to see the final report, please email Qing Tian at . We appreciate your time.
C. Research Analysis Report
RJI Innovation Vodcast Survey Summary
We send out the survey to Missouri Press Association, Missouri Mafia, Missouri Broadcast Associate, and a few other organizations. We got 49 responses in total, with 42 of them complete the survey.
After analyzing the data, we have the following conclusions:
· There are several websites that editors and producers often used for journalism innovation related information. The most popular one is the Poynter, but there is no single website dominates the market yet. For one thing, we find there is a need in the market, as no single competitor exists to occupy the whole market. For another, we need to consider those potential competitors that already developed for years. For instance: Poynter and Nieman Institute.
· People are divided about what is missing in nowadays journalism-related information, which means the demand is diverse. We can hardly find one simple topic for our show; rather we need to meet those needs through the series of the show.
· People are more like to consume the information during daytime at their office, so we should try to reach our target audience during that time. We need to find out the best way to deliver to their office directly, such as email updates, and send to them during their office hour.
· People prefer to receive this information through computer, so we should choose website and email as the main delivery platform.
· People are more interested in digital news innovation information in our results, but they are not dominated the responses. Changing cultures, HR management and Source generation also are popular response in our result. We should cover story that relate to those areas.
· According to the response, more people don’t watch online video regularly. The dominant reason is that they don’t have time, and they think those videos are not accurate, too long and have commercials. In this light, short video with more appealing headline maybe catch our audience.
· According to the results, people are more like to read printed publications and text stories. This may be the result of more print newsroom staff took the survey.
· Most of the people took the survey are from newspaper newsrooms, which is 62.2%.
· Most of them are from small market newsrooms.
· Most of them from newsrooms with less than 50 staffs.
· Most of them are 26-35 years old, but the distribution is quite even, as we have responses from every age range.
D. In depth Analysis Report
1. Which journalism industry-related information sources do you read/consult regularly?
Answered question: 38
Skipped question: 6
Top 10 most answered sources:
Poynter / 12
CNN / 7
Publishers' Auxiliary / 6
American Journalism Review / 6
Associated Press / 5
Missouri Press Association / 5
Editor Publisher / 4
JimRomenesko.com / 4
Twitter / 3
Reynolds Journalism Institute / 3
2. What is missing from their reporting/ information?
· The balance between story and facts: 2 responses
o A balance of facts and story - each medium has their own rules, facts based vs. story based. There's a balance there that needs to be obtained.
· Unbiasedness: 2 responses
o Journalists have their own personal agendas and should be unbiased.
o Unbiased opinions. Background on issues. Facts. Numbers that put information into context.
· Information for small papers, weeklies and publishers: 3 responses
o I look for layout ideas and information that pertains to small weeklies...if an information source doesn't have that then I move on.
o Probably information more related to community newspapers.
o Small publishers
· Issues in audio
· Journalism Education:
o More news about happenings in journalism education.
· Timeliness:
· Detail:
o I look for layout ideas and information that pertains to small weeklies...if an information source doesn't have that then I move on.
o Small publishers
· Business Strategies for digital news:
o Comprehensive business strategies for digital news
· Technology for weekly newspaper:
o Implementation of technology for weekly newspapers.
· Industry trends:
o Long-range look at industry trends
· In depth analysis:
o Many are short form stories so you don't get a lot of in depth information.
· Hands-on practical advice:
o More hands-on practical advice, especially for broadcast - many focus way too much on print
· Information about covering issues:
· Answers which cannot be categorized:
o Most are more about people/business moves, and not about who is doing interesting things. For that, I read other blogs that aren't classic j-relat
3. When and where are you likely to consume these?
· Office: 27 responses
o Home/work
o I like newsletters e-mailed to me if at all possible.
o At the office
o E-mail, social media
o Office and home
o Office
o Work
o At work online
o Home and at work
o Downtime during the work day from my work computer
o Email, at work
o At work, at odd times
o At work—on my computer At home—on my smartphone
o Work, during the day
· Home: 10 responses
o Breakfast table
o At home in the evening
o Evening at home.
· Daytime: 22 responses:
o Morning newspapers
o Most come straight to my inbox or through the office mail. I try to read a bit first thing in the morning before the day gets away from me.
o At my computer in my office during the work day
o Daytime Off internet or email
o During the work day
o Online during the day
o At work during business hours
o Generally during the day. And catch up at home at night.
o Daytime hours while at work
o At the university where I work during the day in my office
o Usually in the mornings and while I'm working. Occasionally, I'll read in the evening at home after work when I'm checking emails, or working online.