Regarding the above image and the headline: Save your indignant, how-dare-a-school-for-newshounds-say-this emails for a second, please. Great reporting and writing are the principles of what we do. They combine to find big and unreported abuses, spark government officials to do so regularly, and deliver voice to the forgotten.
In generations of journalism, that hasn’t changed. But loads have. Last month at the Society for Features Journalism’s annual conference in Detroit, I, in conjunction with Poynter dealing with editor Barbara Allen, offered a talk approximately what you have to do to get your paintings the target audience it deserves. We have been additionally dressed up in ‘80s clothing. It all commenced with a preference not to help a small organization of dedicated reporters but have a few fun with a wild concept … like sporting ’80s costumes. Hence, the brick smartphone has become our metaphor.
Those have been tremendous (if you were rich sufficient to have one. We weren’t.) But cell phones now achieve this a whole lot more than simply make calls. And capabilities journalism now desires greater than just excellent reporting and writing on my own. Here are 4 of the factors we highlighted from our insurance of the transformation of local journalists and newsrooms for a virtual age.
One of the best shifts in journalism inside the beyond 5 years has been the transformation of the beat. Quartz coined the idea of “obsessions,” and a few neighborhood newsrooms have run with it. The shift moves coverage from buildings and establishments to people and phenomena. So the town hall beat turns into the taxpayer beat. Or the meals beat will become (as a minimum in Texas), the BBQ and tacos beats.
At The Dallas Morning News in 2016, this becomes an early strategy. In 2019, the newsroom experimented with climate insurance and discovered a loyal audience for climate stories that provided context and application. These weren’t just “here’s the climate” tales, but as an alternative requested questions, like, which Texas cities have the coolest summers and why it takes a lot longer for fall to reach?
Southern California News Group tried something comparable with its amusement insurance. How could it compete with the close by Los Angeles Times? By going hyperlocal on tales about “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” and via thinking about insurance as fans, now not reporters. That resulted in newsletters devoted to theme parks, casinos, and music festivals, all of which have open charges of 25% and better. (There also are fantastic and hooked-up tools for newsrooms that assist reporters in paying attention and rethinking how they paintings, including Hearken and GroundSource.) “We go to Disneyland and Coachella, too,” Vanessa Franko, SCNG’s virtual director of enjoyment, told Poynter in June, “so we can tell you what’s really worth waiting in line for and what you can pass.”-ininging