New "Marching Orders" For News Media in Seattle and The Nation

The Newsweek that arrived at my door this week is different.  The Newsweek of old is gone.  Newsweek’s table of contents  is now entitled a “New Week”.  Newsweek is working hard to get it.  The May 25th issue heralds the reinvention of the magazine.  Jon Meachum talked about the  “new’ Newsweek” online this past week:

“the first issue of a reinvented and rethought NEWSWEEK—represents our best effort to bring you original reporting, provocative (but not partisan) arguments and unique voices. We know you know what the news is. We are not pretending to be your guide through the chaos of the Information Age. If you are like us, you do not need, or want, a single such Sherpa. What we can offer you is the benefit of careful work discovering new facts and prompting unexpected thought.”

In tandem with these big changes at Newsweek, Anna Quindlen, the widely respected journalist, Pulitzer prize winning author, and Newsweek columnist wrote her last piece for the magazine. Ms. Quindlen recognized the need to step down and move on to allow new media talents to emerge.

“One of those changes is in technology, and because of it young people in the news business have been able to exact a kind of inadvertent revenge. They seized on an information-delivery system that their elders initially found puzzling or unpersuasive. They created online outlets from the ground up. Now that this is where the action is, they are quite properly part of the action, not because we made room for them, but because they invented room for themselves.

Throughout the country there seems to be an understanding that this is and ought to be a time of reinvention, in the economy, in education, in the office. But no one seems eager to reinvent on an individual level. Yet never has there been a time when fresh perspective and new ideas were more necessary. The linear path, the ladder, emphasizes stability, but too often at the expense of innovation and mobility.”

Ms Quindlen is going out on top with her last “Last Word” column.  I will miss her terrific insights, but as she said, look forward to seeing her work possibly elsewhere.

Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, wrote a piece on his blog entitled The Next Media Manifesto. in which he states:

“Paper isn’t dead: it’s on demand.

Collaboration rules.”

His list of suggestions for the development of a new media company is a list bloggers and traditional news media outlets should be required to read.  He covers everything needed for today’s media outlets to survive and be relevant.  But it’s today’s list of everything.  I’m sure he’d be one of the first to agree the media, like Ms. Quindlen states, the economy, education, and the office should continually evolve and stay relevant by reinventing themselves.

Here in Seattle, The Seattle Times is looking to reinvent itself with a pilot project for hyper-local news.  Recognizing the need to provide the news no longer covered regularly by The Seattle Times, it’s partnering with local blog, Kirkland Views. Rob Butcher of Kirkland Views does an excellent job with hyper-local reporting from Kirkland’s City Hall to community events.  The blog has filled a niche traditional media no longer meets in the Kirkland area.  The Times, recognizing the niche needed to be filled, is doing a smart thing by partnering with Kirkland Views.

The Seattle PI.com, as a web only news source, plans to cover local news more thoroughly with a combination of bloggers and web writers.  (full disclosure, I write posts for the SeattlePI.com real estate professionals blog)

Eli Sanders, from the Stranger, interviewed Michele Nicolosi, the executive director of the Seattle PI.com and she had this to say:

the new Newseek marching orders are very similar to the marching orders at SeattlePI.com. “I just think there’s not a lot of room in this universe for duplication of effort,” she said. However, she added that SeattlePI.com has staked out some beats that it intends to cover aggressively: health, education, real estate, transportation, Amazon, Microsoft, crime, courts, and local government.

When media outlets get the new dynamic of journalism, there’s more hope for the future of these media outlets, but it’s a very different future.  The reinvention of news media is the collaboration between different sources and formats, such as video and social networking.  But more importantly, it’s the collaboration  between journalists who are paid to write and the public who wants to contribute.

The traditional media outlets must reinvent themselves, find a new niche and allow their readers to participate with an active voice to survive.  Here’s wishing Newsweek, The Seattle Times, Kirkland Views, The Seattle PI.com, and Anna Quindlen  thrive in our “new world.”   Chris Brogan, keep sending those great ideas.

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