Robb Montgomery

Let’s look a little closer into the new Gannett initiative — which I find very interesting. As the founder of Visual Editors I am obviously a fan and promoter of the concepts of interactive journalism and empowering the audience.
From what I have seen in my travels and talks with editors and publishers around the world is that it boils down to the basic truth — that it’s not enough to simply push out information that is unavailble anywhere else — a modern news group must facilitate a community and provide an invaluable experience that their users simply cannot find anywhere else.

And now Gannett says it is ready to do it for all their properties. This is big news because where Gannett goes, many others follow. e.g. did your newspaper flag turn blue or start producing bright colorful graphics after USAToday launched? Thought so.

We have a discussion thread already going on Visual Editors but I’ll cross post the critical info here.

Jennifer Carroll, Gannett’s VP for new media content says “We’ve learned that no one wants to read a 400-column-inch investigative feature online. But when you make them a part of the process they get incredibly engaged.”

Via the Crowdsourcing blog

The 7 Primary Job Areas

By May, the editorial side of each Gannett newspaper will be organized into the following seven primary job areas, which make up the Information Center:

Digital — selecting the best platform for news delivery;

Public Service — extending First Amendment coverage, in part by involving readers and asking for community input on investigative areas;

Community Conversation — expanding the concept of the editorial page; managing staff commentary, from editorials and blogs to columns; and encouraging community participation online;

Local — expanding local coverage and re-establishing sports, business and feature reporting into hyper-local areas;

Custom Content — connecting with identified target audiences and looking for efficiencies in repurposing content across all platforms;

Data — elevating the practice of managing and acquiring deep local information;

Multimedia — leading all visual presentation across every platform; photographers will be trained for any type of multimedia.

OK. So here’s my take on what is important to focus on here.

The databases are the gold mines fueling the business models in this scenario and how well they are structured, mined and managed will be one of the keys to rolling this plan out. I like how their thinking clearly values that reality and that they will invest in the interactive and participatory strategies.

Many journalists will want to talk first about how their jobs are changing, naturally. Well, that’s good but I like how the values are are focused on investing in community participation in a never-ending feedback loop.

That can lead to some remarkable results and good journalism. Look, what Gannett is really trying to do here is build a new model around their key assets - customer data - deep, local customer data. News, community and marketing data.

Managing structured data is the linchpin in executing a vision like this.

I know that sounds like gibberish to some but, mark my words, getting real smart about managing all of your companies databases will be the key to making this work.

What do you think?

Share on Facebook