How does Journalism Stay Relevant?

From Eddie at the IBR:

“A few weeks ago, Tac Anderson posed this question for us on his blog:

My question for the Idaho Business Review is what’s next?? John Foster has made some great changes in the right direction, but I think that they need to strike while the iron’s hot. One blog is a great *start* but is not even the tip of the iceburg (sic).

I’ve struggled with this for a few weeks, but I’ve been unable to come up with a concise, thoughtful solution. Instead, in the spirit of Web 2.0, I’d like to turn the question over to our readers. How do you use the Web site? What features would you like to see us add? How should we keep the conversation going?”

My response in the comments:

“There’s a lot of buzz in journalism right now about how does the industry stay relevant. I think an industry wide shift needs to happen and reporters need to stop worrying about ‘reporting’ and be more concerned with ‘aggregating’ and delivering stories.

The key is personalization. You nor anyone at the IBR has any idea what I (or anyone) will be interested in as a reader. Provide relevant content (no matter what the source)and provide a way for me to select what news I want aggregated to me and how I would like it delivered.”

Garry Goldhammer had this to say on the Social Media Today blog:

“You don’t work for a newspaper; you work in the news business, using any tools at your disposal necessary to do your job. A print reporter may shoot video if that helps tell the story. A TV journalist can write a blog or a radio journalist can post photos to illustrate a story on his podcast.

I witnessed this struggle first hand during a recent new media workshop for travel writers. These were print people worried about what cameras to buy, how long a podcast should be and whether they could manage this new approach to storytelling. All they knew for sure was there was no choice but to learn and evolve.

This is not threatening but rather freeing without conventional constraints, reporters can be more engaging and thorough. It also secures a place for print as a needed piece of the multimedia pie, instead of becoming a faded, stubborn relic screaming for dominance in a media world gone forever flat.”

So what do they do?  There is no *right* answer.  I think the answer lies in my last post.