Archives: Expert Predictions

In the new media, the market will be so saturated with diverse points of view that the voice of a professional, open-minded, objective observer will have added value amid the cacophony.

The foreign correspondents and international “parachute journalists” who go from crisis to crisis for CBS and The Washington Post are less valuable in this new media marketplace. Unless they offer a framework and context that add value to the raw footage, more foreign bureaus will close as customers seek to get their news live and fresh from the locals on the scene, the wire services, and international specialists like CNN and the BBC.

A news organization will need something exclusive to offer if it is to occupy a distinct niche in the multichannel environment.

The value of the time-sensitive scoop is lost in the constant news marketplace, except in financial and some other specialty markets. Even though more and more news stations “burn their brand” into each video frame to mark their scoops, the news consumer rarely remembers who had a news item first as she surfs through scores of channels.

Time, which is now one of the journalist√ïs greatest foes, will lose its power to define the news story. If deadlines are fixed as they are now by arbitrary distribution deadlines, they can force a rush to judgment that erodes the trustworthiness of the news product. But if deadlines are constant, one can devote to an enterprise news story the time it really takes. A news organization that is determined to establish its “brand” in the multichannel marketplace will not rush stories to publication but will allot what Washington Post editor Bob Woodward calls more ‘time against the problem’ to improve the product.

The new technologies offer journalists not only the potential perils of competition and scrutiny but also the potential benefits of an expanded role: connecting citizens to information and to each other. To succeed, journalists cannot connect simply for the sake of connecting; they will have to deliver something of additional value to the customer.

Most journalism fails to differentiate itself clearly enough as a valuable product in the new media marketplace. It becomes increasingly clear that the formulas and approaches that characterize a large share of “serious” American journalism need an overhaul if the news is to survive as something different from propaganda or entertainment.

The journalistÕs challenge isnÕt the medium but the message. As consumers start experimenting in cyberspace, journalists need to address more urgently not the delivery format but the quality of their core product: reliable and useful information on which citizens can act.