A diverse group of more than 200 journalists, entrepreneurs, techies, nonprofit organizers, artists, activists and others gathered last week at UW with the grand mission of re-imagining the news ecology of the Pacific Northwest. This Journalism That Matters “unconference” focused on journalism’s relationship with the community.

I was delighted and relieved that this was not a pity party about the good old days of journalism. The participants were open to change and were there to figure out the future, not to pine for the past. Sure, when you get dozens of laid-off people in a room, there are going to be some depressing chats about filing for unemployment, but overall, the mood was amazingly optimistic and upbeat. “The snark level is very low,” remarked one woman.

For me, the biggest benefit was meeting people who are involved in a variety of interesting startups and experiments. I learned about Xconomy, a news site that covers tech industries in three cities, and TheNewHive.com, an innovative social networking site set to launch by the summer. I learned about InvestigateWest’s business model and the need for a better online system to share content among community radio stations.

It wasn’t possible to be a part of all of the sessions and chats going on, but based on my observations, several themes emerged:

• Passion. “At this time of transformation, we all need to connect with our feelings and care, and put that caring into our work,” artist Chris Jordan told the audience during an opening night speech. “… It’s time to take the templates off and speak authentic human being to authentic human being.” This idea of showing passion in our work – and showing love for the communities we cover – came up repeatedly.
• Community. We quickly learned that generations define communities differently. For younger people, our communities are online, not necessarily based on geography.
• Collaboration. On Saturday, I tweeted that the word of the day was “collaboratory.” By Sunday, a group was working on plans for a JTMPNW collaboratory, a learning lab for entrepreneurial projects and nourishing connections, and tying the idea to the creation of a civic commons.
• Engagement. Journalists need to stop talking to their audience and instead engage in a conversation with them.
• Media literacy. In an information-packed world in which everyone is a journalist, the public needs better training about evaluating news sources and information for accuracy and credibility.
• Hyperlocal. Several discussions focused on the need for collaboration between hyperlocal neighborhood bloggers and mass media. On the final day, a large group worked on building a roadmap for mass media and hyperlocal journalists to work together and find financial sustainability.
• Government coverage. Many participants were concerned about the effect that cutbacks at traditional media outlets have had on state and local government coverage. But we also learned about new projects to solve this problem. One attendee, Trevor Griffey, is starting a nonprofit site called Olympia Newswire to cover this year’s legislative session and revitalize statehouse reporting.
• Business models. Creating new business models was, of course, a big part of the conversation. “It doesn’t have to be one model. It can be lots of small revenue streams,” I overheard someone say. Those revenue streams include memberships, foundations, grants, advertising, holding events, subscriptions and so on.

Although business models were always part of the discussion, I would have liked to see more concrete sessions about funding. For future conferences, I’d suggest bringing in more people from the business, advertising and tech startup sectors to provide expertise on new business models. Along those lines, I would have also liked to see presentations by journalistic startups that are succeeding and growing. Maybe you can’t create a new business model for journalism in four days, but you can create the germ of an idea and get the ball rolling.

During a period of group reflection, one of the organizers, Peggy Holman, shared her fear that once we have we have the business model figured out, innovation and experimentation will stop. I worry that she’s right. So we when we do figure out the business models (and there will be several), we must keep innovating. Complacency and resistance to change are part of what got the news business into this mess.

I’m excited to watch and participate in the projects that will come out of this “unconference.” Past JTM events have played a role in formulating innovative ideas, such as the Common Language Project, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization now based at UW. If there’s one thing we all learned, it’s that the opportunities for collaboration and experimentation are endless in our new news ecology.

For more info

JTM did a great job using social media and aggregating that information. You can read notes from the various sessions on the JTM wiki, catch up on the tweets, view photos and watch videos. If you’re interested in joining this conversation and attending future events, join the LinkedIn group.

Amy Rainey is an MCDM student, digital journalist and online storyteller. Visit her Web site or follow her on Twitter.

Image Credits: Photo courtesy of Harold Shinsato.

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In the excerpt below, Briggs lays out his case:

1. Journalism has a bright future

Experimental news operations are popping up all over the Web as this decade draws to a close. Some have become sustainable businesses in a very short time. Others are still searching for viability while finding new ways to cover issues and communities.

In short, the demand for journalism from its audience hasn’t diminished. But the models are starting to look very different.A more narrow focus is required. Think of it as “bottom-up” journalism instead of “top-down.” Technology, political and hyperlocal news sites have been the first to find success by starting small and concentrating on a very specific topic. This, of course, goes against the more general audience publications that ruled the day when printing and distribution monopolies ruled the day.

Unleashed from corporate-run organizations sweating out the quarterly profit margin, the journalists powering these new sites have infused them with a level of energy, commitment and passion that can only be found in a startup company. It’s easy to see how these sites will pave the way for the true digital transformation of mainstream news companies, by finding successful new methods to inform and connect a community online.

Or, in some cases, they will replace them.

2. That future is in your hands

Journalism needs you. It needs someone who can bring a fresh approach without the baggage that burdened earlier generations.

As the institutions that perform journalism struggled economically through the past decade, it became increasingly apparent that the people in charge did not have what it takes to oversee a digital transformation that would secure a viable future. Harsh words, I know. But their inability to put the readers first and use new technology to do better journalism – instead of copying the existing model and pasting it online – created a world where every newspaper Web site is immediately identifiable. Most are disjointed repositories of what a news organization has always produced, with some new twists thrown in for good measure, instead of rich, vibrant information sources their communities want and need.

That’s where you come in. Whether you end up working for a newspaper, magazine, TV station or Internet start-up, you will have the opportunity – make that responsibility – to do things differently. My first job in journalism (part-time sports clerk) was mostly answering phones and doing grunt work where no one asked me about my ideas. Your first job is likely to be much different.

In fact, I’d venture a guess that you won’t get a first job without your ideas, in addition to your skills and experience.

3. Journalism will be better than it was before 

Transformation and evolution are messy, emotional processes. When they produce advancement for society and business, they are seen as healthy and worthwhile, but not necessarily to those on the front lines.

After all, change is inevitable, but progress is optional.

The transformation to digital started 15 years ago for news companies and the Web. If you’re just getting started in journalism, you benefit by having missed the early mess.

The game isn’t over. It’s just getting started and, since tomorrow’s journalists inherently “get” the Internet because you grew up with it, you have the opportunity to shape the future of journalism online like no generation before.

(If you didn’t grow up with the Internet, don’t despair. I didn’t either. My first newspaper reporting job had me sending stories back to the office on a Radio Shack computer device dubbed the “Trash-80” using cups over the receiver at a pay phone. It only worked about half the time so there was a lot of dictation. Now, digital information and communication is like the air I breathe: I don’t even notice it’s there.)

Interactive, transparent, collaborative journalism works. Digital technologies, some that have yet to be invented, will aid you, but they can’t replace a thoughtful, skilled professional with an entrepreneurial spirit. You will be ready to try, and fail, and try again.

Summary

While journalism isn’t the only industry caught in the middle of a massive upheaval, I would argue it’s an industry that stands a great chance of making it to the other side and dramatically improving along the way.

So here’s the new deal: you probably won’t get to travel a well-marked, established career path like your parents did. But you will have a say in how the fourth estate evolves and how citizens are informed and engaged in the decades to come. And the chance to be part of something bigger and better than it’s ever been before.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. So let’s get started.

Excerpt reprinted with permission.

A Chicago native and graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, Amy Rainey is a digital journalist and MCDM student. She works for Serra Media as a community manager. For more on Amy’s work, visit www.amyrainey.com.

Read More on Flip the Media:

• Startup City: Mark Briggs, CEO of Serra Media
• Five Ways to Establish Credibility As a Blogger
• Category: Journalism

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Mark Briggs, CEO of Serra Media

When was Serra Media founded?

Officially in 2007, but the company didn’t start doing business until January 2009.

How and why did Serra Media get started?

It grew out of a side project while I was working at The (Tacoma) News Tribune. A friend of mine, who had started a couple tech companies in Seattle, and I came up with an interesting idea and decided to build a prototype. After showing it to several prospective companies and receiving positive feedback, we decided to launch the company to market the idea.

What does Serra Media do?

We power Web sites and provide mobile solutions to build community for hyperlocal news, information and shopping and help companies capture local advertising dollars shifting from traditional print publications.

What makes your company/product unique?

The combination of community-building applications that help advertisers as much as they help publishers. Most hyperlocal technology platforms are focused on either content and community or advertising and revenue. We focus on both.

How do you (or how do you hope to) make money?

We charge a monthly fee to publishers for using our platforms. We also share ad revenue with the publishers, although they get the majority of those dollars. And we also do some custom services for publishers on occasion, if someone needs something specific that we think we’ll be able to fold in to our other products.

What’s been the biggest challenge for Serra Media?

Convincing traditional publishers to see into the future with us and have faith that they can build truly interactive, hyperlocal communities. We love working with independent startups, but from a business perspective, our immediate success will come from media companies that can sign contracts with dozens of customer deployments.

What is Serra Media focusing on for the future? Where do you think the company will be in five years? 10 years?

I can tell you where our business plan says we’ll be in five years (profitable, growing) but I don’t think anyone knows where digital media, local news and consumer Internet technology will be in 10 years. I know that we are in the right place at the right time, but I don’t know exactly what we’ll be when we’re all grown up. It’s a lot like raising kids; you do what you can to help today even though you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

What do you predict will be the next big thing in digital media?

I’m sure it will have to do with mobile technology in some way. I’m a big believer in location-based services, which are really just taking off.

What’s your favorite gadget or application right now?

Related to the previous point: I love to play Foursquare on my iPhone. I only have a few friends doing it, too, but it’s still interesting and fun.

How has Seattle’s startup culture affected your company?

It’s been amazing. I don’t know how we could have started anywhere else. There is so much support and such a thriving community here. It really makes a big difference when starting up – especially when you’re a first-time entrepreneur like me.

What’s your advice for wannabe entrepreneurs?

Move to a similar community (Portland, San Francisco, Austin, Boston, etc.). Then “just do it,” which is what Om Malik told the audience at a recent ONA conference panel I moderated called “From Journalist to Entrepreneur.” Even as a side project like we did, while you’re working full-time to pay the rent, you have to get moving and build something and learn everything you can from the process.

Mark Briggs blogs at Serra Blog and Journalism 2.0. Follow him on Twitter @markbriggs.

A Chicago native and graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, Amy Rainey is a digital journalist and MCDM student. She works for Serra Media as a community manager and is interning at Seattle’s NPR station, KUOW Public Radio. For more on Amy’s work, visit www.amyrainey.com.

Want to suggest a company for Flip the Media’s Startup City series? Email flipmcdm@uw.edu.

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You can watch the video here.

In its heyday, the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel served as a civic hub, where thought leaders convened to exchange ideas about the arts, culture and politics, and the community gathered for music performances and poetry readings. As part of ongoing programming to celebrate its centennial, the Sorrento is collaborating with Reynolds to hold a series of monthly Fireside Chats.

The public is welcome to attend the free chats, which will be taped and then excerpted for broadcast on KUOW the next day. The event will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, Aug. 17 in the Sorrento’s Fireside Room, 900 Madison St. Reserve free tickets by e-mailing fireside@hotelsorrento.com.

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