International Women’s Media Foundation

by Lindsey Wray
Badly-run news organizations will fail.

So says Merrill Brown, founder and principal of MMB Media LLC.

And, he says, stopping this demise is up to journalists. Journalists can help save media outlets by keeping an eye out for ways of using new technology to help their organizations navigate through the bumpy road they’re facing, he says. Brown is an Internet pioneer. He has served as senior vice president and editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com and was previously a media and communications consultant whose work included strategic development work at Time Inc., NBC and other media ventures. Brown now consults with clients on management and strategy, corporate, editorial and program development, business analysis and marketing services.

“It’s a scary transition,” but there’s a great deal of opportunity, says Janice Castro, senior director of graduate education and teaching excellence at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. “The only thing you have to be willing to do is learn on the fly.”

Castro, a professor in new media, photojournalism, magazine development and media management at Medill, also consults to news organizations on best practices in new media, product development and interactive strategies.

So how can already time-pressed journalists learn how to employ new technology? The most important thing to do is experiment, says Brown. Engage in and embrace new mediums; learn what they can do and how they can serve you and your readers or viewers. Even if new technology feels awkward at first, learning about it is critical to understanding how people communicate and increasingly live their lives electronically. For example, blogging and social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace offer networking and news gathering possibilities for journalists and media outlets who have taken time to become familiar with them.

New media have and will continue to cause cultural change within news organizations, says Brown. Working to encourage and manage new media, however, will help journalists broaden their careers with new opportunities while they help keep the media from failing.

Tips for Surviving and Thriving With New Media
1) Multi-task – Think across platforms; for instance, learn to take video while conducting an interview for a print article.

2) Think about products – Develop ideas for ways your newsroom can use new media. For example, could you add a blog to your Web site?

3) Don’t be afraid to mix sales and editorial – Editors and producers shouldn’t shy away from thinking about revenue opportunities, even if a new idea for a product involves other departments.

4) Embrace new technology – Boggled by blogs? Create one, and try it out. The important thing is to begin the process of experimentation and self-education so that these new technological tools become familiar and are less intimidating to incorporate into news gathering.

5) Market yourself – Let other people know what kinds of technology you’re experimenting with. Chances are they may want to join you and/or have other ideas for how the technology can serve your audience.

This article was based on a workshop conducted by Merrill Brown, founder and principal of MMB Media LLC, and Janice Castro, senior director of graduate education and teaching excellence and assistant professor, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, for the 2007 International Women’s Media Foundation U.S. Leadership Institute in Chicago. For more information on the next leadership institute, visit www.iwmf.org/programs/leadership.