Press' strength remains in its roots

This post first appeared in the April 2007 edition of Newspapers & Technology

There is something very healthy and encouraging about a 130-year-old trade organization spending most of its time and energy trying to reinvent itself. I couldn’t help but noticing that during the 129th annual Colorado Press Association meeting, which was held in late February.

“Our industry is changing dramatically because of shifts in technology, and this year’s convention reflects that. Many of the programs look at innovative ways our papers are keeping pace, and even setting the bar higher, on the ever-shifting playing field of information technology,” noted Randy Sunderland, CPA president and general manger of the Delta County Independent.

In the halls of the staid Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver, one could easily walk into a conversation between several old-line, ink-stained wretches debating whether or not convergence of print and videography is viable, and if the “mojos” (mobile journalists) trend is the wave of the future.

Carol Hudler, publisher of The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., and president of Gannett’s Sun Coast Group, outlined in a Friday presentation how her company dispatches high-tech news gathers with ThinkPads, digital audio recorders and video cameras (see Newspapers & Technology, January 2007).

Instead of being tethered to a desk in the newsroom (in fact, they don’t even have a desk), these mojos work from their vehicles, collecting information for both the paper as well as multiple microsites.

Sometimes, the stories are developed via “crowdsourcing,” where consumers are the creators. The writers also ask for expert help from readers. The News-Press also mines reader forums for print-story ideas and by doing so, builds stories faster using the help offered by users who participate in the gathering process.

Convergence, even in smaller papers, was another hot topic as papers like the Montrose Daily Press, the Fort Collins Coloradoan, and Steamboat (Springs) Pilot & Today demonstrated video efforts in each of their operations. Efforts ran the gamut of teaming up with local television stations — with print and video — to buying leased-access cable channels and thus creating their own programming.

That’s what Steamboat Pilot & Today did earlier this year when it purchased Colorado cable channels Steamboat TV 18 and Winter Park TV 18, beaming programming to audiences in these mountain resort communities.

Suzanne Schlicht, regional manager and director for new ventures at World West LLC, the paper’s parent company, said initial efforts were fairly basic, involving a $400 videocamera from Wal-Mart and a reappropriated bed sheet, but the important lesson managers learned was “to just get started.”

For now, the Steamboat Springs newspaper produces a daily Web update. But it hopes to begin producing a full traditional newscast for both the Web site and cable channel, providing news, sports and weather. The programming would join other content such as “Good Morning Steamboat” and “Downtown Steamboat.”

The cable channel already sports content from Resort Sports Network.

Similar presentations on new technology and new ideas dominated the rest of the meeting.

Back to roots

But the most compelling and pure moment of the celebration of newspapers and their craft hung, appropriately, on a story.

The moment presented itself Saturday, with a slide presentation by Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler and photographer Todd Heiser. The duo won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for “Final Salute,” a special report that covered Marine Maj. Steve Beck and his duties as a casualty notification officer.

From Sheeler’s words and story:

“They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door…

“After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.”

As always, it is the story that is important.

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