Who’s coming (in logos!)
As a quick scan of our attendees list will show, BCNI draws a diverse crowd. Newspapers, startups and universities have all signed up to come.
For your logo-viewing pleasure, here are just some companies scheduled to attend:
Howard Weaver, Steven King talk about why they came to BCNI 2009
Attendee Jean Marie Evelly, of BCNI sponsor CUNY Graduate School, shot a couple videos
Howard Weaver, former Vice President for the McClatchy Company, talks about the importance of keeping up with the evolving nature of the industry.
Steven King, of the Washington Post Company, talks about innovative media at the BCNI in Philadelphia.
Attendee Interview #4: Colleen Newvine of the AP
Who are you and what do you do?
I am a former reporter and editor now working on the business side of the news. I worked in the newsrooms of�a variety of publications, including the Alpena News, the Insider Business Journal and the Ann Arbor News, before getting my MBA at the University of Michigan. I joined the Associated Press in 2006, and I now serve as head of market research. My job is to help the AP stay in touch with what our current and potential customers want and need from us.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
I am grateful to have been peer pressured into learning about social media and now I’m a�Facebook and Twitter addict.�But I know I still have a lot to learn about the available tools and about how to get the most value from them. I’m excited to hear from people who care about the future of news enough to give up a Saturday to talk about its future. Online tools give the media great opportunities to tell stories in different ways, to serve advertisers better than ever, to create a dialogue instead of a one-way stream, and I’m interested to hear the innovative ideas that come up.
If you decide to present, what would it be about?
I won’t presume to�be enough of an expert to present but I would love to be part of a conversation on how we make online news self supporting. I’m also really interested in how news organizations are using social media for marketing, not just as a reporting tool.�I worked as a clown when I was in high school, so I could also teach everyone how to make balloon animals.
Where can we find you online?
AP’s�Web site is www.ap.org. �You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cnewvine I only friend people on Facebook that I know in real life, so check me out there after we meet in Philly.
And finally, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___.
Hope. I heard someone explain once that when you’ve given up hope, there’s no motivation to try to save yourself.�Why would you pick up a bucket and start bailing�water out of�the Titanic when it’s clear it’s going down?�I think sometimes journalists fall prey to fascination with our industry’s challenges and we seem to take perverse satisfaction in writing our own obituary.
How about instead fixating on the incredible opportunity to use new tools to distribute news faster and cheaper, and on the public’s seemingly insatiable demand for news and information? Did you see the ComScore report that�the number of people who access news and information daily on the mobile Web more than doubled over the last year?
I’m not saying we ignore the significant challenges, but the news business has had to evolve to accommodate the arrival of radio, television, cable TV, the Internet and�mobile phones, and I think we need to consider this part of a continuing transformation. Like Winston Churchill said: �The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.�
Attendee Interview #3: Steven King of the Washington Post Web Ninjas
(From Left to Right) Steven King - Editor of Innovations, Dan Berko - Developer, Jesse Foltz - Interface Developer.
Who are you and what do you do?
Known as the Web Ninjas, our rapid development team strives to create and implement new technologies and innovations in a reusable and sustainable form. We have the freedom to try new things and are tasked with leading to the news room to new ways of telling stories. The collaborative effort among the team and with the newsroom is what makes our projects sucessful.
The Web Ninjas are all journalist and technologist combined. Our back end developer is Dan Berko, innovations developer, builds the databases, scripts and admin tools to run our projects. Jesse Foltz is our Interface developer and is responsible for the front end applications and the visual elements. As innovations editor, I work to integrate our projects with the rest of the organization and find editorial uses for emerging technology.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
We are always looking for new ways to present news and information and we enjoy sharing ideas with different people working on similar problems. We hope to find and contribute ideas during BCNI Philly!
If you decide to present, what would it be about?
We would be happy to present TimeSpace and how it was developed or we can give a inside look at our current project that will launch just before the Camp.
Where can we find you online?
Check out specials.washingtonpost.com/timespace/world/
My personal blog is cujosbyte.com
And finally, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___
The news industry must change with the evolving media around it. We must present quality journalism in visual and interactive forms from various sources through every medium possible. A news website must be as engaging and as interactive as a video game or major social network that users can�t break away from. We must drop the egos and forget about awards and prestige. �We must give more attention to what the user wants while continuing to give them what is necessary. We must inject our content into the media landscape the rest of the world lives in.
Attendee Interview #2: Brandon J. Mendelson
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Brandon J. Mendelson, and I am the College Community Organizer for the 1 in 8 Foundation.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
Because I am a blogger with the Albany Times Union and have about eight years or so of college media experience, so I thought I’d have something interesting to contribute to the discussion. More importantly though, I feel like I can learn so much more at BCNI Philly by listening to what the attendees have to say.
What do you plan on presenting?
Not sure yet. Probably something about using Twitter to save lives. We’re up to 47,000 followers right now and I’m only just now getting into a groove with our tour.
Where can we find you online?
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BJMendelson
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/brandonmendelson
Web: http://www.thebrandonshow.com
Final question, and its an impossible task. With one word, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___.
What the news industry really needs is to drop the bullshit.
Newspapers are better than this than TV stations because newspapers need to evolve. TV stations are still recycling the same old stories every year with the same old editorial calendar, and that model just can’t sustain itself.
Attendee Interview #1: Ryan Sholin
Who are you and what do you do?
Hi, I’m Ryan Sholin and I do a lot of things. By day, I’m the Director of Community Site Publishing at GateHouse Media, which means I train journalists at small town and rural newspapers across the country how to get ahead of the curve online.
I’m also one of the founders of Wired Journalists, a social network for journalists looking for answers (and questions) about online news skills, tools, and ideas. And I’ve been blogging for about four years now at ryansholin.com, and my side project for the last eight months or so has been ReportingOn.com, a Knight News Challenge project.
Why are you coming to BCNI Philly?
Well I’ve been excited about the BCNI meetups happening all over the country. I think it’s a great chance to get some small groups together and spend a day or two sharing what we’ve been learning about online news for the past few years. I’d love to see demos of what’s working at news sites, and I’m psyched to talk a little bit about some of the projects I’ve been working on.
Which, I suppose, leads me to the next question … are you going to present?
Everybody has to present, right? Yes, I’d love to talk about ReportingOn — by the time the Philly meetup happens, I should have something new pretty ready to show off. And if not that, then I’ll definitely try to share some of what I’ve learned about community management from Wired Journalists.
Well everyone does have to present, but we will have roughly 54 slots so if more than 54 come, that might not be the case.
Sounds good - I hope everyone gets a chance to share something.
Where can we find you online?
The easiest way to find me is on Twitter, @ryansholin, but you can find links to most everywhere I publish and share at ryansholin.com.
Final question, and its an impossible task. With one word, finish this sentence: What the news industry really needs is ___.
Only one word?
Haha, I’ll give you 5.
How about: hard work. Which is to say, you can come up with all the brilliant ideas for news and revenue that might work all day long, but nothing works until you put your head down and build something new.
