“Future” Items

Design 2000 Seminar at API: Presenter and Attendee

I was a presenter and an attendee at the American Press Institute’s Design 2000 and Beyond seminar.

Twenty-two leading U.S. and Canadian newspaper designers/editors were invited to API to discuss “newspapers at the turn of the century, from a design standpoint. What would newspapers look like and how would they evolve?”

Here’s a slide show of the book that produced from the seminar: https://www.digitalfuturist.com/memo-collection/design-2000-an-american-press-institute-project/design-2000-a-view-of-the-future-from-1988/

 

 

Editor's Note page from Journalism & Mass Communication Educator citing Poynter research on core journalism skills

Reasons for Optimism in Journalism, Education

This is an Editor’s Note from Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, written by Maria B. Marron, who was announcing her move to become dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Most of the piece is about teams — how departments, schools and journals all depend on people working together rather than on a single star player. Then it turns to optimism, and that is where my work shows up.

Marron cited two sources for her optimism about the future of journalism and journalism education. The first was Marty Baron, then editor of The Washington Post, from his keynote at the fifteenth International Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas–Austin:

There is no acceptable alternative to optimism.

The second was my writing about The Core Skills for the Future of Journalism report, which Poynter released on April 9, 2014. The report was research I did with my co-author, Lauren Klinger. Marron quoted my summary of what we found:

shows a wide divergence between professionals and educators in their thinking on the importance of core journalism skills, especially those skills that are essential for mastering new methods of gathering and delivering news and information.

The survey behind the report identified thirty-seven skills, attributes and knowledge areas judged important “for a beginning journalist as he/she looks toward his/her career in the digital/mobile age.” The widest gaps were in multimedia. Marron laid out the numbers: 76 percent of educators versus 46 percent of professionals rated “shoot and edit video” as important; 80 percent versus 52 percent on the “ability to tell stories with design and visuals”; 79 percent versus 53 percent on shooting and editing photographs; and 72 percent versus 38 percent on recording and editing audio. Coding was the outlier in a different direction — students rated the ability to work with HTML or another computer language highly, while only 41 percent of educators and 28 percent of professionals and managers did.

What interests me is how she read those gaps. Lauren and I had framed the divergence as a problem for the industry. Marron read the same data as evidence that educators were ahead of the professionals:

educators are serving as leaders for the industry, not as followers.

That is a more generous interpretation than the one we offered, and it is a fair one. The Core Skills research grew out of years of thinking about training at Poynter’s News University, where the question was always the same: what does a journalist actually need to know, and who is responsible for teaching it? The 2014 answer was that educators, students and freelancers largely agreed with each other, and newsroom professionals were somewhere else entirely.

Reading this in 2026, the specific skills have shifted — the argument now is about AI tools rather than shooting video — but the underlying gap between what the academy teaches and what newsrooms say they value has not gone away. Neither, I hope, has the optimism.

History of Newspaper Design and Year 2000 Visions

As part of the 1989 Associated Press Managing Editors convention Des Moines, I developed a script for a slideshow about the history of newspaper design and the vision developed from the American Press Institute’s seminar on the future of newspaper design.  That seminar, “Newspaper Design 2000 and Beyond,” was help in 1988.

The goal of the APME slide show was “look back so that we might look forward.”  [The  slide show was videotaped.]  Douglas Ramsey, who was a vice president at the Foundation for American Communications, did the narration. The AP put the show together.  Nancy Tobin, who was at The Asbury Park Press, helped with the creation of the show.

I found a VCR tape of the show, which is visually terrible.  However, I’ve posted it.  One of my goals is to take the narration, which was quite nice, and recreate the show in digital format.  Stay tuned. [Update in 2021: Still the plan. Life happens.]

YouTube player

Year 2000 Viewed by 1988 Committee

Robert [Bob] Cochnar, whom I worked with at the San Francisco Chronicle, invited me to join his Associated Press Managing Editors committee about the future of newspapers.  Called the Year 2000 Committee, one of the goals of the group was to create a report for the 1989 APME convention in Des Moines.  Here’s some of what Bob wrote in a note to committee members:

To borrow an idea from Phil Meyer, who pioneered the notion that research could also be a reporter’s and editor’s tool, I’d like to divide our work into several broad segments.

I.    Things We Know For Sure About Newspapers in the Year 2000 and Beyond.
II.   Things We Think We Know About Newspapers in the Year 2000 and Beyond.
III.  Things We Need to Know About Newspapers in the Year 2000 and Beyond.
IV.   A Summing Up: What We’ve Got to Do.

Somewhere, in some file is the report.  Meanwhile, in this PDF, is some of the correspondence from committee members.

[Bob didn't put a date on his letter, so I'm guessing it was in fall of 1988.]

 

Brainstorming an Electronic Future for Newspapers, 1989

In late 1988, Jerry Ceppos, managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News, invited a number of folks to help design an ‘electronic’ newspaper designed to serve readers with “increasing access to computers and other modern technology.”  I was especially pleased by the invite, as I had abruptly departed the paper in 1985 after working there for only six months as graphics editor. [Ceppos was the managing editor.] The agenda and other material can be found here.

Here’s what Ceppos wrote about the gathering:

The only requirement is that our ideas be adaptable for newspapers today. Other than that, there is no limit to the ideas we can come up with; they can involve personal computers, videotex, fax, print, other technology, or a combination. And the content of the products is as important as the technology.

We met at the Mercury News for a day and brainstormed ideas about the future of news and newspapers.  It was an interesting mix of newspaper folks, academics and technology folks:

SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS
Dr. Yale Braunstein, professor, University of California at Berkeley
Jennie Buckner, Managing Editor-PM, San Jose Mercury News
Karen Ceppos, professor, San Jose State University
Jerry Ceppos, managing editor, San Jose Mercury News
Robert J. Cochnar, vice president and editor, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail
Sue Cook, president, Palo Alto Consulting Centers, The Tom Peters Group
Jerry Dianond, general partner, EG&G Venture Managenent
Joe Donth, president, Startext, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Roger Fidler, director/PressLink and newsroon technology, Knight-Ridder Inc.
Dr. Virginia Fielder, vice president/news & circulation research, Knight-Ridder Inc.
Howard I. Finberg, assistant managing editor, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
Ray Gniewek, managing editor/page one, USA Today
David Halvorsen, editor and vice president, Alameda Newspapers
Frank N. Hawkins Jr., vice president/corporate relations and planning, Knight-Ridder Inc.
James Houck, managing editor, Baltimore Sun
Bob Hucker, computer systems editor, San Jose l’v\ercury News
Ann Hurst, assistant managing editor/features, San Jose Nlercury News
Robert D. Ingle, senior v.p. and executive editor, San Jose Mercury News
Steve Landers, consultant
W. Terry Maguire, senior vice president, American Newspaper Publishers Assn.
Ron Martin, executive editor, USA Today
Scott McGehee, general manager, Lexington Herald-Leader
Kris McGrath, president, rvt:R.I Research
John McManus, professor, Santa Clara University
George Owen, marketing services director, San Jose Mercury News
Bob Ryan, assistant managing editor, San Jose Mercury News
Geoff Sharp, director/business information, Dialog Information Services
Dr. Roger Summit, president & CEO, Dialog Information Services
Mark Wigginton, assistant managing editor/graphics, San Jose Mercury News
Kathy Yates, senior vice president and general manager, San Jose Mercury News
David Yarnold, AM executive news editor, San Jose Mercury News

My notes from the meeting quoted Ron Martin asking the question “how do we stay alive?”  Ceppos talked about “time poverty”  and falling readership.  Even before the 1990s, we knew the industry needed to change.

Newspaper Training Days: It’s About the Learning

Shortly after the launch of Poynter’s e-learning platform, News University, I was interviewed by the Newspaper Association of America’s monthly magazine, Presstime.  The author, Teddi Dineley Johnson, used the 2002 Knight Foundation survey about training, as a way to explore how various organizations are dealing with training issues.

In an industry that prides itself on breaking the big story, newspaper executives were caught by surprise three years ago when a landmark study found that lack of training was the No. 1 source of job dissatisfaction–ahead of salary and benefits–among U.S. journalists.

Data from this survey actually helped me figure out the direction of NewsU and its conclusions were supported by Poynter’s own research on the topic.

Here’s what I had to say about training:

“It’s all about getting smarter,” Finberg says. “It’s not about a grade, not about an application, not about a certificate. It’s about learning and, ideally, the kind of learning that’s important to your job.”

Some interesting historical notes:

* There were lots of references to the American Press Institute’s training programs.  API has evolved into more of a ‘think tank’ and no longer does traditional seminars.

* NewsU stats: 4,500 users; as of early 2014 there are more than 280,000 users.

* NAA’s online training efforts at naauniversity.org is gone.

Such is the evolving nature of training for the newspaper industry.

Editors Told Big Changes Needed. Did They Listen?

Even though it was 2007, I was still making speeches to editors [and publishers] about the need to embrace change and transform the newspaper business.  One such plea for change was made at a Texas Associated Press Managing Editors convention in San Antonio. A fellow trouble-maker at the event was Michael P. Smith, executive director of the Media Management Center at Northwestern.

I said that not even popular online sites can rest easy and the challenge is young people who aren’t newspaper readers.  And I talked about “control”  of content and media.

From a story published in the San Antonio Express-News:

And editors can’t forget they’re dealing with an audience that’s “digitally equipped,” as more people own devices that give them control of a medium such as digital video recorders like TiVo.

These digital devices give control.

“No one wants to give up something that gives them control, Finberg said.  Young people, especially, “want to take somebody else’s content and add to it.”

 

 

Helping the Newspaper Industry See into the Future

Randy Bennett, a friend and industry colleague for more than 20 years, ran an interesting project at the Newspaper Association of America during his time as a vice president.  Randy created the Horizon Watching initiative, with the hopes of being a ‘early warning’ system for newspaper executives.

Task-force participants, including newspaper executives and NAA associate members, set out to help publishers understand the external strategic forces that will shape the future of their industry.

I was delighted to serve on the committee. It was an interesting group to work with and I loved looking at the future.  I’m not sure the group got a chance to make the impact that I hoped would be possible. Presstime, the NAA publication, wrote about the project about a year after it started.

Changing indicators mean different things in different markets. “There is no right answer,” said Howard Finberg, director of technology and information strategies at Central Newspapers Inc. in Phoenix. The important point, from the task-force perspective, is to grapple with the indicators and create a process for dealing with their business consequences.

I did argue this point as well, often in various meetings:

“We’re trying to challenge the industry to think differently,” Finberg explained, adding, “We have no right to survive.”

The Digital Future: The Next Technological Steps

At the request of John Oppedahl, my boss at Phoenix Newspapers, I wrote a very long memo about technology and the company’s newspapers, The Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette.  The memo was 25 pages.

Technology influences the newspaper in many different ways: From offset presses controlled by computers to database programs that help circulation, independent components become part of an interdependent system.

This connection is the strongest between the newsrooms and production. We are linked, tied electronically by common systems, common needs and common problems. In the same way siblings share bloodlines, editorial and production share an electronic network of bits, bytes and data.

I wanted to outline what technologies the company needed to invest in.  I wrote about pagination, text editing systems, color systems, advertising needs and more.  I framed the report on the idea of a new newsroom.

More important than relationships between computer systems and more interesting than the technological feat of pagination is the way the newsrooms are organized to produce the newspaper. Using new technology to produce a newspaper in the same method utilized 20 years ago or 5 years ago is a tremendous waste of money, manpower and creativity.

The top of the memo has lovely saying: “Man plans, God laughs” -Old Yiddish saying

The complete memo can be read in this PDF.

Scenarios at The Arizona Republic

In 1999 the management of Phoenix Newspapers, publishers of The Arizona Republic and AZ Central, embarked on an ambitious project to take the company into the next decade.  Part of that process involved writing scenarios about “possible futures”.  We had five objectives as we looked toward the next five to seven years:

  1. As technology and the Internet continue to evolve, how will reader and advertiser needs and behaviors change? How fast will it all happen?
  2. Use scenario planning to enhance our strategic conversation
  3. Involve the organization at all levels.
  4. Craft a point of view about our future.
  5. Develop a more agile Year 2000 operating plan, and budget and craft a three-year  strategic plan.

I wrote much of the “Zero Time” scenario:

Zero Time asks us to throw out the notion of a continuous, predictable future. It represents our most challenging scenario. How rapid and radical is change in this Future? In just the five years between 2000 and 2005, the U.S. economy has morphed from a mass industrial economy to the new economy, an Internet and information economy. Computing is ubiquitous and touches every aspect or almost every person’s life–much like a telephone or television did in 2000. Communication is seamless and superfast broadband connections to the Internet have become standard. Customers get the information they need, exactly when they need it, and can do most transactions without the aid of intermediaries such as auto dealers, real estate agents and travel agents or newspapers. Audiences are increasingly fragmented, and mass is no longer the dominant model in any advertising medium.

Maybe not quite right for 2005.  Certainly on target for 2013. Read about Zero Time in the PDF.

Chicago Tribune — 5 Years Hence [1980 as the Future]

I don’t remember who asked for this memo about the future or why we were looking at “five years hence” (1980).  This is probably one of my earliest “future look” memos.

At the time this was written, the Tribune was publishing both morning and afternoon editions.  Lots of them, as we had just merged the staffs of the afternoon newspaper {Chicago Today} and the morning Tribune. It was a grueling publishing schedule that was truly a 24-hour publishing cycle.

I still like this thought about giving readers more about what a story means.

We need to stop thinking “freshest is best”; a need to end the traditional cycle of publishing edition after edition, sometimes barely enough time to consider what the news means. The Tribune could reduce it cycle to two editions (major remakes) with replate options.  Continue to provide a morning and afternoon edition; new equipment will allow a savings in time – use the savings to give editors and reporters time to include the “what it means” in their story.

Here’s the full memo, a carbon copy from the “copy book” it was written on.

Young Readers and the Future of the Chicago Tribune

In late 1973 and early 1974 I was part of a committee at the Chicago Tribune.  The committee members were all under 30 and most of us recent hires by the newspaper.  Our task was to explore what the paper should do to attract more younger readers.  This task was less about getting young adults to read newspapers but to read the Tribune instead of the Chicago Sun-Times.  Members of the committee: Ovie Carter, Gary Deeb, Howard Finberg, Clarence Page, Don Pierson, Bill Plunkett, Karen Schickedanz, Rick Soll and Linda Winer.  Here’s what we wrote in our summary:

Simply stated, the Chicago Tribune takes itself too seriously. This is not to diminish its role as one of the nation’s best newspapers. Rather, it is a suggestion that the time has come for the Chicago Tribune to slaughter, once and for all, many of its sacred cows.

Further on, we concluded:

What we are recommending, in a general way, is a relaxation of the restraint that prohibits surprise and thought-provoking material from appearing in the Tribune.   It is not a recommendation to relax or reduce in any  way the standards of journalism: Strict reverence for the facts, a sense of fairness, and an attention to thoro reporting.

Please note the unique spelling of thorough, as the Tribune was still gripped by a style book that used simplified spelling, a cause of the previous owner/publisher:  Col. Robert McCormick.

The  is available as a PDF file: chi trib_young readers group_02_1974