(Vickey Williams)

With continuing reports of newspapers losing sections, publication days and a few even closing their doors, we have to hope there is also an all-out push for finding new audiences and new revenue sources. As traditional media accelerates toward a future where success increasingly relies on our digital game, what should we pack along from the past?

First, count me among those journalists who hope watchdog reporting and objective newsgathering in general will continue to hold value. Romantic notions about democracy aside, a reputation for fairness and accuracy are key contributors to the larger profile marketers call brand. Google CEO Eric Schmidt threw traditional media a bone on this topic recently when he addressed a group of magazine executives touring his company's campus in Mountain View, Calif. (Magazines are hurting big time as well, with third quarter revenues down 8.8 percent and 12.9 percent fewer pages as compared with '07, the Publishers Information Bureau reported this week.)

The Internet is fast becoming a "cesspool," Schmidt said, where false information thrives. An AdAge report said Schmidt was making the point that consumers still need signals on content they can trust. "Brands are the solution, not the problem," Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool."

Might a good reputation in print or broadcast be worth even more on the Internet? Maybe. But as Mike Smith has pointed out here before in referencing the Readership Institute's brand research, it's more complicated than that. A trustworthy brand for products the audience finds irrelevant won't spell success. Indeed, even with declining confidence in media overall, Americans still give generally give high marks to their local newspaper for trustworthiness and professionalism. Unfortunately, that respect hasn't won over new generations of consumers.

So we'll need something more for the journey.

Investing in the creation of an environment that supports innovation seems a surer bet for a payoff. And as has been cited here often, research suggests that will be harder for people in traditional, risk-averse media companies than in other industries.

For years, people who've worked in media sadly exhibited their culture profile without much originality; predictably arguing first against the threat of digital delivery of the news (see oppositional style), and then settling into their fallback stance, cutting resources and waiting for a rescue (see conventional style).

We see exceptions of course, and remark on them here almost weekly. Kyle Geissler is a voice for change I've been following recently via his blog, Convergence Tangent. It caught my eye for his efforts to provide a forum for people charged with pushing cross-media ventures in small- to medium-sized markets.

Geissler is news flow editor - a title he said he created offhandedly two years ago as he pitched management on a plan to build bridges among the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette newspaper and its sister radio stations WJVL 99.9FM and WCLO 1230AM. All are owned by Bliss Communications. Today he facilitates the sharing of news across the three properties, on their traditional platforms and digitally.

Research on his graduate thesis convinced him smaller media companies are ripe for innovation, he said, citing the "it's easier to turn a small boat" analogy. Asked for outcomes of his efforts, he can point to richer storytelling through multimedia reporting (such as this on the impending closure of the Janesville GM auto plant), an improved web presence for all three news agencies and a few conversations with other regional media that were once considered competitors. But getting traction on a broader scale is tougher.

In the blog, Geissler has used more than 350 posts to explore issues from training to objectivity and to link to other thinking on approaching news in a digital age. He would like to connect with like-minded people who believe small market media have a lot to offer on the Internet. So far, it's been frustrating. "People don't see the need for it or don't have the time and money for it," he said.

"Our industry knows you have to stick to the core business to pay the bills, but at the same time we're also watching the money from the core business go away. You can sit in the corner with your old business model and wait for the end to come or you can hunt and scratch and try to find a new one." In fact, RI research has explored and offers guidance on what it will take to help newspapers, for example, to innovate.

Geissler is happy to be in a job with a mandate to keep up with trends in technology, push new thinking and allow people some slack after the occasional failed new venture.

"The need for a change agent seems to get worse as people have to do more with less," he said.

Like me, he hopes there are big numbers of people in organizations of his size who are pushing thinking around web opportunities. But we worry. There's no denying that keeping the trains running on time - that is, getting out the daily report - is more difficult. It would fit the profile if, in these times of stress, we fell back to what we know best. Nothing could be more dangerous.


By Vickey Williams (vickey-williams@northwestern.edu)
Vickey Williams is director of the Media Management Center's Digital Workforce Initiative.