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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 Disruption is a good thing for editors By LAURA SELLERS The Daily Astorian D igital. Diversity. Disruption. These three words could apply to- day to, I imagine, every enterprise out there. The 3Ds mean dif- ferent things to differ- ent industries. Together they generally mean one thing: CHANGE. In newspaper and broadcast media news- rooms around North America, the 3Ds were explored at the Associ- ated Press Media Editors Laura and American Society of Sellers News Editors conference in October on the Stan- ford University campus in Palo Alto, Califor- nia. More than 350 newsroom leaders met for three days to share journalism, innovation, ideas and battle scars. These are editors from our nation’s largest publications to the small- est, which I daresay, just might be The Daily Astorian and EO Media Group. It was our largest gathering in years. What did we learn, besides celebrating our successes, dissecting our misses and getting a boost of renewed energy for the cause of quality journalism? Here are some takeaways that likely relate to your business, too. Laura Sellers/The Daily Astorian Editors listen to a presentation by American Press Institute’s Tom Rosenstiel about “What’s New? What’s Next?” at the Associated Press Media Editors and American Society of News Editors conference at Stanford University. A mong the discussions: • Millennials are our pathfinders: Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Insti- tute says millennials, or people being born or reaching young adulthood around the year 2000, are not just our next audience or cus- tomer base – they are a path to all users or customers by leading their parents and fam- ily members. Look at the rise of Facebook, Twitter, texting, mobile and streaming in sharing news. “I believe there are still new audiences to be conquered,” said Alfredo Carabajal, man- aging editor at Al Dia at The Dallas Morning News. “We continue to define audience as the people that at some point chose to give us money to get a print paper, and we struggle with that idea to go beyond that. Now, every- body who has a smart phone is potentially your audience.” • You can transform your data and analyt- ics: Rosenstiel points to a study that aimed to boil down the many statistics we can get from digital — page views, visitors, time on site — with what that meant for the value readers found online. The study found: Ma- jor enterprise stories earn nearly 50 percent more engagement. Long-form stories drive 23 percent more engagement. Adding a pho- to gains a 19 percent boost. Adding audio and video gets a 36 percent. • Improve coverage of your magnet fran- chises: He suggests a news organization finds its niche and blow it out of the water rather than being thinner in many areas. This plays out for The Daily Astorian in our re- duced national/international coverage and a focus on what impacts the Columbia-Pacific region. Rosenstiel says we need to get away from the “general store” mentality. Another panel- ist, Mizell Stewart, said: “We need to be able to do a select number of things extraordinari- ly well. It’s not good enough to be all things to all people anymore. Editors have to be far more focused on identifying what’s working and doing more of that and being willing to make the hard decision to do less on areas that are not working.” Pew Internet Research into the gap between scientists and public opinion. Learn more online at http://pewrsr.ch/1O4MJ1w Too often, people rely on personal experiences, political affi liation, or demographics to formulate opinions about science. ONLINE W e also examined the gaps between sci- entists and the public in a session ti- tled The War on Science: What Journalists Need to Know. Too often, people rely on personal expe- riences, political affiliation, or demograph- ics to formulate opinions about science, said Lee Rainie, director of Internet, science, and technology at Pew Research Center. A survey Pew conducted last summer contained startling results comparing what scientists believe and what the public be- lieves. For instance: Thirty-seven percent of U.S. adults believe it’s safe to eat genetical- ly modified food, compared to 88 percent of scientists; On climate change, 50 percent of the gen- eral population think it is due to human ac- tivity, compared to 87 percent of scientists; Just to be contentious: 65 percent of the general public believe humans evolved over time; and the scientists, 98 percent; Pew Internet research: http://pewrsr.ch/1O4MJ1w Seelig’s Insight Out video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWKDu8Irtb0 APME/ASNE conference coverage: http://bit.ly/1LbNOQD Carl Earl/The Daily Astorian A few of the APME regents at their annual dinner in Palo Alto, Calif. From left, Andrew Oppmann of Middle Tennessee State University, Suki Dardarian of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Annette McGruder, Laura Sellers and Karen Magnuson of the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle. W e all need to occasionally recharge our businesses and lives. Through the APME experience over the last 20 years, I have watched newsrooms trans- form through editors around the nation. Some of those changes were cataclysmic and some were just a part of rolling with the punches. In the past year, I’ve watch Gatehouse Media buy the family-owned Columbus Dis- patch, while its longtime managing editor became the editor and struggled with budget cuts. Bill Church, the executive editor of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald Tribune and formerly of the Salem Statesman-Journal, has re-imag- ined his newsroom to tackle huge enterprise projects on a tight budget. I’ve watched as Karen Magnuson and her Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle leads the way in diversity through action and community discussion. The chance to celebrate and commiserate with peers and be inspired by new ways of framing the issues and solutions is a good way to be ready for the next disruption, which is likely just round the corner. Laura Sellers is the managing editor of The Daily Astorian and the president of the Associated Press Media Editors. Open forum Thanks for the help H ow many Masons does it take to screw in a light bulb? I am an 86-year-old widow of a Master Mason, and while I was at the Masonic Lodge I happened to mention that I have about ¿ ve burnt out light bulbs in my house, and that my son lives in Portland. One of the men overheard and immediately volunteered to replace the bulbs. He not only came to my house, but also stopped at the store and bought the bulbs on the way. This action is not uncom- mon for these men, but I sel- dom see a public thank you in print, so here it is. Thank you very much, Masons. SALLY SMITH Gearhart The dilemma I n reference to the article, “The homelessness dilem- ma” (The Daily Astorian, Oct. 23), I suggest that our com- munity’s bigger problem is, in fact, the 95 percent of home- less people “... who usually are just ¿ ne (behaviorally),” and not the 5 percent who insist on disrupting the tranquility of our lives. For those of us who have a home, with a bathroom just down the hall, with closets and drawers in which to safe- ly store our belongings, with a kitchen where we have a stove on which to cook the food we have in abundance and can save in the fridge, and a bed- room where, in its warmth, we can sleep through the night without fear of the elements, human and otherwise — for us, the real dilemma is how best to continue to ignore the realities of those 95 percenters. JULIE SNYDER Astoria STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Founded in 1873