If you could start a news organization today, what would it be like?
Would it be like newspapers, an institution that is hundreds of years old? Would it be like local TV, which hasn’t been an outlet for serious news in decades? Would it be like cable news with its average viewers being 60+?
Or would it be something completely new, different — alien?
If the biggest story of all time broke right now, how would you cover it? Like a newspaper? Of course not.
You’d be aggressive. You’d post rapid-fire updates to your Web site and blogs. You’d begin mixing in multimedia journalism as the day went on.
You wouldn’t have print, TV and online reporters. You’d just have reporters, who could report in a myriad of formats. You’d have talented developers who could make compelling Web products and applications in a pinch.
You’d attack the story from every angle, in every format. You’d foster a conversation. You’d solicit user generated content, because it’s a story that touched everyone.
It would be journalism that finally mattered.
It would be unlike anything you have ever seen before. And it could only be done if you let go of everything you have ever held on to.
But why wait for the biggest story of all time to break to start making real journalism? The time is now.
It’s too late for incremental change. It’s too late to be cautious and timid.
The time has come to be bold.
The buzzards are flying overhead. Everyone says journalism is dying. So, why not go out with a fight?
Why not cover the stories that people care about in the formats that people care about? Why not ask our readers what they want covered, instead of assuming we know best? Why not go all out on the Web and throw our inhibitions to the wind?
McAdams says the time is now. It’s now or never, because if we don’t, someone else will:
Tear up your news hole. Destroy it.
Tear up your CMS templates. Install something else and link to the new thing.
Do it fast and furiously, as if your life depended on it. Because it does.
Alfred Hermida says this will require a fundamental shift in the mindset of journalists:
It is time to stop thinking about a journalism defined by the means of distribution. It is time to start thinking about a journalism defined by the journalism itself. In other words, how best to tell stories and reach audiences, using the most suitable tools across a multiplicity of platforms.
What have we got to lose?
