Why Newspapers Can’t Be Saved, but the News Can

Eric Etheridge on NYTimes.com: Is the apparent demise of the print media a “revolution”?

Sensors, Smart Content, and the Future of News – ReadWriteWeb

Nick Bilton from The New York Times R&D Labs discussed how NYT is preparing for the future of news delivery at ETech.

State of the News Media report 2009

The annual State of the News Media report found that most media continued to see audiences shrink and only two platforms clearly grew: the Internet, where “the gains seemed more structural,” and cable, where they were “more event-specific.” For all other forms of media, the outlook is bleak.

A bold experiment: Seattle takes first major metro paper online

Hearst is shutting the Seattle Post-Intelligencer down as a printed newspaper, with its last edition Tuesday, and becoming the first major media company to convert a metropolitan daily newspaper into an online only edition. Larry Kramer points out the upside of the Seattle paper’s end on The Daily Beast: “If Hearst is right, they will [...]

Harvard launches Media Cloud news tracking site

The Berkman Center has launched a cool new tool called Media Cloud designed to help track how news stories spread through mainstream media and blogs.

Old growth media and the future of news

In a speech at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Steven Johnson says that “steady transformation from desert to jungle may be the single most important trend we should be looking at when we talk about the future of news.”

Many See Privacy on Web as Big Issue, Survey Says

Many See Privacy on Web as Big Issue, Survey Says.

Coming up: Webinars on social media strategy

Knight Digital Media Center and News University team up to provide training for news executives

As more and more people flock to social networks, it is critical that news organizations get their content into social spaces and make their own sites more social. I am pleased to announce that Knight Digital Media Center will offer a series of three Webinars this spring to help news organizations understand the power and potential of social networks and to develop smart strategies for tapping into social networks to gather news and engage users in their news and information.

The Webinars will be offered via Poynter’s News University and will feature social media experts Paul Gillin and JD Lasica. They are scheduled for 2 p.m. EST April 14, May 12, and June 16. Cost is $24.95 per Webinar and you can register via the links in the schedule.

The Webinars . Here’s the schedule:
* Social Networks: The New Architecture of the Web, April 14, with Paul Gillin. Examine the secrets of social networking and explore ideas for how to adopt them as a foundation for reader communities. Learn more and register.
* Social Networks: Engaging Users With News, May 12, with JD Lasica. How news organizations are using—and should use—social media tools to engage users and present content. Learn more and register.
* Social Networks: New Revenue for News Organizations, June 16, with Paul Gillin. Effective use of social networking tools helps news organizations build loyal, engaged user communities and opens up new revenue opportunities for newsrooms. Learn more and register.

KDMC also has selected eleven news organizations whose top editors will receive more intensive training and coaching in its annual leadership conference, “Transforming News Organizations for the Digital Now.”

They are: the Bristol (VA) News, The Riverside (CA) Press Enterprise, The Charlotte Observer, The Wilmington (DE) News Journal, the Waco (TX) Tribune-Herald, the Victoria (TX) Advocate,
the Springfield (MO) News-Leader, the Modesto (CA) Bee, The Sacramento (CA) Bee, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Voice of San Diego.

Participants from each organization will develop a project during the course, which will be primarily online at NewsU from mid-April until a conference at the Annenberg School of Communication at USC in mid-July. KDMC will share content of the course and project updates on this blog, elsewhere on the main site, and in some of the social networks we’ll be exploring.

KDMC decided to focus on social networks this year in the face of a growing gap between public use of the networks and their adoption by established news organizations. One study found only 10 percent of top 100 newspaper sites had adopted social media tools, while another study showed adults increasingly were on popular networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

I hope you’ll be able to join the Webinars. They’re designed primarily for newsroom executives and executives on the revenue site of established organizations. Community news start ups and online journalists will benefit as well.

Questions about the Webinars? Suggestions? Please share them in the comments.

Pope Admits Online News Can Provide Infallible Aid

“I have been told that consulting the information available on the Internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on,” Pope Benedict wrote this week. “I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news.”

Happy 20th Birthday, World Wide Web

Happy 20th Birthday, World Wide Web.