Broadcasters urged to step up online

Cory Bergman April 15th, 2007

A refreshing start to the RTNDA side of the NAB convention here in Las Vegas as the opening session focused on all things web 2.0. Among the panel members: Terry Heaton, Amanda Congdon and Michael Rosenblum, with CNN’s Miles O’Brien moderating. Last year at the time, I remember sitting here and listening to the opening session (which included Dan Rather) dismiss blogging as a non-journalistic sport. Not this year. The message is clear for broadcasters: the playing field has changed, and it’s time to step up online. I’ve written up a couple pages with good information including some nuggets like:

    - Heaton says broadcasters must “define and organize” the local web
    - Congdon is pressed about doing commercials while at ABCNews.com
    - O’Brien chats live with his kids via a webcam on the big-screen
    - Rosenblum tells students they wasted their time on J-school

Miles O’Brien with the ice-breaker at the top: “I’ve been thinking a lot about change over the last week.” (He was just moved out of the morning anchor slot at CNN). Audience laughs.

He polls the panel on whether the change facing broadcasters is cyclical or the real deal. Every says it’s for real. “It’s the personal media revolution,” Heaton says.

Michael Rosenblum — who founded the VJ movement — takes it a step further. “It’s the end of the old world. It’s dead,” he said. “The barbarians are at the gate, and it’s the people.”

O’Brien asks Congdon about her new gig at ABCNews.com. She says she still enjoys her editorial freedom (after Rocketboom). “I’ve been so surprised and happy that the scripts don’t really change. The only difference now is I can’t swear…. I write a script, it gets approved and that’s it.”

Zadi Diaz is on the panel. She writes, produces and hosts JetSet, a popular videoblog. “We don’t have a lot of red tape,” she says. “We have an idea. We want to show it. We do it.”

O’Brien asks Diaz whether she’s making money. We’re not getting rich, she says. Then Heaton jumps in. “To dwell on revenue with regards to the person media revolution doesn’t serve it,” he says. “That’s how we as broadcasters look at it. The vast majority of bloggers I know aren’t in it to make money. They have something to say, not to get paid to say something.”

Elizabeth Osder, who just until last week was director of products for Yahoo News, makes an important point. “The key is can you attract an audience,” she said. The revenue will follow later.

O’Brien asks if broadcasters are starting to get it.

“They don’t get it at all,” Rosenblum exclaims. “The architecture of broadcasting is fundamentally different than the internet…. They’re going to go out of business…. TV is where newspapers were 10 years ago on the web. If we think we’re in the TV business, we’re going to miss the boat here. Newspapers understand this, particularily in video.”

Heaton shows the WKRN blogs — 23 of them now, all on separate domains. Some of them, like NashvilleisTalking, also aggregate the best posts from other Tennessee blogs. Heaton points out the value of niche and cross-linking (which builds search position.)

Osder talks about the success of Yahoo Local so far. “We’re getting terrific traffic from it,” she says. “People are really delighted with the local stories.” She said the currency of Yahoo News is speed and comprehensiveness.

O’Brien suddenly pops up his 14-year old son on a live webcam on the big screens in from of the audience. He does a live Q&A with his kid, no delay. The boy says he doesn’t like local TV news because “all they talk about is murders and rapes and killings.”

When they’re done, Rosenblum pipes in, “You just did a live remote. How much did it cost you?” O’Brien: “Nothing.”

Diaz brings up Twitter. “I found out about a fire in my neighborhood 20 minutes before it hit the web through Twitter,” she says. “It’s the future.”

Amanda is quick to agree, “It is.”

Nobody in the crowd knows what Twitter is.

Then O’Brien pulls up his young daughter on the big screen for a live Q&A. She admits she’s on Facebook with a fake name. Ooohs from the crowd. Then Miles asks her if she watches local TV news. “No,” she said. “It scares me.”

Diaz makes a terrific point about TV news. “I watched the 6 o’clock news (the other day). People were animated and fake…. It’s much more interesting to get my news from Digg or YouTube. You want to bond with people. They want to know that your real.”

(Her producer told me later that he had to “down-produce” her videoblog posts because they were too slick and TV-like. Not real enough for the web.)

O’Brien brings up CNN I-Report which received 9,000 photos and videos over Q1 2007.

First question from the audience brings up Congdon’s commercials and whether they are a conflict of interest since she works for ABCNews.com.

“I’ve never called myself a journalist,” she says. “I’m an actress, videoblogger and producer.”

The guy at the microphone follows up. What if Dupont (a company in one of her commercials) poisoned a river and children died. Would you report on it?

Yes, she says, and I would also disclose that I’ve done commercials for them. It doesn’t change what I think about it.

O’Brien asks everyone to give their advice to broadcasters in a quick sound bite.

Rosenblum: Hire VJs with all the money you’re paying your anchors. Brings up Couric’s $14M.

Osder: Find the people who are doing this work in the community, invite them in talk to them, learn what you can from them, shine light on them.

Diaz: Lose control. Empower the people.

Heaton: Define and organize the local web. “Every community has a vibrant group, thousands and thousands of websites. How can we serve their information needs? Maybe we could serve advertising to them…. this is the only way we can compete with the pure play internet companies.”

Another question, this time to Diaz. “What responsibility do you have to hold up the integrity of journalism?”

“I’m here not as a journalist, but as a representative of the people,” she says.

Heaton chimes in. “I think both these people (Diaz and Congdon) are journalists. We have to redefine a lot of things. We need to rethink certain rules.”

Rosenblum goes a step further and says going to journalism school “is a waste of time.” This prompts a student at the microphone to ask, “Are you telling me I just wasted my university education?” Rosenblum replies, “Yes, but that’s OK.”

It gets a little crazy here as people start arguing with Rosenblum. He says that “the market will tell you what to cover…. The website is your focus group. It’s insane that an executive producer would sit down and build a rundown. You wouldn’t have an executive producer on eBay.”

Diaz jumps in and said that’s dangerous. “We need all these points of view to form an educated opinion.” The audience finds themselves agreeing with a videoblogger who says she’s not a journalist.

Osder says that she thinks media organizations could find an economic model behind “essential information” that isn’t getting enough coverage because it’s not interesting to enough people.

The panel is nearing a close, and Heaton is getting fired up. “We need to rethink in media who we put in our newsrooms,” he said. “I’m sick to death of people who walk into this business thinking about what their next (TV) job is going to be…. If you read the boards, it’s full of that crap. What’s wrong with us?!!!”

Osder finishes with a great line as advice for the students in the room. “Demand that people teach you how to become entrepreneurs.”