I’ve blogged a lot over the past few years, either here or via the Cyberbrains, about different pieces of the puzzle that the news industry can use to pull out of the current economic challenge it faces. My recent posts about Google and the AP got me thinking about maybe pulling some of those ideas together, and then one of my bright students who follows me on Twitter (@) gave me a bit of a nudge on this.

Obviously it’s really easy to point out misguided ideas, but putting yourself out there and talking about what you think will work is a little bit harder. I’ve been here at MU for almost five full years and had access to knowledge, resources, great minds, and some really cool future-looking projects. A lot of different ideas are swirling in my head as a result as I’m winding down my time here.

In reference to AP and newspapers/online sites in general, I’ve cobbled toether some ideas that I’ve read about or witnessed in action firsthand that offer a glimpse of a better future. Three caveats I offer: Read more

I had an interesting exchange with a student a couple weeks ago about advertising and journalism. After I made the point that advertisers need to be concerned about journalism losing eyeballs, the student remarked that journalism might go away but advertising can survive because it can directly market to people and because people will “always need advertising.”

Granted, the student had something of a point in that the age of self-publishing has allowed advertisers to reach audiences directly, but let’s put aside for a second the fact that this pretty much is the opposite of what most ad execs are worrying about.

The main issue is advertisers need platforms to reach people and that those platforms demand non-advertising content, such as movies or TV shows or news.

The larger point I’ve taken away and been pondering is whether this younger generation conceives of ad content differently than mine. I have grown up with it being cordoned off into “ad sections” either on TV, in print, or online. More to the point, I’ve seen it progress so much that I’m pretty conscious when something is being sold to me if it crosses that barrier. Read more