When I was in college (graduated 2002), I paid a lot of attention to lists of “who owns the media” and listened to dire warnings of Huxleyesque media totalitarians blanking out whole swaths of coverage when corporate interests were conflicted.
Then I became a working journalist, covering a range of subjects including local schools, local government, presidential caucuses, lifestyles and entertainment. I still monitored the lists and read the warnings.
One day I remember looking at the list (rarely up to date as news organizations shifted and changed) and none of that really mattered anymore. Sure, newspapers and newsrooms were squeezed by CEOs serving shareholders, but media suddenly had a new relationship with “the people formerly known as the audience.”
I took some time as a graduate student to begin to understand the shift. Specifically, I talked with newsrooms large and small to see what they expected from digital distribution and how they were putting it into practice. As it turned out, there were people interested in the findings.
From Ignite Corvallis.
Returning to the newsroom, I put the tools into practice — first in my own reporting and then by teaching my colleagues as well. In 2008, I organized NewsInnovation-Portland, one of the regional sessions of a nationwide effort to get people to embrace the chaos of modern media and hash out some ideas for moving forward.
Over time, my efforts moved further from daily reporting into shaping my newsroom’s practices and workflow to meet the needs of modern readers, and eventually into developing niche information products. In the process, I gained extensive experience with online reporting and content tools and WordPress.
These days, I work as Director of Communication for brass MEDIA, where I think a lot about how to use content to provide a better user experience and provide people with the right information at the right time. You could call it content strategy. You could call it audience development.
Away from the office, you can also find me developing niche projects on my own, building things around the house and obsessively flyfishing.
I’m a member of my local community radio station’s programming committee and occasionally help local organizations with Web consulting.
