This week is the first of a series on innovative journalists. The idea is to publicize journalists who are pushing invention, injecting entrepreneuriship at a time when the industry is in dire need of new concepts. This week we publish an excerpt from a Q & A Innovative Journalists did with Steve Foster, former online sports editor of the now defunct Rocky Mountain News. Steve, along with dozens of his former collegues, are launching a new venture, which you can read about at length here in a terrific story by Poynter's Steve Myers.
I asked Steve about who his first mentor was, when he first noticed change in the industry and what innovations are needed to keep it relevant.
Who was a mentor for you in the business? What did they teach you?
John Temple, the editor and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News, has been key to my career. Without him, I would have not come back to the Rocky Mountain News and found myself at this odd nexus of closings and openings. He helped me understand how important it is to not get locked into doing one thing and to always be open to changing jobs, changing visions to match the work needed to be done.
How do you feel about the industry today? When did you notice a shift in consumer habits?
We’re at a crossroads. Journalism has been gradually, steadily slipping out of the hands of journalists and communities. More independent journalists are providing news, but while some of them are good and actually report new news, most are merely reacting to what others’ report. So the quality has been dropping, but more importantly, the connection to the community has been eroding along with it. We need to bring the community back to the coverage, stop reporting as if we’re talking down to the public, and listen and talk to our readers. As for when I noticed a change in customers habits: when I started reading news online for two hours in the morning before I picked up the newspaper from my doorstep.
What innovations are necessary in order to keep journalism viable?
It isn’t so much innovation that’s need as better application. People are getting their news in new ways, and doing so at a much faster rate then newsroom developers can keep up. The idea of a dedicated mobile site is a mystery to many newsrooms, yet a large number of page views come from mobile phones. Newsrooms need to keep up and apply the technology that their readers already want to use.
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