Tom – as someone who is an outsider to journalism, what were your thoughts on the day and the situation journalism faces.

Let me start with the day. As a technology person who has been around industries that have changed because of technology and the Internet it was heartening to see newspaper people recognize the magnitude of the change and not justify the head in the sand approach. There was general consensus that this is not an-incremental change and incremental solutions won’t work.

In Telecom and other industries – there is generally denial until the very end. But for most people who attended there was a real awareness that change isn’t necessarily bad. It is disruptive but it can lead to journalist being more effective at their mission, provided they can figure out little details along the way like … how to get paid for it.

The bigger subject is a fascinating one because it probably is true that journalists have never had tools that are as good as the tools that are avaliable now. The ability to selectively crowdsource a story if you need to, or build a story as Jeff described it, even if the story itself isn’t the focal point, where you start something and pieces of it get filled in around it through the link economy, video can be mixed in and the man on the street is everywhere, etc. So the tools for journalists to do their job are fantastic. And the physical impediments are smaller than they have ever been. But the business model hasn’t been figured out – and journalists have to eat like everyone else.

I think we got far enough in the day to figure out that’s where we are – but we didn’t get much further. There are a few possible models for journalist and a few hyper-local models but there is a distance to go in terms of figuring out how they can make a living in journalism. It’s not a question of what value journalism can add – there is general agreement that credibility, editing, facts, and quality reporting are things that journalists bring that is of value- but it is hard to see how revenue can come from it right now.

Are there any direct comparisons or analogies from when you worked in Telecom?

Any industry under threat tries to cut its way to greatness. Particularly industries that have had a controlling situation for a period of time. When indsturies were essentially monopolies or they have a franchise it’s very hard for the owners or stockholders to realize the value is evaporating. Their first reaction is that these are temporary times and cutting back is a solution.

Often this is a good first reaction – because they were monopolies these companies typically have a lot of fat. But there comes a point where you can’t cut anymore. There is nothing left to cut and if you keep cutting the product gets damaged and its a downward spiral. That is Telecom, newspapers, and perhaps the car industry.

What’s different though? Related to this I think is a comment you brought up about the economics of Craigslist. That growth of a network is more valuable than high revenues per network node? So that if you charge as little as possible – but the network grows in size, it becomes impossible for others to compete. Is there a way newspapers could leverage that?

It’s maximizing your network by drawing out as little cash as you can until you are in a sailable position.

I’m just guessing here – this is just speculation because the answer is probably different if you mean local, regional, national or global.

It’s probably easiest to see where local news organizations, hyper-local in web terms, analogous to a small-town newspaper could achieve this status. I think we will fairly quickly find the model and tools wher ethe local site becomes an indispensable part of people’s lives and advertisers are eager to support it – because it has a consistent readership with identifiable demographics.

By making readers contributors (which newspapers have always done to some extent with wedding annoucements, etc), using the ability to crowdosurce when trains are late, where crime is, etc – the local sites like Baristanet can become an even more apart of people’s lives than the small-town newspapers used to be.

At that point in time – they won’t need to charge a lot for advertising because they will have a lot of it – and they will be in the Cragislist spot where they can charge so little it will be tough for competition to sneak in. A rival local newspaper will have real competition. But competition would be good because it would mean together they would figure out the proper economics.

I think there would only be one winner – at least until the winner gets sloppy. Because if one builds a good network in terms of people then there is not much sense in being part of the inferior network. If it’s as simple as traffic reports where you have 1,000 readers sending in updates and you have lots of people texting in so that site has the best traffic reports and somebody else starts up another network their site is going to be useless because nobody is on it – and why would anybody join it? It’s useless.

I’m not sure what this looks like at the regional national or global level. It’s hard to have a community if everybody reads the NY Times – the Times is doing an experiment with TimesPeople – where if you join the community you know what your friends are reading, etc – they are trying to be the host of a lot of little communities -because that is more interesting than worldwide – everyone read this article. So being a larger group that hosts smaller groups with an excellence at national or international coverage. That could work for NY Times WaPo organizations – but not many of those. They could be advertising supported if people integrated it into their daily lives.

I don’t know what happens inbetween at the regional level. I think it’ll be important because from a governance point of view – we need the information.
Last thoughts?

I’m optimistic – I think something will evolve because we have such a need for the information. People are interested – maybe cause there is more information or maybe because they are scared – but a positive thing for journalists is that there is this hunger if there is a business model for supplying it.

“If you are interested in data – the federal government is the largest producer of data there is, Washington is the place to work,” said Willis. After a brief stint at the Center for Public Integrity, Willis began working for the Washington Post newspaper only to move over to the website last February, stating that if you are working in database journalism the web is a better platform.

Main Goal: The basic philosophy for our information work is that there are a lot of databases that the public never sees the best or most useful versions of. Those versions are kept hidden for the people who use it or sell it. At the Washington Post online we try to put the best versions of a database in the public. What you see online is the best version we have, “we don’t hold anything back,” says Willis.

Recently the Post, for the first time, opened up a story on conditions in D.C. schools and published all of its data inviting people to dig into it and contact reporters with corrections or additions – things that we could never know about all the schools.

Notable Achievements: The schools project noted above is one of several database projects Willis has been a part of at the Post.

In another, the Post is tracking where the candidates have been and where they are going along the campaign trail – building a database of several thousand campaign appearances. Bloggers have used this to try and determine a candidates strategy, says Willis. “We ought to be able to know where the presidential candidates are going and we are building on the database, adding new features like speeches.

A Surprising Realization: You never know how other people will use your data.

That doesn’t happen very often in a print newsroom, but online pretty much every time you put up a data set you can be lead in any number of directions by readers.

If one person calls a newspaper reporter — doesn’t guarantee a response — for us — if we can do something and it can be a benefit to one person — its probably worth doing it. “I didn’t appreciate that aspect of it until it happened to us,” said Willis.

Biggest Practical Lesson/Mistake: What we really have not done as well as we could do, and are really working on, is a better visual component. There are things we have learned about the way you present info to people — it has to be done in a way that is accessible — not everyone is interested in the raw data.

Future Goals: We’d like to extend what we’ve been doing on a national level — down to the state and local level — there is no reason why our voter database should only be national.

I think the more — that we do in terms of putting information in people’s hands- – the closer it’s going to bring us into contact with people who want to do journalism whether they want to work with us or not. “It’s hard for me to see how getting more people involved is a bad thing for the news industry,” said Willis.

What do you hope to get from people attending this conference?

There are always going to be people who are experts on something specific. We need those people and journalism organizations need to know who those people are — so I like meeting those people.

I’m also interested in meeting anybody who is exploring in our area, to see if there are there ways that we can do things in different way.

The WPNI Advertising Sales Department sells advertising packages for the 100+ bloggers who are part of their network. The bloggers, chosen from over 1,500 applicants, have the ability to accept or reject the ads and receive 60 percent of the money that is made from the sales. Advertising sales have been made to Luftansa , Marriott, Slingbox, etc. “It’s a way for bloggers to make some revenue — and it’s an opportunity for them to get on our homepage,” says Burkett.

Main Goal: The number one goal is to acquire content for advertisers that washingtonpost.com normally wouldn’t editorially produce. The bloggers who are part of the network have no editorial restrictions. The second goal is to experiment and build relationships within the blogosphere.// “,1] ); D(["mb","\u003cspan class\u003dq\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>Notable Achievements: \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>The number of applicants: The Blog Ad Network received 1,500 \napplicants in the first two weeks. Today it has garnered over 2,000. But it \nremains a side project, a test to see, across the company, if it should be \nsomething that should move beyond a side project. \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\> \u003c/div\>\u003c/span\>",1] ); D(["mb","\u003cspan class\u003dq\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>A Surprising Realization: \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>Beyond the number of people that initially applied, Burkett was \nsurprised to find that most weren't interested in the money. "It's not about it \nbeing an advertising network, for them it's about being associated with us and \ngetting a little bit more traffic. So many people were willing to work with us, \na traditional news company," says Burkett.\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>Biggest Practical Lesson/Mistake: \u003c/div\>\u003c/span\>",1] );
// ]]>

Notable Achievements: The number of applicants: The Blog Ad Network received 1,500 applicants in the first two weeks. Today it has garnered over 2,000. But it remains a side project, a test to see, across the company, if it should be something that should move beyond a side project.

A Surprising Realization: Beyond the number of people that initially applied, Burkett was surprised to find that most participants weren’t interested in the money. “It’s not about it being an advertising network, for them it’s about being associated with us and getting a little bit more traffic. So many people were willing to work with us, a traditional news company,” says Burkett.

// They underestimated the amount of time it would take to get blogs \nup and running in the program. Reviewing the blogs for acceptance, \nanswering questions about the agreement and getting the ad tags installed took a \nlot more effort than originally thought. \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>Money: \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>Compared to what has been invested into it, the program has been \nprofitable. The success of it is primarily based on The Washington Post's brand. \n"It didn't take us much to get this thing started," says Burkett. "But I'm not \nrunning around telling everyone this is something they should definitely \ndo."\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>Now \u003ca href\u003d\”http://washingtonpost.com\” target\u003d\”_blank\” onclick\u003d\”return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\”\>washingtonpost.com\u003c/a\> knows what it might take to get it to the \nnext level but for now the Ad network remains an experiment to learn from.\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>Future Goals: The program is still up in the air. Burkett continues \nto advocate it and use it in his sales process and build relationships with the \nbloggers that are part of the network. But a lot of the future is still to be \ndecided.\u003c/div\>”,1] );
// ]]>

Biggest Practical Lesson/Mistake: Burkett underestimated the amount of time it would take to get blogs up and running in the program. Reviewing the blogs for acceptance, answering questions about the agreement and getting the ad tags installed took a lot more effort than originally thought.

Money: Compared to what has been invested into it, the program has been profitable. The success of it is primarily based on The Washington Post’s brand. “It didn’t take us much to get this thing started,” says Burkett. “But I’m not running around telling everyone this is something they should definitely do.”

Now washingtonpost.com knows what it might take to get it to the next level but currently the Ad network remains an experiment to learn from.

Future Goals: The program is still up in the air. Burkett continues to advocate it and use it in his sales process and build relationships with the bloggers that are part of the network. But a lot of the future is still to be decided.

// \n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>"This would all sound crazy if I was running a business unit, but \nour goal when we started was really just to see what we would learn and what \nwould happen and then maybe take those learnings and do other things," says \nBurkett.\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>What do you hope to get from people attending this \nconference?\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>"I'm on the commercial side — I'd love to hear more ideas from \nbusiness people about how they are using and benefiting monetarily from citizen \njournalism — how they are growing audience and any crazy ad ideas they \nhave."\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\”ltr\”\>\u003cbr\> \u003c/div\>\u003c/span\>”,1] ); D(["mb","\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>\n\u003chr\>\n\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv dir\u003d\"ltr\"\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Tahoma\" size\u003d\"2\"\>",1] ); D(["mb","\u003cspan class\u003dq\>\u003cb\>From:\u003c/b\> David Cohn \n[mailto:\u003ca href\u003d\"mailto:dcohn1@gmail.com\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>dcohn1@gmail.com\u003c/a\>]\u003cbr\>\u003c/span\>”,1] );
// ]]>

“This would all sound crazy if I was running a business unit, but our goal when we started was really just to see what we would learn and what would happen and then maybe take those learnings and do other things,” says Burkett.

What do you hope to get from people attending this conference?

“I’m on the commercial side — I’d love to hear more ideas from business people about how they are using and benefiting monetarily from citizen journalism — how they are growing audience and any crazy ad ideas they have.”

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