Dan Pacheco – Bakersfield California

Posted on 06. Mar, 2008 by David Cohn in Where Are They Now?

I think our most interesting development right now in Bakersfield is the digital revolution happening in our newsroom.

As of a few weeks ago, the 80-some person newsroom in the Calfornian reorganized to focus on around-the-clock online coverage. Any story that ultimately appears in print (and a lot more than that) is blogged first, with updates going up throughout the day. That’s a huge change from how things used to work, with only a few reporters posting live updates at all and most stories not showing up online until 11 p.m. (before appearing in print the next day).

It’s a truly interactive experience for the audience because they can post comments to talk to the reporters as they file updates. I’ve noticed that they sometimes ask for more details which the reporter then investigates and reports back on. This really takes the concept of “news as a conversation” to a new level, because the conversation does impact the focus of the news coverage. At the end of the day, the “final” version of the story is created for print and posted online.

You can watch this happening in real time on the “Bakosphere” page.

I love that the newsroom is using the blogging engine that we created for the community 18 months ago, and that they started doing this on their own with no prodding and very little consultation with my team. I think the lesson there is that if you provide tools that lets ANYONE participate and contribute content whenever they want to, your traditional newsroom will eventually get involved and create something that is far more interesting than technology. The relationship between reporters and readers is evolving all on its own — a true revolution rather than something that was forced or mandated.

Here are a few recent examples of reporters posting news and updates to stories online as users converse with them:

• Live coverage and audience commentary on a wrestling competition.
• Commentary on a video depicting drama in Bakersfield’s minor league hockey games.
• Report and discussion on post-housing-slump development plans for Bakersfield
• Story about how immigrants don’t commit the most crime, and some discussion (which is a little disturbing — but it does accurately depict the “water-cooler” debate about this going on in Bakersfield).

Tags: Bakersfield.com