There's a future in news

E.W. Scripps newspaper editors and online managers collaborated on a "Future of News" project this summer that ran in some newspapers last weekend and is on knoxnews.com today and Tuesday.

It was a challenge put forth by Chris Doyle, the company's new vice president for content. It was part self-education and part reporting project for the group as Doyle and top managers in his division chart a course for the future. Editor Jack McElroy provides the big picture.

For part of my contributions, I decided I wanted to tap into the thoughts of a couple of smart people outside my familiar ground of newspapers. I reached out to Dave Morgan and Elizabeth Spiers. Both answered a series a questions that we are using as Q&As in the Future of News package.

The Q&A with Morgan, founder and chairman of SimulMedia, went online and in print today. The Q&A with Spiers, a media launch consultant, entrepreneur, and writer, runs Tuesday.

One the quotes I particularly liked in Morgan's answers was his advice to journalism students:

You will have a great future if you recognize that there has never been a better time to practice great journalism; that great journalists are the eyes, ears and analysts for their audiences; that great journalists listen more than they talk and write; and that great journalists can now - more than ever before - get truly close to their audiences.

No longer is the media world one of a publishers-top editor-section editor-subeditor-journalist hierarchy. Today, audiences are in charge and they want direct access to, and interaction with, journalists.

I found Spiers' comments equally insightful, but I'll wait until Tuesday to comment on those.

Some of the reaction to the series on Twitter is that it is what you might expect from a bunch of newspaper editors.

I'm glad people are taking a few minutes to read it. Here's some of the conversation:



(Photo provided by Dave Morgan)