By Bill Beggs Jr.
Once upon a time, the “news” was already as old as yesterday’s doughnuts.
Used to be you or the faithful canine would run out to fetch at least one
of two morning papers—the Globe-Democrat or the Post-Dispatch—to find out what had happened the day before. Then, you could pretty much keep tabs all day via radio or television's regularly scheduled programming for updates or special bulletins, at least until the stations shut down overnight for white noise or a test pattern.
After a while, FM radio joined the media mix. TV providers added dozens, then hundreds of offerings via cable and satellite. Expanding magazine racks
disappointed only those consumers wishing for titles like The Balding Unicyclist or Nailbiter's Journal.
When the World Wide Web came to town, many pundits thought that traditional media would fade into the background or become irrelevant—certainly, print media would disappear entirely, as online news and entertainment content would create a paperless environment.
Stop, look and listen. Hasn't happened. Print and broadcast journalists have been riding the crest of each wave of change. Their content enhances the Internet, and vice-versa. No heads in the sand here.
And, quite frankly, this is not news. What is news is where the media is taking it from here.
Pam Maples, managing editor of the Post- Dispatch, for years has had both ink on her fingers and pixels setting her face aglow. As her medium has evolved, so has the job of reporting and editing.
A print journalist always carries a notebook and a pencil or pen, but as the paper's relationship with the Web has intensified, a reporter's skill set has grown to include recording audio, shooting video, blogging— and other duties as assigned. These are skills with which most young people are quite familiar. If not, they can be easily learned, Maples says.
Core skills that remain essential are an ability to ask questions, to gather and disseminate all the while remaining "platform-agnostic." The advent of a viable Web presence means a reporter's duties aren't done when the paper goes to press.
"It's changed the workplace," Maples says. "We've changed the way we work. You're expected to report all the time."
Maples notes another requirement for a print journalist: "Being comfortable with change."
In a broadband world, reporters must also think like the audience and be able to anticipate what they expect beyond what will appear in tomorrow's edition.
"People want to be involved in the conversation. It magnifies what we do," Maples says. "We have to be out there to grab and hold their attention."
And, everybody else is out there too—all the other local media are chasing the same stories, and they're as hungry as ever for a scoop.
Maples asserts: "It's more competitive than ever, but it's not a print-TV competition."
Lynn Beall, president and GM of KSDK-TV, is on the same page. So to speak.
"You have to recognize that you are indeed a 24/7 content provider," Beall says. "The Web is simply another means of delivering content. If you are known and recognized for your content, it doesn't matter what the method of delivery is.
"The Web was at first more of a text-based medium, but now with broadband delivery being the norm, users are not only looking for immediacy, they want video-rich content."
Regardless of which medium they are using, consumers expect it to provide the features and benefits of the other two. Readers of the Post-Dispatch expect to have access to content that will allow them to view and listen to content. Listeners want to see. Viewers want to read in depth the stories that TV anchors had time only to give the who, what, when, how and maybe why before moving on to the next item.
Another key development for all media: The audience has become another set of eyes and ears. Post-Dispatch reporters and broadcast trucks can't always be on the scene to show what the tornado looked like. They can interview victims in their shattered homes afterward and we can read, hear or see descriptions of the disaster. But more often than not, people involved in a story can photograph or shoot video of the wind shattering buildings or floodwaters breaking through a levee, and transmit it to the desired news outlet or upload it to the Web within minutes. The multimedia coverage of the Kirkwood tragedy by two Post-Dispatch reporters (who were actual witnesses to the shootings inside city hall)—is a case study example.
What's more, today's audience demands interactivity, a relationship with the medium and other members of the audience community, whether storm chasers, sports fans or Country-music aficionados.
Kim Grant remembers listening to Country music in the car with her mom, who had the radio dial tuned to WIL. Grant is now new media sales manager for the Bonneville International properties in St. Louis, which includes the venerable Country station (92.3 FM), The Arch (WARH, 106.5 FM) and MOViN 101.1 (WMVN). But, there's much more than meets the ear.
ToastedRav.com is an entertainment website that touts itself as "the online destination for all things in St. Louis entertainment." The lively smorgasbord features videos, blogs, contests, humorÑand ads.
And it's one of dozens, if not hundreds, of similar sites geared to entertainment-seekers in the region. So, how can anyone collect any advertising revenue when there are so many more outlets out there (or in there) than ever?
"The walls of Jericho have come down," says Grant. "Everybody's in the pool. The barriers to entry are a speed bump. People aren't going to one specific site. When the mall is full of boutiques, I donÕt need the box stores at either end.
"Or a Yahoo. Small is the new big."
Advertisers aren't just buying "spots and dots," says Grant. "We're weaving them into a tapestry."
These days advertisers may be buying into a niche that's only a mile wide, but it's 100 miles deep. And audience research isn't looked upon suspiciously as so much smoke and mirrors when there's Web results to complement it. Clicks are proof.
Paul West, GM for Stltoday.com, says that advertisers eager for more bang for the buck will get that when they combine print with an online presence.
Advertisers and readers both had input into the website's redesign. In focus groups, participants were assigned 15 to 20 tasks—they demonstrated how they typically searched for certain information, goods or services on the 'Net.
But, as hometown boy Yogi Berra puts it, it ain't over till it's over. In the world of the Web, those focus group members, and anyone else, have the opportunity to keep making suggestions for improving the website.
"We love that users are so passionate about our site," says West. "There's never a shortage of opportunities to pursue. We're working to strike a balance between being increasingly visible, but also flexible."
Of course, serving as a "marketing solutions provider" has never been the media's chief purpose, irrespective of whether delivery by town crier or broadsheet, or the sinuous, continuously updated Internet. TV, radio and print journalists wish to help their audience make informed decisions about social issues, voting, spending money, dining and entertainment.
"This industry attracts people who want to help people in the community," says West.
| National Rankings Confirm That St. Louis Is Wired |
Monsanto Co., Scottrade Inc., National Information Solutions Cooperative Inc., Edward Jones, Anheuser-Busch and Maritz have been ranked by ComputerWorld among the nation's top 100 work environments for information technology professionals in the magazine's 15th annual survey.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to recent national rankings of regional firms based on the judgment of organizations including ComputerWorld, Information Week and CIO magazines, American Electronics Association and InfoWorld Media Group.
The St. Louis region was ranked as having the 8th fastest area job growth in high-technology industries, according to a June 2008 report released by the American Electronics Association. Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-Technology Industry in the Nation's Top 60 Cities report tracked trends in high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration, and wage differential at the metropolitan level. St. Louis' 52,800 high-tech jobs ranked as the 26th-largest among the 60 U.S. cities included in the report.
Emerson, Graybar and the former A.G. Edwards were among more than a dozen
St. Louis area companies named to Information Week's list of the 500 most
innovative users of information technology. The magazine ranks the companies on strategies and projects, not just the amount spent on technology.
Cracking the Top 100 were:
No. 19—A.G. Edwards (now Wachovia)
No. 30—Emerson
No. 88—Graybar
Monsanto was ranked 11th on Computer-world's Top 12 Green-IT Companies of 2007. The list includes companies that are reducing energy consumption in their IT equipment, and using technology to conserve energy and to lower carbon emissions.
Monsanto's facility in Creve Coeur was designed with a 17-foot floor-to-ceiling span to promote airflow and eliminate the need for power or cooling units on the data center's floor. The facility also has a glass screen on the front of the building that can withstand the force of an F3 tornado. The screen also filters 60 percent of the sun's rays, which lowers the demands on the building's cooling systems. These innovations save
the agricultural giant 27 percent of the
energy consumed by a conventionally designed data center.
MasterCard Global Debit Operations was in the spotlight recently when George Spies, senior VP, was named to InfoWorld's CTO 25 Awards for 2008. InfoWorld Media Group annually recognizes 25 senior IT executives who have demonstrated leadership within their companies and in the IT community.
InfoWorld, which covers the enterprise technology market and identifies emerging technology segments, selected Spies in recognition of his work in spearheading the technical development of the debit and
prepaid processing platform that MasterCard introduced in April.
Through a single connection, MasterCard IPS provides banks and other financial
institutions with a suite of branded debit network and payment card issuer processing services including PIN, signature, and ATM.
UniGroup Inc. has received a nod
from CIO magazine as one of the CIO 100
for 2008. This is the 2st year for the awards program, which recognizes organizations that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in IT. The magazine touts the list as an acknowledgment of not just who's biggest, but who's doing the most interesting and relevant things.
UniGroup is a $2.2 billion transportation and relocation services company that includes household goods carriers United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit, as well
as subsidiaries that provide goods and
services to professional movers, including Vanliner Insurance Co., Trans Advantage Inc. and UniGroup Worldwide.
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