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We Media: See the Change. Be the Change.

March 8th, 2010 by Renzi Stone. Posted in Industry Expertise

I’m headed to Miami this week for We Media, a collection of media innovators, researchers, journalists and big thinkers who will dig deep to understand what’s next for media. Part of the conference is sponsored by Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, led by my friend, Bob Ross. I’m honored to be a part of the panel discussion on Why Community Matters with Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix.

Chris asks a few key questions in his recent blog post about the role of local media. I liked the direction Chris is going with the discussion with an excerpt of his comments here.

“When I think about ‘Community Matters’, it occurs to me that the question is what is the purpose of community? Is it to extol content for the community? Or is it to generate content that the community creates? And then, the larger question becomes how to monetize ‘community’? There are 2 billion users coming online in the next ten years. How do we monetize the value of their content? And, further, how do we deal with “truth” in community-generated journalism? On a community site, truth is subjective. Newspapers must be very cautious about libel issues, and objectionable content is muted.”

I’d like to position a few thoughts for attendees and observers to think about prior to Wednesday’s session.

Content in the local community must shift from delivering first to delivering deep.

• User-generated content provides the cloud of interest locally, but it stops right there. Journalists must do the heavy lifting.
• All efforts to monetize will be successful with publishing and broadcasting leadership who believe context trumps content. We all receive tons of content every day, but we lack the context to make it meaningful in our lives.
• Local, social communities are gaining importance (and followers) in the public discourse, but are still ruled by the unruly. Think of them as those who provide instant, virtual letters to the editor. Editorial writers and deep thinkers, they are not.

Special thanks to my friend Blake Jackson, director of social media at Chesapeake Energy, for his thoughts on this subject. See everyone soon.

About We Media- Founded in 2007, We Media helps companies and their leaders see, understand and respond to complex change. They provide strategic consulting that integrates business, content, design, technology and insights on innovation in the connected culture. We Media also creates Web sites and digital media strategies, produces research, conferences, seminars, workshops, awards, investment challenges and organizes a global community of innovators and visionaries.