Journalists Taking Over the Business

Editors love meetings, or so it seems.

As sure as every newsroom around the world has keyboards and cameras, they also have managers and meetings, the bane of the journalist's existence, primarily because news doesn't usually happen in newsrooms or meetings.

That's changing.

Considering the way things are going in the newspaper industry — the Rocky Mountain News closed last month, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last edition Tuesday, and the San Francisco Chronicle could be next — more than a few non-management journalists are starting to take matters into their own hands, which means holding a few meetings of their own.

Some of that spirit was behind the launch this week of In Denver Times.

And some of it's behind a meeting (I'm told the plan is to work, not talk) this Saturday in Washington D.C.

RevenueTwoPointZero has put together a group of 19 journalists who plan to sit down Saturday in DC to talk about build possible solutions.

Like the Know Newspapers Petition, the Rev 2.0 group isn't endorsing pay-for-content plans, or philanthropy. But, while the petition's goal is merely to educate the public about the importance of newspapers as news-gathering organizations, Rev 2.0 takes the next step.

As I've said before, if we leave this problem to the newspapers alone, it will never get solved.

Here's the agenda for Rev 2.0's weekend meet:

1. Build an effective advertising model for news content delivered on smart phones, such as Apple’s iPhone.

2. Create a better CraigsList.

3. Show newspaper-centric companies how they can better meet the advertising needs of small- and medium-sized businesses.

4. Re-imagine the homepage and display advertising.

With an agenda as ambitious as that there's sure to be no shortage of criticism for the effort. No matter. That this group is taking the initiative (and doing it on their own dime) deserves recognition, and the benefit of the doubt.

As journalist Bob Woodward once said: "All good work is done in defiance of management."

Read more about the weekend meeting at RevenueTwoPointZero.

(via Fitz & Jen)

(Twitter This)

-- TJ Sullivan

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