Showing posts with label mike hoyt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mike hoyt. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Journalist's Digital Dilemma: Part One
-Multimedia project by Derek Casanovas and Jasmine Linabary
Watch for Part Two in an upcoming post.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
What newspapers can learn from the record industry
By Yong Kim
It was only a few decades ago when the main medium used to listen to music was the compact disc. You know, those thin and shiny plastic looking circles that held information to play audio. Before then, Vinyl was replaced by 8-tracks, and 8-tracks replaced audiocassettes which where then replaced by CDs. People would insert CDs into their six-disc changer in their homes. Joggers used to listen to music while on their run via portable disc players.
But with the creation of electronics and a new digital age, music can now be conveniently stored onto computers, phones, mp3 players, online and any other place where digital information can be recorded.
Thousands upon thousands of audio files can be stored into a tiny iPod or laptop instead of having to carry hundreds of compact discs in a binder or in your car. Even burning discs to make music mixes has become obsolete. People can simply make a
playlist on an audio program like iTunes or windows music player and upload it to their mp3 players.
“The record industry is broken, dying and in bad shape,” said Sreenath Sreenivasan, professor of professional practice at Columbia University and new media expert.
Digital audio has become the next evolved form in the evolution chain. CDs are big, clumsy and the audio quality decreases over time due to scratching and age. You don’t have to hold digital music. And why drive to a music retailer to buy the latest Beyonce album when you can download it from iTunes for a lower price?
Think about it, when was the last time you saw someone listening to music via CDs or portable walkmans? The majority of people in the US are shifting to the new medium for listening
Digital audio has become the next evolved form in the evolution chain. CDs are big, clumsy and the audio quality decreases over time due to scratching and age. You don’t have to hold digital music. And why drive to a music retailer to buy the latest Beyonce album when you can download it from iTunes for a lower price?
Think about it, when was the last time you saw someone listening to music via CDs or portable walkmans? The majority of people in the US are shifting to the new medium for listening
music and as a result, the record industry has felt the deepest consequences of the shift in how people listen to music.
The popular Virgin Megastore in Times Square and other locations in New York City is soon to be closing, according to reuters.com. There is speculation according to several news sources as to why they are closing but I’d wager the era of the digitization of music had some impact.
Data on national record sales from Nielsen Co., a market research company, show a 20 percent decrease in physical sales of CDs since 2000 and sales have been off since then. Conversely, there has been a 32% increase of digital album sales in 2008.
The news media and record industry are going through similar circumstances. Why read the news on paper when you can get it online digitally anytime, anywhere? It seems newspapers are being sold or closed down left and right.
But the decline of print readers and CD users isn’t due to lack of information and music. It is due to the slow adaptation of the old business infrastructure to the new.
The problem is with the business model, not the music or artists, Sreenivasa said. It’s the same thing with journalists, he said.
Similar messages of figuring out a new business model that works for the new direction of news have been spoken during meetings with editors and executives in media companies like the Associated Press, Channel 13 and the Columbia Journalism Review.
“The questions is how to pay for it,” said Mike Hoyt, executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. “You have to pay for the reporting somehow.”
Though the consensus seems to be so, no new and effective business model has been created thus far.
And with the bad state of economy on Wall Street and Main Street, who knows where we can go to find the solution.
The popular Virgin Megastore in Times Square and other locations in New York City is soon to be closing, according to reuters.com. There is speculation according to several news sources as to why they are closing but I’d wager the era of the digitization of music had some impact.
Data on national record sales from Nielsen Co., a market research company, show a 20 percent decrease in physical sales of CDs since 2000 and sales have been off since then. Conversely, there has been a 32% increase of digital album sales in 2008.
The news media and record industry are going through similar circumstances. Why read the news on paper when you can get it online digitally anytime, anywhere? It seems newspapers are being sold or closed down left and right.
But the decline of print readers and CD users isn’t due to lack of information and music. It is due to the slow adaptation of the old business infrastructure to the new.
The problem is with the business model, not the music or artists, Sreenivasa said. It’s the same thing with journalists, he said.
Similar messages of figuring out a new business model that works for the new direction of news have been spoken during meetings with editors and executives in media companies like the Associated Press, Channel 13 and the Columbia Journalism Review.
“The questions is how to pay for it,” said Mike Hoyt, executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. “You have to pay for the reporting somehow.”
Though the consensus seems to be so, no new and effective business model has been created thus far.
And with the bad state of economy on Wall Street and Main Street, who knows where we can go to find the solution.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Columbia Journalism Review: Mike Hoyt
In a time of uncertainty for the media, online and print editor of the Columbia Journalism Review’s Mike Hoyt said this era should be exciting for new journalists. “We’re kind of in the best of times, the worst of times,” Hoyt said. With twenty years with CJR, Hoyt said his university is adding classes for entrepreneurship and journalists. The industry, Hoyt said, is in need of a new economic model. CJR plans to hire a beat reporter to cover the search for a new economic model.
“The people who just focus on the web are really doing incredible things,” Hoyt said. Hoyt said while he remains partial to print because of the opportunity for deeper reporting, the younger online demographic allows for conversations in real time, the story to develop through that democratic discussion and for visual interaction with the story.
“We’re sort of tip-toeing into the possibilities there,” Hoyt said. Crowdsourcing, a type of journalism where public feedback is used to obtain information on behalf of the writer, is an area Hoyt said is growing. However, it does involve a leap of faith and trust in the public’s respect of traditional journalistic values.
People are hungry for information, Hoyt said, and more entrepreneurship is needed to figure out exactly how to get the public the features they crave.
“People want this quality stuff, but journalists need to figure out how to pay for it,” Hoyt said. Read some of Hoyt’s work on The Brooklyn Ink, or check out the sites for some of the authors for CJR's next issue:
-Derek Casanovas and Jasmine Linabary
Want to hear more from Hoyt? Check out the video below:
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