Reported by Reuben Stern and Olga Kyle.
This week on the RJI Futures Lab, we see what the newsroom at KQED public media is doing to serve the education market, we hear about newspaper strategy from an executive at Lee Enterprises and we learn how the professional networking site LinkedIn can be used to help report and disseminate news.
PART 1: Creating content for education
Education is one of many specialized markets where news organizations have sought to grow audiences by adapting existing content. Tim Olson, vice president of digital media and education at KQED public media in San Francisco, explains how his organization creates educational materials alongside its regular news content.
Reporting by Teddy Nykiel, Reuben Stern and Olga Kyle.
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For example:
- KQED has a partnership with the California Academy of Sciences. Together, they produced an ebook and iTunes U course about earthquakes. More information about the book can be found in this press release.
- KQED’s Art School includes a series of video lessons in which artists demonstrate specific techniques. The videos are created at the same time artists are being interviewed for news or feature-related stories.
- ‘Do Now’ is a KQED participatory journalism initiative that encourages students to discuss issues like gay marriage and free trade on Twitter. KQED posts articles and videos on its website for students to read to get the discussions started. Follow @KQEDedspace to get in on conversations about everything from crime to sex education.
- The Lowdown is a KQED blog that aims to bridge the gap between journalism and educational content.
PART 2: Strategy at Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises operates 46 daily newspapers across the country including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Arizona Daily Star and the Wisconsin State Journal. The company’s Vice President of Strategy Greg Schermer tells us how newsrooms might address some of the mobile challenges headed their way.
Reporting by Teddy Nykiel.
[To skip directly to this segment in YouTube, click here.]
PART 3: LinkedIn as a journalism tool
Founded mainly as a site for professional networking, LinkedIn has increasingly become a tool for journalists to uncover news, build an audience and more. We learn some of the possibilities from LinkedIn Corporate Communications Manager Yumi Wilson.
Reporting by Nate Anton.
[To skip directly to this segment in YouTube, click here.]
For example:
Several weeks before Twitter’s initial public stock offering was announced last fall, USA Today reporter Scott Martin found evidence Twitter was likely headed for the IPO from a job ad posted by Twitter on LinkedIn. About a week later, based on LinkedIn profile information, he reported that another key employee at Twitter had previous experience overseeing a tech company IPO, providing further evidence that the IPO might be in the works.
Upcoming training:
LinkedIn’s Yumi Wilson will be leading an online training for journalists on March 5 (originally scheduled for March 3). For details, click here.
Additional information:
- LinkedIn recently announced the site will begin allowing anyone — not just invited business leaders — to post and share articles via its Influencer blog platform. The site also recently added a feature that lets users block other users.
- 10 ways reporters can use LinkedIn to find sources, track changes at companies (Poynter.org)
- How journalists can make the most of LinkedIn (The Next Web)
- The LinkedIn for Journalists group now has more than 48,000 members.
Reuben Stern is the deputy director of the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and host and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the iPad app to watch the show wherever you go. You can also sign up to receive email notification of each new episode.