By Alan J. McCombs

On Friday a panel of experts at the Online News Association conference addressed a standing-room-only crowd, discussing how to move traditional journalists toward multimedia reporting, and how news Web sites should be built to support established organizations.

“The way we handled it in Naples was any time a reporter took a baby step we treated them like they were a rock star,” joked Rob Curley a panelist and vice president of product development for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.

Panelists emphasized that when organizations bring new technology into the newsroom they need to support existing staff as they make the switch to multimedia. They suggested encouraging ideas from traditional reporters and rewarding their attempts to use technology.

Curley related how traditional reporters at the Naples Daily News would come to him and the others at the online side of the organization and propose ideas of varying quality involving new media.

“They came to us and said, ‘Can we do this?’ And that’s a very different relationship,” Curley said. “It wasn’t us begging them, it was the other way around.”

“We wanted them to feel great about this so we pushed it as far as we could and if we couldn’t do something we tried like crazy to fake it.”

Patrick Steigman of ESPN.com emphasized that during his time working on the Web site Packer Insider, for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he tried to show existing staff members how the online content could also serve the print side of the organization.

“We tried to make it a mutually beneficial relationship with the newsroom so when we asked for resources from the newsroom to use specifically for this Web site we also wanted to make that content transferable,” Steigman said.

The panel had mixed views on how to deal with staff who are not open to change.

Curley said that while organizations should try to train everyone to adapt to new technologies, staffers who refuse to adapt may not have a place in the new newsroom.

“If you don’t believe in this type of journalism that’s fine, go somewhere else,” Curley said.

Nedra Weinstein, president of Arden Consulting, emphasized that editors and publishers need to talk to their staff members and remain open to venting from the staff. At the same time, Weinstein suggested they keep sight of their ultimate goal, to offer a better product to the audience. Weinstein has worked with organizations such as the Washington Post and the Public Broadcasting Service as they have transformed their organizations.

Moderator Neil Chase felt that most reporters who drag their feet in picking up new technologies may not be defiant in the face of change but simply unsure how to use the tools.

“There are people like that who perhaps their words are more than their actions. I don’t think it’s a question of them being deceptive,” Chase said in an interview.

“It’s a matter of the intention being matched up with his skill and the time.”

All of the panelists agreed that any effort to bring new media and the online world into existing news organizations depends on the support of top management.

“The biggest difference that you can make is to have an executive editor--the person who is sitting in the glass office in the corner of the newsroom--who really thinks that this is important and not because of lip service,” Curley said. ”He or she will really stand up for this and do it.” Curley won the Newspaper Associations of America’s New Media Pioneer Award in 2001.

Audience members said they thought the panel brought up interesting points about how the new technologies are entering the newsroom and how they are impacting the way journalists work.

Gary Graves, senior producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Web site, said that while the look of news may change and new skills such as knowledge of Adobe Photoshop or Soundforge may rise among reporters, they don’t beat the bedrock skills of journalism--finding and communicating news.

“The most important skill to have is the skill all journalists have and that’s to be a storyteller,” said Graves, who has been a newsman for more than 30 years.