We were honored to host the ONA Philly regional conference, although none of us were sure what the audience would think of the day we'd planned. We decided to split the day into three tracks of topics that were weighing on the minds of news professionals -those working at news organizations, those doing it alone- today. So we divided our speakers into Video, Reporting and Entrepreneurs.
Our guiding principle was that of the "unconference" - We encouraged conversation, acknowledged that even though our speakers were experts, there were those in the crowd who may have had similar experiences, and that sharing experiences and information was the order of the day.
On the Video track, our speakers were Chet Rhodes, AME for News Video at washingtonpost.com; a panel of experts at The Inquirer and the Daily News; and Frank Wiese, Visuals Operations Editor at The Morning Call. Probably the most rave reviews came from Chet's session - reporters and site managers all came away feeling like video was less daunting and more do-able. (See reviews at the end of this piece.) Others spoke well of the "tips from the pros" session, and felt that hearing from people who were interested in learning from their peers was humbling and helpful.
On the Reporting track, we had our own internal bloggers - Will Bunch ("Attytood") and Dan Rubin ("Blinq"), two of the first mainstream media bloggers in the country - share their tips for gaining audience with a small but attentive crowd. Then Columbia U student Chris Anderson shared his research into how the media, public Web sites and bloggers intersect in Philadelphia. The head of the state First Amendment Coalition and a state Newspaper Association attorney explained the state's new Right to Know law, and how it will affect requests for information. Finally, Pocono Record Managing Editor Susan Koomar spoke about the newspaper's new practice of turning some reporters into Content Managers online, and giving them bonuses for achieving traffic growth.
In the Entrepreneur track, the Greater Philadephia Tourism and Media Council talked with its crowd about how it's used social media to draw online buzz around Philly events, including Uwishunu.com, its' innovative blog. Washington, DC attorney Briana Thibeau of Dow, Lohnes answered editors' and bloggers' questions about where and when to embed YouTube video and when items enter the public domain. Newsday.com's Jon McCarthy went deep on how the site exploded into the top 10 newspaper.com, in terms of page views. And Mark Potts batted cleanup, with the top 10 tips on going hyperlocal (drawing from his experience with Backfence.com).
In between, we had two sessions that went across all tracks. First, the Dave Saaybe and Paul Calouri of the Associated Press demonstrated the news cooperative's new mobile platform - built for the iPhone - and answered audience questions about how it would apply ZIP zoning and video in the coming weeks. And we -- Wendy Warren, editor of Philly.com, and Chris Krewson, executive online editor at The Inquirer -- explained how we built a site to cover the historic Pennsylvania presidential primary, then exceeded our wildest traffic expectations.
Reviews:
"Great conference. Really good to see so many people getting together to talk about the important things we have to do to make newspapers more Web-friendly and to help them survive and thrive in this new-media world. I especially enjoyed Jon McCarthy's rich presentation of smart tips for growing traffic the Newsday way." -- Mark Potts, Backfence.com
"(I)t was good to see how large paper processes translate nicely to smaller papers (the video presentation as an example). I also thought it was interesting how small paper ideas (smother coverage like the politics blog) helps big organization become relevant again." -- Jonathan McCarthy, Newsday
"Chet Rhodes of Washingtonpost.com did a great job of removing the specter of fear from online video. A much less apocalyptic vision of the future. Thanks!" -- Sam Wood, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"This was a fantastic event. Philly needs more like it. Big thanks to all responsible." -- Michael Prell, Nanomonkey
(In response to ONA Philly Facebook question, 'What's the best thing you learned?')
"That I'm not alone in just trying out a bunch of stuff to see what works. There's no rule book, and I should stop worrying about having one." - Janet S. Pickel, Harrisburg Patriot-News
(ONA Philly Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19529560597)
Chris Krewson | Executive Editor, Online / News
The Philadelphia Inquirer | http://www.philly.com
ckrewson@phillynews.com | 215-854-4602
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