Livestream: Saving Journalism in Aspen

2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.              Working Groups

FOCAS Members will break into three separate working groups, meeting simultaneously, with the aim of exploring the models presented at the previous session.  Each Working Group will examine one of the presented models with the aim of critiquing or improving the model, and/or creating a new model on the topic.

1. Journalistic Ecosystems for Large Communities – working with an annual budget of $TK construct a new news organization to cover a Metro market (e.g., Philadelphia). How would it be staffed?  How would it harness the local community?  What is the proper balance between the professionals on staff and local community reporters?   How would the staff curate content from elsewhere to serve the needs of the metro region?
2. Hyper-local Models – drawing on the model presented in the morning, what resources, technology and approach are most promising to meet the individual and community journalistic needs of local communities and sub-communities in the coming years?  What improvements are advisable?  What other new models are there for hyper-local news?
3. Online Payment Models – as news moves online, how will the system create revenues so that good enterprise journalism can flourish?  What kinds of journalistic organizations are most ripe for this type of model?  How do the payments models vary depending on the type of journalism functions being offered?

4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Free time

6:30 p.m.                                 Working Group Reports due

7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Private Reception for FOCAS Members and Participants at a private home

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

In each of the plenary sessions on Tuesday morning, participants will hear the reports of the Working Groups and consider how the models in that subject area can work better to serve the local communities while sustaining the functions of journalism.  Particularly, how can we create and reform journalistic entities to serve communities on a sustainable basis in the future?

8:45 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.              Plenary Roundtable III:  Journalistic Ecosystems for Large Communities

This session will begin with a report of the Working Group on this topic, followed by full plenary discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the model presented, refined by the Working Group.  The discussion can delve more deeply into the assumptions behind the models, and can move on to other recommendations for sustaining enterprise journalism in large communities.

• What kind of organization is required to cover essential beats and investigative pieces?
• How does the new news organization interact with the larger news ecosystem?
• What revenue models can support the new news organization?

9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.            Plenary Roundtable IV:  Models for Hyper-local Approaches

Continuing the discussion on new models, participants will consider how new approaches are allowing citizens to gain specific information of a highly local nature.  Again, the dialogue will explore financial models, including those for Internet-based citizen-supplied information, and those connected with existing journalistic institutions.

• What are the most promising models for drawing journalistic information at the hyper-local level?
• What are the best models for funding these kinds of sites and efforts?
• How do hyper-local efforts interact with the larger news ecology?

10:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Break

11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.                      Plenary Roundtable V:  New Online Payment Systems for Journalism

As participants consider the online payment options, they should consider:

• What are the most promising and realistic models for funding quality enterprise and local journalism from online subscriptions and payments in the years ahead?
• Is the most promising approach to see a number of experiments along several different lines, or is it likely they would defeat each other along the way?
• How do cost structures change the dynamic?

1. Private Sector – what do media companies, both existing and new, need from the investing, advertising and/or technology communities to support the business models discussed at the Forum?  More specifically, what technology tools and platforms are required by these new models?  How will Wall Street and venture capitalists fund emerging media companies in this space?  What are the implications of financial demands on the ability of new companies to provide enterprise journalism?  What new advertising and marketing strategies will aid the growth of these models and the new ecosystem of news?
2. Governmental Initiatives (Federal, State and/or Local) – a number of government measures are already under public discussion such as certain antitrust exemptions, tax incentives, and more funding for public service media.  Looking forward, what government policies can promote the growth of business models that preserve or encourage enterprise journalism without exerting undue government influence over content?  What government initiatives (including government transparency measures and access to information) can improve the opportunities for new and existing journalistic organizations to perform their journalistic functions.
3. Community and Non-profit Initiatives – what might foundations, including community foundations, do to promote enterprise journalism on a sustainable basis?  How can public service media be more integrated into local communities?  Are there new approaches or structures that can more easily and effectively gain foundation support?  How do public service media fit into the new journalistic ecosystem in local communities?  What is the role of non-profit financing?

Whew! That’s a lot of work. Hopefully they will figure it out and journalism will be saved!