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Here is an unofficial report on last week's Nieman Foundation 
conference on public-interest journalism in the on-line era.
Feedback is welcomed.

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| Bill Densmore, President                   NEWSHARE CORPORATION |
| One Bank St., P.O. Box 367                densmore@newshare.com |
| Williamstown MA  01267                           (413) 458-8001 |
| The Internet's first news brokerage - http://newshare.com:8001/ |
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---------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
---------------------------------------------------------------
 
     WRITER'S NOTE -- Last week approximately 200 news media 
editors, executives, pundits, observers and would be-
entrepreneurs gathered in Cambridge for a two-day Nieman 
Foundation seminar entitled: "Public Interest Journalism: Winner 
or Loser in the On-line Era?" The foundation made audiotape of 
all of the formal sessions and plans to have them transcribed 
and available on the World Wide Web shortly. (For information 
contact: nreports@husc.harvard.edu)
 
     In the meantime, here is one attendee's view of the 
affair. This is not a news account, but an analysis. I have 
attempted to weave conceptual threads and illustrate them with 
quotes from speakers and panelists. I did not attend as a 
reporter, I failed to do such basics as interviewing 
participants for their reaction to the proceedings. 
 
     After reading this "setup," it is my hope that other 
conference attendees will add their own threads or clarify 
those which I have imperfectly woven; and that other readers 
will extend the conversation.
 
     This "story" is thus arranged in two parts: 
 
     1. A wrapup of themes expressed.
 
     2. A description of the program structure and 
        participants
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
1. MEDIA EXECUTIVES VIEW JOURNALISM AT THE DIGITAL FRONTIER
---------------------------------------------------------------
 
By Bill Densmore
[bill@newshare.com]
The Newshare Syndicate
 
     CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- May 7 -- Like curious onlookers 
peeping through cracks in construction-site barricades, 
America's media organizations are eyeing the foundations laid 
for a digital information infrastructure.
     Will they leap the fence and pick up a shovel, or watch 
the structure rise as sidewalk superintendents?
     There were few new clues last week as approximately 200 
media executives gathered here for a Nieman Foundation 
conference on public-interest journalism in the on-line era.
     Think about the basics of human nature, the "overpowering, 
and durable appetite for story . . . and coherence," said wrap-
up speaker Jack Fuller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune. 
Journalism which defines itself by purpose and values can be 
alive and well in the online era, said Fuller, but only "if we 
avoid being in a state of denial over all this."
     The point of the event, organizated by Nieman Fellow 
Katherine Fulton of Duke University [fulton(at)pps.duke.edu], 
was not to spur action on the digital frontier. It was to offer 
perspective to those on sidelines from others who have already 
plunged in. 
     "Internet people are frontierspeople," said Arthur O. 
Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times. Behind them, 
he said, "are the barbarians like me -- the shopkeeper. We're 
their worst nightmare, but we're coming." The Times already has 
a service on America Online and publishes a truncated daily 
facsimile edition. Soon, says Sulzberger, the newspaper will 
"put page one up on the Internet -- and it will be free." The 
efforts are all experimental, he says. "We don't know where it 
is going. In the long run, it's got to pay for itself."
 
     Here is some of the advice conference-goers heard:
 
a. New mechamisms; same consumer needs
--------------------------------------
     -- Don't expect news consumers of the next era -- reading by 
computer or home printer, viewing by interactive cable or 
listening by digital broadcast -- to have fundamentally 
different needs or interests than now. Rather, find a way to 
customize information to individuals while simultaneously 
offering broad community context and agenda-setting. News 
organizations which provide a stable window on the world and 
neighborhood will be winners in whatever medium they use, and 
consumers will search for and settle on them.
     "People are going to follow and want stability," says 
Sulzberger, the Times publisher. " . . . Then they'll stop."
     Developing context outside the familiar format of the 
front page is a challenge which has yet to be met by online 
services or other digital-delivery experiments. The front-page 
provides context, selection and the editor's cherished chance 
to set the agenda for a community of readers. "Where is the 
front page in cyberspace?" asked former Oakland Tribune 
Publisher Nancy Hicks Maynard during one talk. "I don't have 
the answer to that yet."
 
b. Local news: The "branded" product
------------------------------------
     -- National and international news are available from many 
sources, searchible and sortable. As such it is a commodity 
which is of little added value to the consumer trying to 
differentiate the offerings of a plethora of information 
providers. And as a result, local news will continue to be the 
"killer application" for content providers seeking to gather or 
retain users.
     "For us, the idea of local is important," says Omar Wasow, 
the just-out-of-college owner of New York Online, a community-
building dialup service which focuses on the ethnic stew of the 
nation's largest city. "The mix is the message."
     "What we are trying to do is broaden and deepen the 
relationships we have with our community," says Frank Daniels 
III, editor/publisher of The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., 
and pioneering Internet entrepreneur.
     "The local enterprise and reporting is what creates 
value," says Maynard.
 
c. The newsroom: The most precious resource
-------------------------------------------
   -- The one newspaper resource which will survive into the 
digital age is the newsroom, because presses and trucks may 
ultimately become a secondary means of delivery. For this 
reason, newspapers should be beefing up their editorial 
resources as the one sure way of preserving their competitive 
position.
     "The change in distribution patter is the single most 
exciting thing about the web," says Sulzberger."It dramatically 
changes the whole cost structure." Sulzberger says newspapers 
should invest not in distribution, but in news.
     The web makes it possible for individual reporters to be 
their own publishers if they are willing to take the 
entrepreneurial risk, adds Sulzberger. But the danger they 
face in trying to do so, he says, is that their message will be 
lost amid the chaos. "All of our reporters have the capability 
to do that," the publisher ssaid. "They can create a brand on 
their own."
 
d. Enabling community, not just personalization
-----------------------------------------------
     -- Because the last decades have seen us emerge from a 
society of information scarcity to information glut, news 
organizations of the digital era must provide consumers a 
a way to eliminate unwanted information and thus save time. But 
this role must be perceived as "enabling" consumers to identify 
and satisfy their own information needs, rather than simply 
"relieving" them of the glut, says Maynard, the ex-Oakland 
publisher.
     Moreover, if the "enabling" role results solely in each 
consumer finding information only fitting personal prejudices 
and interests, the result will be a further erosion of 
community and society. The potential for such "atomizing" of 
society was viewed by a number of conference-goers and speakers 
as the most worrisome potential anti-democratic effect of 
personalized news delivery.
     "The more we create dissonance in society, the more we 
push people away from public life," says Richard Harwood, a 
Bethesda, Md., based industry consultant who just completed a 
study of public journalism for the American Society of 
Newspaper Editors. "There are too few boundary-crossing 
institutions that allow people to feel community,: adds 
Harwood, who says his research shows that people "yearn for 
civility" in public life.
     Harwood says news consumers he interviews are invariably 
more interested in discussing journalistic values than new-
media technology. As a result, advises Harwood, "Don't focus on 
the technology, focus on what it is going to do for us."
 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
2. PROGRAM ATTEMPTS TO SURVEY IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA FORMATS
---------------------------------------------------------------
 
     The Nieman Foundation conference on public-interest 
journalism in the online era was an attempt to survey the 
impact of new-media formats on an old concept: the ability of 
news professionals to define the public agenda and foster 
dialog rather than dissonance. "Is this a journalism rennaissance,
or a reformation?" asked conference organizer Katherine Fulton, 
a Nieman Fellow who now teaches at Duke University.

     On Thursday, Fulton used Donald Bartlett and James 
Steele's Pulitzer Prize-winning "America: What Went Wrong?" 
series in the Philadelphia Inquirer as a case study of how new 
media might approach a major public-service project. One 
conclusion: While newspapers might still set the agenda, new-
media technology may allow the followup to be quicker, cheaper 
and more interactive.

    Next, three panelists described their particular brands of 
new-media public journalism. They were Mark Benerofe, executive 
vice-president of consumer services for Delphi Internet, owned 
by Rupert Murdoch; Lew Friedland, a University of Wisconsin-
Madison professor who launched the non-profit Online Wisconsin 
Internet news service and the Civic Practices Network; and Omar 
Wasow, founder and president of New York Online, described as 
the nation's first minority-owned online service and one which 
has overcome the white-male demographic of most online 
services.
 
THE NEW CHALLENGE: BOUNDARY CROSSING
     Then media researcher Richard Harwood, of Bethesda, Md., 
engaged in an on-stage dialog with Neil Postman, New York 
University professor and author of "Amusing Ourselves to Death: 
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business."  A central theme 
for Postman is that modern media is a largely "privatizing 
experience" for consumers, distancing them from community. Postman 
also advised the audience to consider the negative as well as positive
implications of new media. Society never considered the unfortunate
consequences of the automobile's transportation dominance, he said; now 
it is too late. Harwood saw a need for new media to foster "boundary 
crossing" by consumers among a variety of interests and perspectives.

     On Friday, former Oakland Tribune Publisher Nancy Hicks 
Maynard [maynard(at)well.com], just elected to the board of 
Tribune Co. of Chicago, offered an approach to marketing 
public-interest journalism in the digital age. It used to be 
that newspapers talked to readers who bought goods from 
advertisers who placed ads in the paper. Now the relationships 
are not as simple, she says, and move in both directions. Well-
capitalized or unusually smart media organizations can be new-
media pioneers and other media groups can be "timely entrants" 
into new technologies, says Maynard. But those which are 
reluctant to enter on any basis, "will be out of the game." 
 
DANIELS: GET BACK IN THE GAME
     New-media analyst and entrepreneur Esther Dyson next 
moderated a discussion among Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher 
of The New York Times; Walter Isaacson, Time Inc. editor of new 
media; and Frank Daniels III, executive editor of The News & 
Observer of Raleigh, N.C. Sulzberger talked about the value of 
analyzing, not just collecting, information. Daniels urged 
newspapers to get "back in the game" by providing news 
immediately via the Internet. He said the Nando.Net Internet 
news service his company runs was handling 500,000 requests for 
information per day on the Internet because of its 
comprehensive reporting on the Oklahoma federal-building 
bombing. "The freer and more open the net is, the better off 
the regional papers will be," says Daniels. Their brand 
identity has credibility which transfers across media. "The 
more chafe that is out there, the more likely they will turn to 
do," he added. "But they won't turn to you if you're not in the 
game."
 
STOP BEING CONTENT NANNY, FCC CHIEF SAYS
     In the digital age, the Federal Communications Commission 
should largely stop awarding licenses based upon a theory of 
scarcity of public airwaves and should stop acting as a 
"content nanny," FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said during a Friday 
speech. Rather, he said, antitrust "concentration analysis" 
should determine whether a newspaper can own a cable operation 
or a TV station or an Internet service. Hunt also urged that 
the FCC move out of the content-regulation busienss, set aside 
spectrum (or bandwidth) for public use and force licensees to 
provide free time for poltical campaigning. "That is completely 
achievable in the age of multicasting," he said.
 
AN UNMET CHALLENGE: AFRICA NEWS SERVICE
     Helping the non-profit Africa News Service 
[africanews(at)igc.apc.org] to achieve financial stability lead 
to a revealing exchange between panelists and audience Friday 
afternoon. Panelist Steven Brill, publisher of The American 
Lawyer and owner of Court TV, offered to pay the service $2,000 
a month for court coverage in Africa. But when he challenged 
media executives in the audience to propose similar forms of 
in-kind support, there were no takers other than the editor of 
the Norfolk Virginian & Pilot, who offered to become an Africa 
News Service subscriber.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1995, The Newshare Syndicate. Reposting or 
reprinting in entirety for one-time personal use or excerpting 
with credit is authorized. For other permissions, send Email 
request to copyright@newshare.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------
 


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