NY World Panel Looks at New City Information Law
A Stream of Data Coming to The Public
by Peter C. Mastrosimone, Editor-in-Chief
LINK

When a new flood of raw data comes pouring out of the city, as it soon will under a bill Mayor Bloomberg signed Wednesday, how can journalists and citizen activists use it to better understand government operations? How will they sift through the mounds of information that will be posted in a central online portal to find the wheat in the chaff? What new programs might software developers be able to create with the data?

These were just some of the questions addressed by a panel at Columbia University on Tuesday, in a discussion sponsored by the Queens Chronicle’s partners at The New York World, as well as the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

The panelists included open government activists and a New York Times columnist, while City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), the bill’s prime sponsor, also spoke and took questions from the audience of about 80 people. More queries were submitted online.

The new law will further the goal of opening government data to the public beyond the access afforded by the Freedom of Information Law, panelist John Kaehny of the Reinventing Albany organization noted, because while FOIL guarantees access to documents that there is no valid reason to keep secret, it does not apply to pure information. The new city law, Intro. 29-A, will do that as agencies comply with its requirements over time.

But one key concern for the panelists is how people will be able to find useful information in the stream of data to come.

“If you have the Mississippi River coming at you, it’s hard to find the barge you want,” said Michael Powell, The Times’ Gotham columnist, who called 29-A a “terrific bill” regardless.

“I guess what I worry about is whether in this great river of data we have time to impose a narrative on it, and to impose an interesting narrative on it,” Powell said.

That, he said, is the key to being able to “interrogate” and understand the data, and to produce from it something that is useful.

Powell noted that although the Bloomberg administration promises a wealth of information to come, it is notorious for defying the FOIL, especially when it comes to requests for information made to the education and police departments.

The New York World, published by Columbia Journalism School, produces government accountability journalism online and, in Queens, in the Chronicle.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman (212) 854-8619 or (646) 734-5919 or efishman@columbia.edu
Clare Oh (212) 854-5479 or clare.oh@columbia.edu
The full report can be viewed on the Columbia Journalism Review website

Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism
Releases Report
“The Story So Far: What We Know About
the Business of Digital Journalism”

New York, NY (May 10, 2011) — Can digital journalism be profitable? What's making
money, what isn't, and why? A new report from Columbia University faculty members Bill
Grueskin, academic dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and Ava Seave,
principal at Quantum Media and adjunct professor at the Columbia Business School,
addresses these questions about the financial state of digital journalism. The report provides
the most comprehensive analysis to date of the business challenges that for-profit news
organizations face with their digital ventures. The report is being issued by the school’s Tow
Center for Digital Journalism, which is committed to the research and advancement of
journalism on digital platforms.

“Our previous report of this dimension—‘The Reconstruction of American Journalism,’ by
Leonard Downie and Michael Schudson, which we published in the fall of 2009—generated enormous interest all over the world,” said Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia Journalism School. “That told us there is a real hunger for comprehensive, trustworthy, thoughtful research and analysis that makes sense of the dizzying pace of change in our profession. The Downie Schudson report did not address the economics of digital journalism, which left that as the next big question for us. Bill Grueskin and Ava Seave have done a superb job of pushing forward the frontier of what we know about what is and isn’t working in the digital news business.”

Grueskin, Seave, and Ph.D. candidate Lucas Graves spent several months reporting onsite at news organizations—some founded over a century ago and others created in the past year or two. Based on the resulting body of data, they examine how news organizations allocate resources, explore what patterns are emerging in revenue streams, and draw conclusions about how companies might generate revenue more effectively.

The report is divided into nine chapters covering advertising models at a diverse array of news organizations, alternative platforms, new revenue streams, audience engagement and more.

The report will be presented at a panel discussion this evening moderated by Ken Auletta, author and contributor to The New Yorker. University President Lee C. Bollinger will introduce the event. Dean Nicholas Lemann, who commissioned the report, and Emily Bell, director of the Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, will introduce the panelists. The panel will take place at 7:00 p.m. in the School’s Lecture Hall. “We approach this report with a bias,” said Grueskin. “We think the world needs good
journalism and highly skilled journalists who seek out facts, explain complex issues and present their work in compelling ways. While the difficult financial state of the U.S. news industry is not news, we hope this report will provide useful information for news organizations as they evolve with emerging technologies.”
“We found that metrics such as page views and time spent on a site, previously a concern of the business side of media companies, are now a central factor in day-to-day activities of editorial writers and producers,” said Seave, co-author of the 2009 book The Curse of the Moguls: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies. “Understanding the numbers will eventually empower journalists. But there is still great disagreement and confusion about how to improve these metrics, and what they can do for profitability.” The report argues that news organizations must do more to embrace the unique attributes of the Internet rather than trying to adapt Web offerings to legacy business models. The authors suggest that news organizations and their audiences “regard digital platforms as being in a
constant state of transformation, one that demands a faster and more consistent pace of
innovation and investment.”

Among their recommendations:
• Digital platforms should not simply repurpose existing news content. They should feature
unique, high-value content designed specifically for digital media.

• Media companies should redefine the relationship between audience and advertising.
Journalists must better understand their existing and potential audiences, and strive to ensure
deeper loyalties.

• Media companies ought to rethink their relationships with advertisers and gain a fuller
appreciation for how advertisers now reach their customers via social media, new-media ads
and search engine optimization.

• News and marketing companies should move beyond the impression-based pricing systems that dominate online advertising, and forge new models that integrate digital ads and socialmedia outreach.

• Media companies must restore content value to digital advertising and move beyond the
decades-old relics that convey little information or appeal to consumers.

• News organizations must balance vigilance about content theft with the realization that
most aggregators operate within the bounds of copyright law. They should accept the fact
that this generates value for readers, and develop thoughtful approaches to understanding
what topics best lend themselves to aggregation.

• Integration of a legacy division—news content or ad sales—with new media is not for
everyone. Larger enterprises should consider creating separate digital staffs, particularly on
the business side.

• Any news site that adopts a pay scheme now should have very limited expectations for its
success—at least on the Web. Requiring digital readers to pay may help to slow circulation
losses, but that is hardly a long-term solution. A pay plan merged with an ambitious strategy
to improve users’ experience on mobile platforms has a much better chance to succeed.

The authors conclude the report with this: “We also believe that while philanthropic or
government support can help, it is ultimately up to the commercial market to provide the
economic basis for journalism. The industry has realized many of the losses from the digital
era. It is time to start reaping some of the benefits.”

The report will be published in its entirely on CJR.org, the website of Columbia Journalism
Review. In addition, Columbia University Press will soon publish a paperback edition and ebook version of the report, which will be available on the Kindle, the iPad, the Nook, and
other devices.


About the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
For almost a century, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has been preparing
journalists with instruction and training that stresses academic rigor, ethics, journalistic inquiry, and
professional practice. Founded with a gift from Joseph Pulitzer, the School opened its doors in 1912
and offers master of science, master of arts, and doctor of philosophy degrees. Learn more at
www.journalism.columbia.edu.

About the Tow Center for Digital Journalism
The mission of Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism is to educate
journalists with the skills and knowledge to lead the future of digital journalism and to serve as a
research and development center for the profession. The Center explores interactions between
journalists and citizens, particularly as readers seek ways to judge the reliability, standards and
credibility in media. The Center also devises and advances innovative methods of digital
reporting and presentation, to serve both established and new media companies.

About Columbia University
A leading academic and research university, Columbia continually seeks to advance the frontiers
of knowledge and to foster a campus community deeply engaged in understanding and addressing
the complex issues of our time. Columbia’s extensive cultural collaborations and community
partnerships help define the University’s underlying values and mission to educate students to be
both leading scholars and informed, engaged citizens. Founded in 1754 as King’s College,
Columbia University in the City of New York is the fifth oldest institution of higher learning in
the United States. Learn more at www.columbia.edu.