A Note on the Mass Media

A distinguished citizen journalist shares her thoughts of media and crowdsourcing

Jerry Firman interviews Mary Lou Fulton over email

Jerry Firman: I think you have already said in a speech or your writings that Journalism and/or Newspaper Publishing has come to a Great Divide or something to that effect. Will Citizen Journalism play a role in bridging the gap between MSM (main stream media) and on line journalism in the near term?

Mary Lou Fulton: First, let me say that I don't care for the term "citizen journalism." I think it's something that newspaper people made up as a way to feel more comfortable about the fact that they aren't the only ones who get to be publishers anymore. I prefer the term participatory media because I feel it more accurately reflects the breadth of self-expression that we see all over the Internet. Participatory media can take the form of traditional journalism, of course, but it also can be sharing a photograph of a beautiful sunset, writing a restaurant review or posting an opinion about a local controversy.

The important thing to understand is that the basic human desire for self-expression and communication has always been a huge driver of online activity and always will be. Remember, before there was YouTube and My Space, there were personal home pages on Geocities.com and member profiles that drove a huge amount of activity on AOL. This phenomenon is bigger than traditional media and will continue to grow no matter what media companies do or don't do. I'm pleased that so many media companies are now seeing participation as an opportunity rather than a threat, and finding ways to tap into the power of community content that happily co-exist with more traditional forms of journalism to create a richer overall experience.

Q: Do you think print newspapers delivered on line through reproduction on the home printer or some similar device might delay or reduce their failing readership?

A: Newspaper readership is declining among certain age groups, and is also declining on weekdays. However, our online audiences are growing, not just through our traditional local news sites, but through other publications we are creating to connect with distinct audiences. For example, in Bakersfield we operate eight local sites in addition to The Californian's flagship site, Bakersfield.com. And we also publish multiple print publications such as The Northwest and Southwest Voice for neighborhood news, and the weekly Latino magazine Mas. I think that targeted publications such as these will be more effective than trying to drive home printing of traditional newspaper content.

Q: A few Citizen Journalist have tried to publish documents as mentioned in question 2. but have not been successful. Do you think they may be in the future?

A: As far as the efforts of individuals, I see print media as a useful marketing strategy to get people online. If an individual is trying to call attention to a document available on a Web site, a flyer or a newsletter could be quite effective in getting the word out.

Q: Is there any way other than through a sister newspaper, radio or TV station, that a community on line paper can get the word out to a large enough audience to make the on line paper financially viable?

A: This is a very important question. Most online community newspapers are started by one individual as a labor of love using free online software such as a blog. These individuals are rarely in it for the money and don't give much thought to online advertising. As a site becomes more popular, it takes up more of the individual's time and they eventually have to decide if they want to turn the site into a full-time business. We hear lots of talk about the growth of online advertising, but the truth is the lion's share of the revenue goes to the big guys like Google, Yahoo and MSN. And small businesses, the logical advertisers for community sites, have not yet embraced online advertising in huge numbers. So what can be done between now and the time that local small businesses are spending more money for online marketing? We have found that a complementary print publication can be a huge advantage both in terms of revenue and marketing and I would recommend that as a strategy, along with promotional partnerships with local organizations who can help with outreach. It's difficult to underestimate the importance of marketing in gaining momentum for online start-ups.

Q: Are you aware of ways the small town journalist with little more than a computer and friends can be a financial success with on line publishing?

A: That depends on how you define financial success. But in general, you need a larger audience than a few friends to succeed. It takes sales and marketing to make any business successful, and as I mentioned above, the individuals who are founders of Web sites tend to focus more on the editorial content than business concerns.

Q: You are a great advocate of open source publishing. Now, Jay Rosen has come up with a study of Crowdsourcing. Is he talking about a distinction without a difference?

A: They're just different ways to engage people in participation. The more, the better!

Q: When and if small on line newspapers become successful and ubiquitous, how will regional, national, international news sources manage to keep large staffs of reporters and maintain wire services?

A: The question of whether online advertising can be large enough to support traditional newsgathering operations is perhaps the most pressing question facing traditional media today. The truth is that we don't know the answer, which is why experimentation with new approaches is so important.

Q: Much of what I read from MSM about the rising popularity of CJs seems to consider them only as reporters, only as fact finders. Little is said about CJ's being editors or publishers. Most CJ's I know are very interested in the publishing and business end of news. Are MSM publishers fearful of this?

A: There's growing competition for the attention of consumers, and online publishers are among those competitors. I would say that online publishers keep us on our toes, and we're more open than ever to partnerships with publishers who develop their own followings or have particular areas of expertise that are of interest in the community. About.com is a great model in this regard, in that individual publishers have a forum for their expertise while being part of a larger network of sites.