Philadelphia pioneers envision "norg" -- the new news organization; vow to meet again; event seen as end of blog-MSM debate

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Philadelphia pioneers envision "norg" -- the new news organization; vow to meet again; event seen as end of blog-MSM debate
By Bill Densmore
Mar 27, 2006, 01:40

INVITATION: "Democracy and Independence"
PHOTOS: posted by Albert Yee to Flick

(A wraup of blog reports)

Mainstream and citizen journalists, philanthropists and academics who gathered in Philadelphia to start an historic quest for the outlines of journalism's future say they won't stop at one meeting.

And their meeting is seen by analyst Jeff Jarvis as the symbolic end to debate over whether bloggers and mainstream media share a concern for the future of news.

"This is something that's pretty much life or death to everyone in this room," Wendy Warren, a Philadelphia Daily News editor, was quoted as saying during Saturday's session, which drew about 40 people. Later, she wrote on the new "norg" blog site: "We will start developing an Evangelist’s Calendar of ways to promote the norgs idea at conferences, etc. and set up another meeting, inviting new people.

Karl Martino, a software engineer who runs the PhillyFuture.org blog, was a key organizer of Saturday's event, galvanized by the financial turmoil and identity confusion of America's newspapers. They met at "Norg: The Unconference," staged in a conference room at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication.

Using the term "norg" to refer to a "news organization" was coined by Philadelphia Daily News staffer Will Bunch on Oct. 24, 2005 at his blog, AttyTood. In a posting on that date, Bunch described in fictional terms what he thought news reading would be like in 2025, and he then implored readers to post ideas for helping newspapers survive the Internet era. The term "norgs" is the subject of a deletion debate at WikiPedia, apparently becuase there is another use of the plural version which is off color.

"The room was swarming with ideas from not only veteran journalists and editors, but also from bloggers, students and people simply passionate about the future of news delivery," Howard W. Hall wrote of the gathering on his personal blog. "It was pretty exciting."

Daniel Rubin, in his "blinq." blog at the Inquirer's Philly.COm website, reports on the "unconference" meeting of bloggers and mainstreamers trying to figure out what will happen to the city's two dailies. He says the group described a "norg" as . . . " credible, interactive, on many platforms, widely distributed, devoted to media literacy, with voice and personality, enabling members of the community to inform each other, continuous, ethical, economically viable, with a watchdog function, community-owned, that empowers people to speak for themselves, First Amendment-protected, flexible, adaptive, transparent."

"I was expecting a raging hall of egos. Instead, we actually worked on this oddly named notion of the next thing in journalism, The Norg," Rubin wrote on his blog after Saturday's session. "The group broke into clusters to dig deeper into some of the ideas, such as how does a norg serve a democracy where not everyone is online, what are the financial models that could make a new collective work, how do we hook young readers who are used to free and edgy, what are the ethical responsibilities of citizen journalism."

Organizers of the event were said to have been Will Bunch of the Inquirer; Karl Martino, Wendy Warren and Susie Madrak, who writes her "Suburban Guerilla" weblog.

One person attending from outside Philadelphia was Jarvis, a New York based former TV critic and new-media manager for the Newhouse newspaper chain who will become a journalism profesor in the fall at City University of New York. For much of the last couple of years, there has been debate in journalism circles about whether individuals who report and comment on news on weblogs can be considered "journalists" or practicing journalism.

More recently, Jarvis and other observers have suggested the question is no longer debatable. Jarvis, at his own blog, calls the Philadelphia gathering (which he attended) "a remarkable, perhaps historic, gathering of newspaper people and bloggers starting a conversation about saving news." Jarvis goes on: "I say this is the day that the war ends. This isn’t journalism against bloggers anymore. It never was, really. This is journalists and bloggers together in favor of news."

Jarvis writes that a number of interesting ideas came up during the session. One was the notion of a news organization ("norg") as a co-operative, and as fullfilling the functions of a wire service -- aggregating coverage from small news-gathering entities.

"The business question comes up from all sides," blogs Jeff Jarvis, a New York based former TV critic and new-media manager for the Newhouse newspaper chain who will become a journalism profesor in the fall at City University of New York. "Everyone wants to know how a web news operation is going to make money," Jarvis wrote in his running commentary on the all-day meeting. "It's not about saving newspaper or -- pardon me -- saving newsrooms. It's about growing news."

Jarvis says the Philadelphia gathering will continue as a collaborative wiki website, and a think tank which trieds to reinvent news -- a new future for news.

Based upon the captions on photos posted by Albert Yee, people at Saturday's session were the editor of the Inquirer's editorial page, Steve Satullo; Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean of the Anneberg School of Communication; Neil McManus of Comcast; a representative from the Pew Charitable Trusts; and members of the Philadelphia Independent Media Center, who videotaped the event.

Below are the session's white-board notes:

What is a norg? (What content?)
What is the ethic/culture of a norg?
Platforms/distrb/biz (ownership) models?
Our role in civic engagement, including: do we filter?

Who is a journalist? What is journalism?

Here are the group's white-board notes: (login: 5norgs1)

MORE POSSIBILITIES Continuous; 24/7 hour Credible Risky. Risk-takers. Stretching the limits tech, content and money. Embraces and seeks failure. Union Interactive. Giving voice to the readers. Multiplatform, including a free print edition. Multimedia, easily divided into platorm for audience Journalism is not always a story Not a one-way street. Not print into multimedia—both ways Ethical Transparent. Allowing reporters to express what they think and feel. Watchdog of the eternal spin machine. Please, of state government. Committed to freedom of information, financially and legally. Builds it, buys it and lobbies for it. Investigative Financially viable And generous with the money it makes. Supports the acts of journalism. PERSONAL. Facilitates actual human interaction. Distributed widely – transit Devoted to Media literacy – not how to use the media, how to BE the media. Should empower its users to be citizens Have a voice. Have a personality. Enabling the community to inform each other. Layers of journalism: Old-school, trained journalism; community journalism Owned by the community New metric for measuring success. Clicks are not the only way. Should enjoy first-amendment protection

WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO GROW?
Redefine what local news can be and ought to be. Find what ties us together – psychographic, not geographic Storytelling. Finding new ways to use technology to tell the story. Beyond even our new toolbox (podcast, etc.). Consider partisan journalism? How would that work? Tone and attitude What does the consumer GET? Is it fully self-selected? Yahoo as a content model We are giving people WAY too much. Why are we forcing it down their throats?

WHO ARE WE TRYING TO SERVE? Do we exist to give people what they say they want and need, or do we exist to give people what we think—based on a lot of work—they need? Is it possible to open up this decision making process? Can we give people what they need to know in a way that is FAR more accessible and interesting? Journalism should be a hammer, not a mirror.

WHAT DOES DEMOCRACY REQUIRE? Does democracy need US to share the information? How much do we let non-readers, including corporate interests, dictate our business? What is the role of citizen-journalists? Can they help answer the “geography paradox”? How do we make the group that’s doing journalism more diverse and empowering everyone? How can the emerging role of the Web as a utility help diversify the conversation? How does a la carte selection limit readers’ involvement in a democracy? How will I find out about the things that I didn’t even know I care about? How would you learn that the public schools were failing somewhere else? Or is a la carte selection the ULTIMATE act of democracy? There is a tension here. Oh, yeah: The role of journalism in a democracy. The Constitution. Free—as in no cost—is more democratic.

WHAT IS AN ACT OF JOURNALISM? Can we strengthen our two-way relationship? Why are we still dividing up “bloggers” v. “journalists” Difference between owning the news and enabling the news. How do we create the structure around citizen journalists to protect them? (Legal, financial) What are the new ethics? Transparency? Multiplicity of voices? Why was Karl so upset that the Red State America was at the Post? How do we protect the values we care about” Accuracy … Can we have levels of credibility? What about the editability of the Web? Good, bad? What outdated rules are preventing the full integration of online and print? (U. Penn. bball coach example.) Poaching! Print poaching of stories! ”Letting in” others to the Official Acts of Journalism. Who do we need in a norg? How do we demand diversity? What issues are aroud that: Language, access? What’s the difference between online journalism and print journalism? Journalism IS Rush Limbaugh, IS Don Imus.

MORE LEGAL How should we change libel laws?

THE ONES AT THE TOP Who runs the online operation? Shouldn’t be journalists, should be people who actually know the technology. Must change the culture of the newsroom to quest after new technology. The ills of shareholder ownership. How HARD it is to merge Web culture with shareholder-owned companies. The ills of management whose minds have been warped by shareholder ownership Do we have any decent managers?

CULTURE OF THE NEWSROOM There’s a physical separation of newsroom and online Who is talking to me? Reading people who seem to talk to me. Selection of “filter” that you want. Personality, editorial team, friends and family. A whole lot of preaching to the choir. How do we break out of that? You don’t have to have one place where you see both sides. People who are on blogs are interested in the debate. They will have read the other side. We link to people with whom we disagree.

BUT IT HAS TO MAKE MONEY How do we pay for this? How do we pay journalists? Do we have to reduce the number of journalists to make this work? How do we pay for the expensive stuff? The investigative journalism question! How do we pay for the BUNDLE? How do we continue to present the news the user didn’t know they were looking for? Not just informative, but the surprising and delightful and unexpected? How do we become entrepreneurs? How do norgs turn their users into revenue-producing opportunities? ”Shareholder fundamentalism” Phone a thons? The answer. Yahoo as a financial model

WHAT WE DO NOW Wiki and a blog and a message group to define the architecture of a norg and begin filling out the details, completing the model. All through Typepad? Publish all the ideas, begin shaping them in communication with our users, and begin using what ideas we can. Start developing the calendar of ways to promote the idea Work on three tracks: Building the model, putting the ideas to work at PNI, work to have the ideas applied in all local media

Vision of a norg – and show the world (and have them contribute). Model the co-op. Write a whole new handbook for local news Develop training for Philadelphia journalists in new media Invite dissent and failure Can we draft a norg budget? Can we try it online? Use it no matter what. Even if not one thing changes at PNI (or, insert your media outlet here). Close the technology gap no matter what. Publish (blog? Wiki?) all our ideas so that everyone can have/edit them Get the word out to “traditional” and “new” media so they can join in. CJR, presentations to conferences, etc. Not just our ideas, but what we have accomplished by bringing this divergent group together. Get together in person on some regular bais Broaden our group further – multimedia, business