Experiments in newsrooms

George BrockProfessor and Head of Journalism

City University LondonWorld Editors Forum Newsroom Summit

Berlin| October 2013

Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age

Throwing spaghetti at the wall

Words that scare people• “Innovation”• “Experiment”• “Think outside the box”

• Most people can’t – and don’t want – to do that to order.

• People who love the idea are rare.

Why?• “No institution wants to dissolve itself. Getting

that old mindset to accept that everything that it has done as a business and editorial model is now over, pffft, gone is very hard.” Andrew Sullivan, The Dish, 2012

• Fear• Habit• The peculiar conditions of journalism is the

second half of the 20th century• Media businesses became operations companies

Conquering fear of flying• Look back at history• Focus on experiment• Worry about quality of

experiment• Drive up quantity of experiment

Journalism is always being disrupted

• When did more papers die in New York City than any other time?

• British “national” papers – when was their circulation peak?

• Tension between what people want to know and what they should know always unstable

• Even universities get it: “teaching hospital” projects and EJ courses.

Quantity• Imagine a media “launch” process• Now imagine an array of experiments• Split the money into 10• Do enough to make lots of mistakes• “Error is useful” (Buzzfeed)• Long, repeated cycles of change (so keep

doing it)

Quality• Speed• Ruthlessness• Measure of success/failure• Adaptability + agility• Measure of value• Learn from other experiments• Unleash your inner anthropologists• Watch out for consultants and cosmetics

salesmen

For instance…paywalls• Dogma has no place in experiment: ideas are

stress-tested:– “Information wants to be free”– “People ought to pay for our news”

• Set up as many experiments as possible• What did Andrew Miller say here on Monday?• = there is no single answer

Disrupters wear disguise• SE1•Wannabehacks•Gothamist•Curbed

Did I mention the book?

• www.georgebrock.net

• @georgeprof

• www.city.ac.uk/journalism