RJI news
Legacy media company’s focus on the positive brings flood of new profit possibilities
As many legacy mass media company leaders worry about what they can’t do in the new digital age, Rust Communications Inc. is finding a cornucopia of things it can do. “We constantly look for new revenue streams,” says Co-President Jon K. Rust. The Cape Girardeau, Missouri-based company has capitalized on its resources, which include 49 … Continued
Embarking on third retirement, Fidler reflects on tech evolutions, his 1981 prediction about tablets
Mobile media scholar’s journalism career extended over more than half a century
Print vs. Web: Community publisher more concerned about quality of news than its method of delivery
Dalton Wright is no stranger to the impact of younger technologies on newspapers. The Lebanon (Mo.) Daily Record publisher grew up watching family members run radio stations. The young Wright was first exposed to print in 1953 when his father, O.R. Wright, bought the parent company of the Daily Record. “Dad saw a combination of … Continued
For the love of print: Second ‘job’ pays the bills
For Darryl Wilkinson, running a community newspaper is a labor of love, like running a farm is a labor of love for many of his Northwest Missouri neighbors. “It’s my farm,” says the publisher of The North Missourian, a 1,400-paid-circulation weekly he and his wife Liz have run for more than three decades in Gallatin. … Continued
New RJI Fellow to develop suite of apps to help streamline workflow of community journalists
A 2015-2016 RJI Fellow wants to streamline the workflow in small- to mid-sized newsrooms by creating apps to assist journalists in their day-to-day tasks. These tasks could range from fact-checking and finding free images to creating immersive multimedia presentations and previewing mobile versions of their articles. The project will put “big-media tools” into the hands … Continued
Don’t count out print yet
An advertiser recently asked Gasconade County Republican Publisher Dennis Warden how he was doing. The inquirer’s tone indicated, “He thought newspapers aren’t too long for this world,” Warden recalled. Representing the third generation of his family to run the East Central Missouri weekly, Warden disagrees. “I really do not have competitors, an advantage our big … Continued
Fearless focus on local news is Unterrified Democrat’s defense against future foes
Jerrilynn S. Voss has two telephones on her desk, and together they say something about the longtime newspaper editor’s attitude toward new technology. One phone has an old-fashioned rotary dial and she takes incoming calls on that one. “People calling in can’t tell the difference,” she notes. The other phone has a more modern touch-tone … Continued
Washington Missourian: Digital offerings growing faster than print
The Washington Missourian’s digital ventures have been evolutionary, picking up steam as the company gets further and further into the effort. The newspaper started with a website more than a decade ago, recalls General Manager Bill Miller Jr., “mostly because everybody else was doing it.” Now the company has a presence on social media sites … Continued
Leadership and culture are linchpins of digital transformation in the newsroom
Little has proven more challenging for newspaper newsrooms than their transformation to digital news and information providers. It takes much more than learning new skills, although those are important. It’s a matter of re-engineering journalists’ attitudes and their relationships with news consumers, as well changing newsroom workflows and priorities. It takes significant culture change; both … Continued
Washington Missourian: Print or be printed
I did a “press check” with Washington Missourian Publisher Bill Miller Sr. and General Manager Bill Miller Jr. during a recent Friday afternoon press run and it brought back decades-old memories to this old newspaper guy. But the technology involved in the Missourian’s printing process — electronic transfer of information directly from computer screen to … Continued