Top 15 Takeaways From Northeast Region’s Spring Meeting
(Too rich of a day to limit it to 10!)
No. 15: Any opportunity to speak with the college students in attendance at these regional meetings is a highlight. It’s just good business for us to meet potential interns and employees and also see how young people are consuming and generating news.
No. 14: We’ll be seeing more use of the presentation tool Prezi at future panel discussions. (Thanks, Lisa Wilson!)
No. 13: There are a lot of possibilities for using AP’s “The Latest” to enhance online coverage of the Olympics since it is content that can be used in such a variety of ways.
No. 12: The Daily Orange is a damn good student newspaper.
No. 11: Announcing high school all-star teams in online video is a great way to create buzz and draw in younger users.
No. 10: Journalism — print, website, TV, radio — is about hard work. Do the work, find the sources, have the skills to communicate with them and to communicate what they say. Becoming an authority starts with the work behind the scenes.
No. 9: Add this to the list of things I need to learn: GIPHY
No. 8: The readers are your boss to a high degree, and you should be writing what they are interested in reading.
No. 7: Two words: Dinosaur BBQ (Is that really a takeaway? Who cares? You gonna eat the rest of your brisket?)
No. 6: You don’t have to be in Brazil to own Olympics coverage. But you need to get moving sooner than later. Dig deep and find local stories that can satisfy experts and casual fans.
No. 5: Greg Brownell’s undeniable passion was on display during his one-man panel. BUT, he is being underutilized at Glens Falls if he is not named the sunset photo editor!
No. 4: Newsday’s project on high school football helmets was inspiring, a great example of outstanding shoe-leather reporting, data journalism, multi-media journalism, public-service journalism – the whole nine yards. Tip of the hat to Winnicki, Rose, LaMonica, et al.
No. 3: When hard times force you to make hard decisions, be honest with readers and that will quell the reaction.
No. 2: We need to continue to prioritize the regional meetings, getting more people to attend and more people to participate in the panels. Otherwise, it’s the same editors talking to themselves twice a year.
And the No. 1 takeaway from the Northeast Regional Meeting: The New York Times likes soccer; The Boston Globe, not so much.
Jim Luttrell of The Times handed the region chair reins to Jason Murray of the Syracuse Media Group. Those in attendance also unanimously elected Justin Pelletier of the Lewiston Sun Journal as the region vice chair. Congrats to both of them. Please give them your assistance whenever possible.
