November 6, 2006

Gannett Papers To Try Networked Grassroots Journalism

Wired has an amazing story about a paradigm shift at some Gannett newspapers in the way they gather news. It's called crowdsourcing, and it is a journalistic change for the better. The initiative is designed to "put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features."

In other words, Gannett newspapers will be tapping into the same "networked journalism" effect that many bloggers know rather well - the ability to get a better, more complete story by tapping into the knowledge and insights and one's audience.

There are very few, if any, reporters on any beat at any newspaper in America who know more about their beat than their audience, collectively, knows. No business reporter at The Tennessean (or the Nashville Business Journal, for that matter) knows more about the beat they cover than do the people involved in that business. By using modern digital tools to tap into the audience's knowledge, the newspaper would generate more accurate, less-shallow stories.

From the Wired report:

The most prominent example, [Gannett's VP for new media content Jennifer] Carroll said, occurred this summer with The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida. In May, readers from the nearby community of Cape Coral began calling the paper, complaining about the high prices - as much as $28,000 in some cases - being charged to connect newly constructed homes to water and sewer lines.

Maness asked the News-Press to employ a new method of looking into the complaints. "Rather than start a long investigation and come out months later in the paper with our findings we asked our readers to help us find out why the cost was so exorbitant," said Kate Marymont, the News-Press' editor in chief.

The response overwhelmed the paper, which has a circulation of about 100,000. "We weren't prepared for the volume, and we had to throw a lot more firepower just to handle the phone calls and e-mails," Marymont said.

Readers spontaneously organized their own investigations: Retired engineers analyzed blueprints, accountants pored over balance sheets, and an inside whistle-blower leaked documents showing evidence of bid-rigging.

Tapping into the audience's expertise not only will lead to better journalism and more accurate stories. Big media, personified by Dan Rather and 60 Minutes fell for some amateurish forgeries; the audience spotted and exposed the fakes.

Done right, tapping into the audiences' knowledge and skills makes good business sense, too - involving readers may lead to attracting more of them. Newspapers don't really have a choice. Their business model is dying, circulation is plummeting, and the the new media is evolving anyway> Newspapers that don't change how they do things are destined to become as irrelevant as horse-and-buggies in the space age.

When will Gannett's local outpost, The Tennessean, become a part of the new way of doing things? The story doesn't say.

Wired recently had a good article on crowdsourcing.

Update: See this post regarding this quote:

"Political reporters ... understand in your gut that you don't control the media anymore," said Carol C. Darr, director of the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. "You're the biggest player, but you-all don't decide who gets a pass, how long a story stays a story, when it gets to be a story. You don't control it. And what the candidates and the parties are seeing is the same thing: They don't control politics anymore."