SND: Breaking Down the Myths of Change

These thoughts came from Lee Abrams, who heads Tribune Co.'s innovation efforts. He was the keynote speaker at this year's SND in Las Vegas (on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008)

In his words, with some paraphrasing and my comments to people who say them:

A. Have you heard any of these myths in the newsroom?

1. Change means dumbing down our product. (Seriously? Is that what we're doing?)
2. If we change we'll piss off readers. (Not exactly in the big picture.)
3. Any change means skewing toward the young. (Is that a bad thing?)
4. You can't touch such-and-such (i.e. logo of company), it's sacred. (100 years ago?)
5. We can't do creative things like that because we don't have the staff. (Economics is not an excuse for not being creative. Find some way.).

All are simply not true, he says. The media, especially print, have been leaning on them too long. I couldn't agree more.


B. His suggestions for change:

1. Make content FEEL local. Does the newspaper or Web site you work at FEEL like the community it's in? Does our site feel like an Austin site?

2. Give more incentive for readers to continue a story online from print. Promos need to be written better, enticing. Coach Mack Brown sounds off over latest arrest, see newspaper.com

3. More urgency is needed in getting things done. Not thinking about ideas for days or weeks, but implementing them. Experimenting. Stop wasting time.


C. He also described 3 types of journalists in the newsroom.

1. the person who isn't willing to change.
2. the person who says, "what's this person talking about?"
3. the person who is open to change (70% of the newsroom, he says)

Know any of the above people?