fauna corporation

Whew! This whole accelerated world we’re living in has been exhausting lately.

But I must say, the technology finally seems to be catching up to the creativity of content creators, and is also coming in line with the demands of consumers.

As usual, I find the discrepancy between what consumers are looking for, and how journalists & news outlets are talking to them, to be the biggest hurdle facing journalism as a whole.

My accomplice and I recently picked up iPod Touches, and have been experimenting with different ways to use these cool gadgets to actually enhance our lives (rather than just, you know, be cool gadgets). That’s been a fun process, but there have been a couple of videos out lately that show other potentially ground-shifting tools that are coming to market.

These new tools display some creative uses of cross-media delivery by magazine publishers, and seem to really enrich the user experience. Check it out:

First, Multimedia Shooter has posted a great list of sports-related, multimedia journalism pieces which is worth reading. This Sports Illustrated video shows how SI is planning to unveil their magazine in tablet form, and, despite the hokey digital hands, shows how the magazine’s main assets of stunning photography, quality writing and box scores, will be further enhanced by the tablet technology:

Also, I thought I’d include this video from Outside Magazine, displaying their idea of how an interactive magazine feature may work in the near future. I originally found this video from one of my RSS feeds, but now can’t remember which website posted it (apologies for that). Instead, I found the same video piece at the Living Art Media site. It’s a little hyperbolic, but the overall effect is very cool:

Both of these videos are ‘aspirational’, but they show that the technology we are becoming accustomed to on our hand-held devices are now beginning to inform the decisions of media outlets and how they craft the content we’ll be enjoying in the coming year(s).

Apologies all around for the longish silence here on Fauna Corporation. I’ve been working a writing contract for an advertising firm and have had less time for posting. The contract goes well, thus far, but I don’t want to forget my Fauna readers so I thought I would put something up.

On that note, while I haven’t been posting, I have been seeing some interesting content for Next-Gen Journos. The following are a few things that I’ve seen over the last few days that I thought you would all enjoy.

First, from Journerdism, a list of the 8 must-have skills for the journalists of tomorrow. The list is a little broad (ie: including programming skills), in much the same way that one could list the top 8 skills for tomorrow’s Olympian and include being multilingual and 12 feet tall. I mean, it can’t hurt, but in reality there are only so many hours in the day, so one must pick and choose what to learn. However, the list is pretty solid on the whole and does mention the ability to focus on experimentation and focus on creating artful, cross-media pieces, which I sincerely believe will be necessary to capture the next wave of web- and mobile-savvy media consumers. Of note, “fundamental journalism skills” comes in at number 8.

Next, 10,000 Words has a great list of gifts for the Journalist in your life, just in time for the holidays. While some are sort of obvious (newsprint t-shirts and boxers), some are totally awesome (CTRL, ALT, DELETE cup sets!), and either way, there is always a good reason to visit to 10,000 Words, so click on through.

Finally, from ProBlogger (a site worth visiting if you haven’t yet), a short list that substantiates the importance of having a product to sell. As journalism changes and freelancing rates remain dismal, this idea of having a product - whether it is your work, a collected series of pieces, an ebook, how-to, or anything else - becomes very important to grow revenue and audience (which in turn grows revenue and audience). While there is an argument to be made against every journalist being entrepreneurial, as technology changes us, we must change with technology. Increasingly, being entrepreneurial is tied to those changes.

Again, my apologies for the relative silence here on Fauna Corp. I am happy that my traffic has not dimished over the last couple of weeks, despite it. I will continue to do my best to keep you all up-to-date with what is happening with evolving multimedia journalism, and as always, I thank you for stopping by.

My fiancee and I are big fans of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. I recognize how geeky this makes us (being “big fans” and all), but we’re pretty dialed in to non-apoplectic news coverage, and we really enjoy the balance and depth of coverage that the NewsHour offers.

We comment on Jim’s usually excellent choice of ties, we tune in on Fridays to catch analysis by Shields and Brooks (and we’re Canadians!), and we hold the NewsHour up as an example of what news coverage should be (along with CBC’s National and BBC’s World Report).

So I read Anna Shoup’s piece on the changes at PBS, and the new iterations of its website, with interest and fascination (found out about the piece courtesy of Will Sullivan’s Journerdism site). It is not often that you get an insider’s candid take on the shifts inside a major media outlet, especially when the insider is a multimedia content producer who is be integrated into the larger media framework. That in itself is a bit of a switch-up from what’s happening in other news rooms.

Ms Shoup’s report suggests a progressive mindset in the NewsHour bullpen, but she’s still open about the grinding gears that sometimes happen when two carefully crafted machines try to mesh. Whether the new media shifts at the NewsHour are a result of progressive thinking - or merely survival - I think is irrelevant. In the current media climate, any steps that do not hold fast to the conventional broadcast model should be seen as progressive, simply because they are not status quo, or (worse) trying to regress to the sunnier times of media monopoly.

Basically, people are consuming the news differently. The NewsHour has always been able to cut through the media static to report solidly on essential issues, and their decision to more fully integrate multimedia elements and web-based pieces into their broadcast model is one that I’ll be watching with interest.

The NewsHour will launch their new website on December 3rd, and the new iteration of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (re-branded as PBS NewsHour) will debut on December 7th. Perhaps it, like the NewsHour’s coverage itself, will be a litmus test that other news organizations can learn from.