Paperless or Not?
By: Roy Ivey
Whether news is conveyed via ink on paper or by electrons on a computer screen, the information age offers a bright future for those who can adapt to the possibilities.
That assessment comes from Renay San Miguel, a media consultant, former ASU student and one-time Standard-Times staff writer. San Miguel, having watched the news business change dramatically the past few years, is working to meld established media with new ones. He brings a broad perspective to media-in-flux, having worked in the newspaper, television and online worlds.
“Digital technologies make reporting easier,” San Miguel said, “and having one foot in each world is going to be a key to success in the future. You still need traditional journalism – checking of sources and in-depth reporting, but digital media let you get the word out immediately and get immediate feedback from readers.”
“In the worst case,” he said, “you can fix mistakes quickly and in the best case, a Page 5 story can suddenly go to Page 1 when readers give you feedback about problems in the community.”
After San Miguel began his career as a Standard-Times reporter, he moved on to television where he worked at different stations, including KLST in San Angelo. Until recently, he served as an anchor for CNN Headline News. He now concentrates on column-writing and reporting for the online ECT News Network and blogging for Gadgetell.com. Additionally, he owns his own business, Primo Media LLC, in Seattle where he works as a freelance journalist and media consultant. He also reports on technology issues and fills in as a news anchor at KING5-NBC in Seattle and Northwest Cable News.
San Miguel said journalists should be open-minded about new media.
“Most folks who work in traditional journalism recognize the problem,” he said. “There needs to be acknowledgement that things are changing and stop being in denial. Journalists are going to have to rethink why they got into the business and what they are going to do. It’s all about the stories and making connections with real people now.”
San Miguel said the profession must also allow more leeway for reporters to state their opinions when they write stories by day and blog at night.
“We have to give them some slack,” he said. “I think they can maintain that wall between objective and subjective reporting.”
He believes media will try again to get paid for their online content, but will need to emulate news organizations that have been successful at it.
“I think we are going to have another round of gated, paid content experimentation,” San Miguel said. “It’s been tried before with some success, like the Wall Street Journal, and with some failure, like the New York Times.”
To make online news delivery work, news organizations must offer consumers something compelling but not charge too much at the same time. In that vein, San Miguel expects some kind of new paid-delivery system to develop.
“With news going mobile and with so many ways for everybody to contribute content, there has to be some way to harness it so that everybody has a chance to break a story and add different sides and angles to the story,” San Miguel said. “There also has to be some kind of vetting and fact checking. The 24-7 universe means more opportunities to get it wrong.”
