Class Schedule and Location
Classes will be held on Friday mornings in the Meng Wah complex Room S322
9:30-11:35, except Week 4 and Week 7, will be 3 hours.
- Week 1 Friday, 11 September: Digital Media: A Disrupting Force
- Week 2, Friday 18 September: News from Anywhere
- Week 3, Friday 25 September: New Media, MSM and the Business and Journalism Behind Them
- Week 4, Friday 2 October: Change Inside Traditional Newsrooms (3 Hour Class)
- Week 5, Friday 9 October: No Class
- No Classes Reading Week 12 Oct- 16 October
- Week 6, Friday 23 October: Pay Models for newspaper Web sites (Memo DUE!!)
- Week 7, Friday 30 October: Class Orals.
- Week 8, Friday 6 November
- Week 9, Friday 13 November: The Power of Search
- Week 10, Friday 20 November: The Hand-Held First Newsroom
- Week 11, Friday 27 November: The Advertiser’s View
- Week 12, Friday 4 December
Week 1 Friday, 11 September: Digital Media: A Disrupting Force
Required Readings:
“The Fragmentation of Yesterday’s Newspaper.” By Sarah Rotman Epps. Forrester Research. June, 2008. (posted)
Introduction: Be prepared to discuss your expectations for the class. Professor will outline the subjects we will study and why. This course will combine online business strategy, product development and journalism topics. We will also outline how grades will be determined.
Understanding What Has Changed: How the disruptive force of the Internet has put newspapers and newsrooms in crisis. Contrasting the old journalism and business models of newspapers with the new media presentation and business models. The reader is in control not the publisher. Journalism is presented in layers with links, feeds, audio, video and interactive graphics. Online media tells stories in ways the paper cannot. Advertising models are under threat both for newspaper pricing models and online prices.
How do newsrooms and a newspaper publisher respond? The importance of search engines, breaking down the walled garden of content, front page vs. the home page, blogging, topic pages and multimedia. Will it be enough?
Week 2, Friday 18 September: News from Anywhere
Required Readings:
Newsrooms in your Kitchen:Youtube video interviews on newcastlenow.org (posted)
“Here Comes Everybody,” by Clay Shirky. Chapter 3. (posted)
The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson.There will be references to this concept in the second lecture and throughout the term.
Newspapers are retreating from coverage areas and creating opportunities for startup Web sites. Or Web sites are finding areas where they can more deeply explore specialty areas such as politics, arts, movies, travel, dining. All of these alternatives sources of information are competing with newspaper publisher for their advertising dollars. How can newspapers fight back?
Week 3, Friday 25 September: New Media, MSM and the Business and Journalism Behind Them
Required Reading: Thomas Crampton’s blog thomascrampton.com
New York Times global Web site: global/nytimes.com
Online Media Kit: global/nytimes.com
Discussion: New Media and Mainstream Media.
Guest speaker: Thomas Crampton, blogger, digital strategist, Ogilvy Worldwide, advertising agency, former correspondent International Herald Tribune.
Guest Speaker: Dominic Ciarfardini, Advertising director, Asia-Pacific, International Herald Tribune
How blogging, Twitter and mobile devices are changing journalism and attracting advertising dollars. What does this mean for newsroom budgets and newspapers. How advertisers view the various media choices and where they are placing their advertising money.
Week 4, Friday 2 October: Change Inside Traditional Newsrooms (3 Hour Class)
Required viewing: “How the Web Has Changed Journalism” Panel discussion with Zoher Aboolcarim, Asia editor, Time International, Adrian Dickson, managing editor, Asia ThomsonReuters, Philip Bowring, IHT columnist and Web commentator, asiasentinel.com. April 2009. (posted)
Changes in journalism are changing the way reporters and editors use their time. Reporters are blogging and reporting and writing stories for the Web site and for newspapers. The pressure for news and analysis is growing. So are demands for video and audio. How should a daily newspaper, a weekly news magazine and a wire service respond? Each has to respond differently and each strategy has tradeoffs.
Product Development Basics. What is a product and what does it have to do with journalism? Think of it as converting a section of a newspaper, such as travel, real estate, automobiles or a magazine, into an online experience. Is there a church-state divide? Yes. Do business managers and editors discuss strategies together? Yes. How is that happening?
The web has created a new kind of job in old-line newsroom: product managers who direct the creation of web site and section. In the newsroom: The role of the product manager. What is a product development plan and why is it necessary. How product development teams are assembled and managed. Why editorial and product development sit down together. Product development examples. nytimes.com/movies and nytimes.com/travel and global.nytimes.com
Week 5, Friday 9 October No Class
Recommended Readings for Mid-Term Assignment:
Harvard Business School Case Study: “Google Inc.” rev. Nov. 9, 2006.Thomas B. Eisenmann and Kerry Herman.
Harvard Business School Case Study: “Google Advertising,” rev. Oct. 11, 2007. Youngme Moon
Harvard Business School Case Study: “Facebook’s Platforms.” Rev. March 12 2009. Eisenmann, Piskorski, Feinstein and Chen.
“Facebook Wins over US advertisers by offering engagement with users.
The Financial Times.” 10August 2009.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d1d7fc0-8545-11de-9a64-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Teams of students will identify a product strategy project for the full term with the approval of the instructor . The midterm will be based on an initial memo on the project, submitted by each student, which will lay out the issues and the scope of what you will work on. These product strategy questions will be the basis for a project paper due at the end of the semester. Written memos will be due week 6, Oct 23rd. Oral presentations will be expected Week 7, Oct 30th.
No Classes Reading Week 12 Oct- 16 October
Week 6, Friday 23 October: Pay Models for newspaper Web sites
Required Reading:
“Talk to the Newsroom”: Reader interviews with NYTimes editor Bill Keller and Martin Nisenholtz. Focus on the questions about free and pay Web sites. (posted)
Other readings on the class blog as they pertain to free vs. paid content.
Pay, Free or Metered. scmp.com, wsj.com, nytimes.com, yahoo, huffington post, ft.com An examination of three leading Web sites and their readership revenue model. Students will be divided into groups to examine the advantages and disadvantages of each subscription model.
Links to the Free- Pay Discussion:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=158210
Guest Speaker: Ross Sessions, director of digital business, SCMP.com
We will discuss the current debate about free or pay Web sites. Be prepared to have an opinion whether news web sites should charge and how this should be accomplished.
Mid-Term outlines due.
Week 7, Friday 30 October: Class Orals (3 Hour Class)
Team strategy oral presentations. These outlines are a description of the product strategy assignment you have chosen for yourself and your team.
In preparation for next week’s speakers, please review:
http://www.nakanathaniel.com/Site/Links.html
The Web and foreign correspondence. How the Internet is changing the way correspondents work, and the implications for readers – and journalism.
Jane Perlez, foreign correspondent The New York Times, Islamabad, Pakistan
Mark McDonald, correspondent, International Herald Tribune, Hong Kong
Week 9, Friday 13 November: The Power of Search
Required Reading:
“Search Engine Marketing,” by Andreas Ramos and Stephanie Cota. McGraw- Hill Companies., 2009 Chapters To Be Assigned
This class will focus on the comparisons between search engine marketing and traditional forms of advertising in print and television. We will discuss how users “search and obtain” information and how this affects news Web sites.
Week 10, Friday 20 November: The Hand-Held First Newsroom
Required Readings:
“A Mobile Advertising Overview.” Interactive Advertising Bureau. July 2008.
“”Mobile Buyer’s Guide.” Interactive Advertising Bureau, July 2009
Guest Speaker: Howard Hunt, The Hyperfactory, a mobile-only advertising agency.
Mobile devices like iPhone and Blackberry are a chief means by which a growing number of people first read their news. How do newsrooms respond to this demand for instant headlines and stories? How do digital publishers build a business around this medium? As eyeballs cluster to these devices, how can advertisers respond?
Week 11, Friday 27 November: The Advertiser’s View
Print, online, hand-held. Advertisers have million-dollar budgets in search of readers, viewers, users and customers. How does an advertiser best use digital media to sell products?
Guest Speaker to be announced.
Final wrap up and a discussion of the main topics covered in the course.
Please remember that lecture material and readings are subject to change during the semester
