Reaction to Presentation

Reid Rosen

Reaction to Presentation 9/29/10

What is the best way to learn about the Journalism? By having someone that works in the industry come speak to you. Thomas Ritchie is the online director at the Sioux City Journal. Mr. Ritchie had several points over how Journalism has changed and how the newspaper industry has changed to engage the customer more.

According to Mr. Ritchie the Sioux City Journal used to have 72,000 paper subscribers and now is down to about 41,000 subscribers.  Mr. Ritchie also mentioned that there is about 10,000 readers online a day. This still works out be less then what the maximum subscribers were. Because of this the internet has become an important part of media. The Sioux City Journal realized this early by starting their web page in 1996. The discussion then went in which ways has the web changed? The answer as Mr. Ritchie pointed out was Social Media. This has been changed through things like Facebook and Twitter. The other point Mr. Ritchie points out is that Youtube has changed how media is conducted. Now when a reporter goes out for a report they just can’t write down a quote, they have to tape the story as well.

Mr. Ritchie had several examples in how Newspapers have tried to keep conversation going with their customers. The Washington Post created On Being which is basically one person comes on and rants about whatever, it is supposed to connect with the readers. For the Sioux City Journal they have started a weather blog. This has been successful for the Journal because it has allowed customers to send in pictures and tell stories of what the weather has been like in the Sioux City area.

The Social Media has had effects in how quickly the news can be presented. For example with the Earthquake in Haiti news channels weren’t able to contact many people in Haiti. So Twitter had posts of what was actually happening at Haiti which allowed News Medias to be updated instantly. The web also serves as a good place for newspapers because of the unlimited space. You can’t have large blogs, diagrams or videos on a newspaper. The Newspapers have tried to create conversation with the reader using these different sources and methods.