Lisa Hrabluk

This is turning out to be a weird week.

Today I’m speaking at a Lunch n’ Learn session for young and new entrepreneurs at our local economic development agency. The topic is “Getting Press” and I’m supposed to explain how you grab the attention of reporters and editors so they’ll do a story on you and your business.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, I spoke to two journalist friends about life after the newsroom. One, in Ontario, was recently laid off from a newspaper and the second, out here in the Maritimes, is a bit worried about their future at CBC. Quite literally I got off the phone with one of them and five minutes later the other called.

So I’ve got one group asking my advice on how to get into the newsroom so they can make money for their business and the other wants to know how to make money after they’re kicked out of the newsroom.

I have the same answer for both and it ain’t the old newsroom.

Buzz, influence (and god willing) money lies in the hands of communities.

Traditional media organizations have defined community as the physical place where people live – the town, city, region or country – but tech and social media companies have expanded that definition to mean like-minded people who gather online or in person to talk about the things they share.

Twitter is a massive community; so is Facebook.

Amazon.com (and .ca) has proven a corporation can create a shared experience and turn customers into community members.

Media organizations – yeah, those companies that need to continue to exist so me and my colleagues can continue to earn a living as journalists – need to evolve into online communities. That means inviting others to contribute to the conversation. Hint: That’s not the comment boxes at the bottom of stories. That’s the domain of ranters and that’s why the rest of us stay away.

I’m actually more optimistic about the future of news gathering and analysis than most of my colleagues. I think the music industry and iTunes offers a hint of where we are headed. People are willing to pay for certain things, particularly production quality and authenticity (straight from the source, or creator).

In the past the media organization was the assurance of both. In this new world, the journalist fills that role. That will mean writers and journalists are going to have to take those pitching skills they honed in story meetings and use it to generate business – and audiences. Some will get to do it within a newsroom, albeit a smaller one. Most, I predict, will do it from their homes – pitching to a variety of different places and, most likely in a variety of different forms.

That’s a scary new world for those of us who have spent our careers in newsroom working to deadline.

It’s also really exciting and I intend to enjoy the ride.