conferences

Mediabistro’s User-Generated Content Conference in Manhattan wrapped up this past week (UGCX).  (Check out the speaker’s list here).

As host, I had the enviable position of getting to introduce and chat with some incredibly enlightening speakers.  There’s nothing like a one of these digital pow-wows to get you motivated and inspired, as many of the attendees told me while grabbing a coffee between sessions.

Of course, there was also a lot of discussion about the demise of newsrooms, particularly in smaller markets.  No big headline there but at least the UGCX speakers were trying to look ahead to past the depressing statistics and Q3 results to what the future holds.  Opinionated community driven information websites was the prediction of some, namely Topix’s CEO Chris Tolles.  I still am a believer that journalists can indeed write/produce objective news, as is NPR‘s CEO Vivian Schiller.  In her keynote, she paraphrased someone who said the next 15 years will be an era of flourishing corruption on the local level, because of the lack of local in-depth reporting.

As New Yorkers, we are so lucky to have two hyper-local traditional news outlets: Time Warner’s NY1 and WNYC who seem to be in it for the long haul.   New York City’s mere size somewhat guarantees their success but I don’t think people realize Time Warner Cable is using the NY1 model in Austin, TX, around New York State, and in other locations.  We all know NPR’s member stations come in various sizes all around the country.   Perhaps there’s more to be learned from their business models.

(Full disclosure- my husband reports on politics for NY1 and my stuff has aired on WNYC! )