Of course we all follow the pure North Star of journalism, but INMA’s Earl Wilkinson asks if it is so wrong to be seduced by the less noble possibilities of new platforms. Quality and credibility remain the bedrock of news publishing, but less noble factors like brand, reach, and impact are just as key to relevance in the future.
Again, this isn’t my suggestion; it comes directly from the man in front of me, INMA’s Earl Wilkinson speaking at the World Congress of News media. Having started straight off with the importance of credible, quality journalism it didn’t take him long to get down to the dirty stuff.
Having noted that INMA’s board sees journalism as “our North Star” Earl dares to say “I wonder if it is enough of a North Star….if our company shouldn’t, in fact, be centered around influence and impact.”
For Upgrade Media’s clients this jumps to the heart of a struggle in many boardrooms. The many news publishers we work with will, if they’re honest, find themselves championing quality journalism, loud and proud, while at the same time looking longingly at the seemingly quick and dirty successes of new media models. Or as Earl puts it:
“When I think of business models and I think of environments, one of the things that I observe is that the open web is just dirty. It is seductive, though, isn’t it? With its reach and its unimaginable heights, but it is less reputable today than at any moment in the history of the public internet. And Gen AI has the potential to make it dirty. So how can we make journalism work in more scarce environments?”
The ultimate goal has to be to maintain reputation, but simultaneously boost the impact of the brand, and impact ranges far beyond pure news. Over these next couple of days in London I’m expecting to hear (and share) more ideas about how to preserve the purity of the North Star, while making the most of the seductive, ‘dirty’, new possibilities.
About Upgrade Media: Upgrade Media is a creative agency, strategy consultancy, training center and media transformation think tank, through its brand New World Encounters.
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