new media

Robin Lubbock of WBUR came to shed some light on the future of the news and how new media will play a gigantic part. He works for Boston’s National Public Radio station — one of the “old media” — which has re-purposed itself as new media online.

The station’s site features an experimental interactive section that encourages listeners to also be readers, posters, writers and photographers. Instead of just “pushing AP copy,” as so many other news sites do, WBUR is working with its interact section to be unique — a place people will go for a certain brand of news.

Just dumping the radio programs onto the Internet wouldn’t cut it for a web-savvy audience. “All old media is coming at this backwards,” says Lubbock. Newspapers can’t have their site be just another version of their paper. And radio is no different. One thing that WBUR is doing to present a new product online is producing special projects that sound like a report but go along with photos and video.

As most newspapers and magazines are hurting as they rush to embrace new media, retrain journalists and realign their business strategy to include free-access online, radio has been somewhat spared. NPR stations remain relatively popular for mostly one reason: people drive cars. And even if people hate sitting in traffic, they most likely don’t just sit there — in the best case scenario for WBUR, they tune in and become fans. “Public radio is just in a this lucky place,” Lubbock says.

One of the points Lubbock made was that in an atmosphere of all the news, all the time a radio station like his has to carve out a niche, or else it will just be one of the many outlets delivering a marginal product. Now news is created by journalists, bloggers and citizens. If one medium wants to capture a regular audience (especially an outlet like NPR, which attempts not only local news but national and international) they have to have a different style, product or way of engaging the audience that stands out.

I’m dubious about whether the mere act of opening up a news source by allowing people to upload their own photos or add a comment is really going to be enough. I think people have already satiated their need to upload a part of their life onto the web with Facebook and LinkedIn before they think about adding something to their local news source. But, radio itself has one up on other mediums, in that radio allows listeners to interact more than newspaper and tv by inviting them to call in. It’s an instant connection between the news makers, covered and consumers. Online this connection is made, but there is a lag time and it’s not as personal. Maybe that will be radio’s saving grace.