Journalism is experiencing a major paradigm shift. User generated content, social media and social networks are destroying the landscape of journalism as we know it and open many new opportunities.
This is an exclusive Interview we made with Carlye Adler on Startup School. She is an award-winning journalist with a specialty for startups. She contributed to BusinessWeek, Wired, FastCompany, TIME, FORTUNE, etc.
1. What is your personal experience with the importance of personal branding as a journalist?
There are, and always have been, a significant number of very successful journalists who are their own brands. As bloggers continue to achieve more influence and a whole new category of writers gain broader reach and impact, the need to foster a personal brand is becoming even more relevant. The rise of social media platforms has made it easier than ever to connect and engage with readers, spark a dialog, and build a brand.
All of this said however, personal branding is not about the number of tweets you put out a day. Effective branding is based on what it has always been about: authenticity; consistency; a passion to share a story. The best brands always differentiate, but in some ways I question this aspect of branding for journalists. Most journalists get into journalism because of a curiosity to learn something new, a desire to hear the perspective of other people who know better, the enjoyment of finding a creative way tell a story, and a drive to make a difference. In that sense, being a blank slate is a lot more valuable than being a brand. Often times, it’s more beneficial for a journalist to observe and go unnoticed than it would be to stand out as a larger-than-life persona which could be intimidating, or worse, could lead to assumptions of biases.
As far as my efforts to maintain my brand, I probably don’t do enough of it. But ultimately, brands are based on consistency and a commitment to deliver on a promise (be it to meet a deadline, tell a story that’s fair and accurate, or give people valuable information). Executing those promises is much more important than how one chooses to present one’s brand.
In the future, I think personal brands will become even more necessary as a way to stand out in a media world that is saturated with everyone trying to build a readership. This is needed for attraction and for the economics of journalism to work—that’s the bottom line. When it comes to the pure pursuit of journalism, though? I’m not sure it’s relevant at all.
2. Do you see citizen journalism as a competition to professional Journalism?
I don’t think anyone can deny the power of citizen journalism and I can’t pretend to say that the media industry has figured out a way to deal with the challenges it presents. Personally, I do not see grassroots media as “competition” with the work that I do. It’s simply another approach. More information that reaches more people is a good thing. At its core, this is what journalism is really about.
We’ve seen amazing contributions from citizen journalists—from New York on 9/11, to the aftermath of the tsunami, to the protests in Myanmar, to the response to the election in Iran. We never would have had these images or stories or perspectives without a grassroots media effort.
It’s remarkable that we live in a time when anyone has an opportunity to capture news and distribute it globally. I believe the world benefits from more voices and more diverse voices. People seem to be responding to this new way of accessing information. And whether media companies like it or not, we are seeing, as Stuart Brand put it, “Information wants to be free.”
Last year I co-wrote a book with Marc Benioff called Behind the Cloud. It’s the story of how Benioff created a different kind of technology company and how that spawned the cloud computing industry and revolution. Benioff’s idea was scoffed at by the traditional competitors and rejected by venture capitalists. Customers, however—the people who actually used the service—embraced it because it offered a less expensive, less risky, and easier way to work. I cannot help but note some similarities to the transformation in the media industry.
Does that mean that a grassroots media will replace professional journalism? As is often said of technology shifts, one paradigm does not wholly replace another and there’s room and reason for both. We still benefit from hearing from people who are trained, experienced, and invested in seeking objectivity and dedicated to accuracy. There have been—and will continue to be—winners and losers as this industry changes. Ultimately, survival is going to come down to learning how to adapt as the industry evolves.
3. What roles will product marketing play in the future of media?
This is a complicated question, especially in that it raises a slew of questions. Are you referring to traditional media or social media? And do you mean traditional advertising, such as print or TV ads, or product placement in a TV show or blog in which the blogger is sent a product to review? There are a lot of questions related to this, likely because the continuation of the economic model on which journalism was built is being called into question and because there are so many new ways in which advertising and marketing are becoming incorporated.
4. What business potential do you see for investigative journalism in order to fill the gaps of a media industry dominated by entertainment?
I wish I could say that I see great potential because the pursuit of investigative journalism has historically achieved so much. We’ll still have that, and we’ll continue to see new generations of investigative journalists use new media to unveil critical information. Some of these stories, books, documentaries and films will achieve impact and acclaim. As an industry, though, there are challenges with the economic model. People don’t necessarily want to pay for investigative work as it costs a lot (there is travel to do research and the time that a reporter needs to do deep investigating takes him or her away from other stories and assignments.) This is an important issue and as an industry we don’t know how to deal with it.
Recently Steve Hamm, a journalist for whom I have great admiration, left a long career at BusinessWeek for a position at IBM, a company he once covered. He blogged about the decision: “I say goodbye to journalism reluctantly, but, the way I see it, journalism left me rather than the other way around. There isn't much of a business model these days for the kind of serious, in-depth journalism that I practiced. Meanwhile, the communications revolution beckons.”
It’s my hope that the communication revolution that beckons will come up with a better way to make pursuing good information an economically viable and sustainable endeavor.
5. What or where will be the next Silicon Valley?
I wish I knew! I’ve actually thought about this as a story topic and to answer it adequately would require more research. There’s a lot of talk about the next epicenter for innovation being in China with its multitude of start-ups and capital, or India with its talent force. Really, though, Silicon Valley is the result of a confluence of things: proximity to an outstanding university (Stanford); access to start up capital (investors and entrepreneurs excited to invest in innovation), glorious weather (people stay there for the sunshine); and a population of young, optimistic, and entrepreneurial people. (California has been an attraction for those searching for a new life and a new way long before the birth of Fairchild Semiconductor and the subsequent tech boom).
Of course it’s possible to replicate some of the underlying factors—and bring in new ones—to spur start up creation and innovation. I can’t predict exactly where it will be, or what it will revolutionize, but what I can say is that it’s a good time to get started. Some of the best companies—GE, Microsoft, Cisco, salesforce.com—have been started in economic depressions or recessions. Research shows that it’s not necessarily that more start-ups are founded in these times, but that the ones that are become better and navigating challenges and result in truly innovative companies. So, wherever you are, it’s a good time to pursue a start up idea—these are the companies that will change our lives, change the world, and yield hotbeds of innovation.
