Reinvent: Cutting-edge journalism research (is too rare)

I’ve spent my career on the cutting edge of the media industry, testing new products for creating and marketing our content to discerning local audiences, and it’s been a real delight to be on the fringes of the Reinvent research project at Northeastern University. It involved many people that I value and admire but it also had a strong and continuing impact on my daily work and the coaching we provide to our teammates.

I was lucky to have early access to their work and our recent gains are proof that it pays to push boundaries.

This project merged principled journalism with truly creative storytelling and – this is so rare – rigorous research. The results in their report are informative and inspiring.

I learned a lot from overseeing the fellowship for a year at WCVB, but also from the wonderful minds that gathered on campus for a conference earlier this year. Those lessons contributed to past posts:

• Vertical video tips
• Pandemic of mistrust

I also spoke on one of the panels at the conference. (Thankfully, as of this writing, they haven’t posted that on YouTube!)

Now, after an impressive amount of research and preparation, the project has published its report. I encourage you to read a copy and consider:

• What does your audience really want?
• What do they deserve?
• If you can make that material, how will they find it?
• If they can’t find it, is that your fault?

I’m looking forward to all of the next steps and discussions that are inspired by these sorts of questions. In fact, I’ve centered my career on searching for those answers.