Context demands fundamental change

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There are fundamental conceptual and structural issues in creating a local media company for the future. I like the API’s Newspaper Next nomenclature of “Local Information and Connection Utility”, but shortened to Local Information Utility or LIU.

Media connotes being spoken to, or at.

What I am after is a way to create local intelligence in context, accessible from any device at any time. As my friend, Tom, says, following Steve Raye, “context is king”. We are awash in a sometimes disorienting cacophony of content. How do we create, define, and find meaningful information in context?

The context needs to be facilitated by someone, and who better than people who care about the community, organized by the Local Media Company, for all the reasons described by Wediaup in Project 1two5:

Why LoMediaCo’s Still Matter

1. LoMediaCo’s create a lot of relevant content that no one else does
2. LoMediaCo’s are a trusted info source
3. LoMediaCo’s have a vested interest in their communities
4. LoMediaCo’s have recognizable brands
5. LoMediaCo’s still make money (just not as much)
6. LoMediaCo’s have full-time employees
7. …and a bunch of other stuff that will come out in conversation

However, the LoMediaCo cannot hire all of the micro-community moderators, of both hyper-local communities and communities of interest, to moderate, let alone aggregate the generators of all the content. So, we need community augmentation of both context creation and content creation, while still in context. The most important ingredient is intelligent people who care deeply about their particular community, not technical skills or work processes.

We cannot continue to focus on products. Products are just nodes on the network, promotional flags to local intelligence, in context.

Many innovators are trying to make this happen, and many media managers are still stuck in the same rut.

Local Information Utility

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I did not make up the concept of the Local Information Utility. I first heard it in connection with the American Press Institute’s Newspaper Next effort. This has been a massive effort to wake up an industry stuck in a decades old, but previously successful, business model.

Newspapers tend to think they are innovative when they publish new niche publications in print or online. But we have not had enough serious discussion, or imagination, about the possibilities of creating much more accessible local information.

That is why I was so intrigued when I heard of the “Local Information Utility” concept.

Much to be done

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My name is Chuck Peters (cpetersia on Twitter, and reachable on email at cpetersia@mac.com). I am the CEO of The Gazette Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a local media company serving Eastern Iowa primarily through The Gazette newspaper and KCRG – TV9, an ABC affiliate, along with numerous niche print and online products. I just returned from the Newspaper Association of America annual meeting in Washington, DC. Newspaper executives from around the world are trying to implement new business models. However, it is hard to implement a new model with an old mindset. Many are trying to arrange the concepts for a new ecosystem of local information. What I hope to do here is share my thoughts, and connections, as we explore these new frontiers.