I was struck by the smarts of one of the panelists at the recent Government 2.0 Summit. Monica Guzman is a young reporter at the Seattle Post Intelligencer who was one of the few to survive the drastic cuts when the print edition was shut down in March 2009. She doesn’t call herself a reporter, however. The new terminology is news gatherer and she is expected to be as adept at creating videos, Twittering, blogging (she’s the main contributor to the Seattle PI’s The Big Blog), public speaking and maintaining the paper’s website as she is at reporting and writing.
Bingo.
Exactly what independent consultant / writer / blogger / speakers have to do in order to promote themselves and stay in the game. Namely, be entrepreneurial, quick moving and adept at multiple forms of new media. (Video is the one must-have skill, in addition to Twitter and blogging, BTW.)
Seems obvious but… the newspaper industry, tragically, is a lumbering beast that can’t seem to change and adapt fast enough. I say that with some sadness, remembering my years as a print reporter and editor at The Atlanta Constitution, Cox Newspapers’ Washington bureau (closed in April 2009) and Roll Call (which today has a robust online edition).
Below, a tweet noting a comment by Scripps Newspapers’ VP Content & Marketing Rusty Coats at a meeting today of the Knoxville Social Media Association (aka @KnoxSocialMedia).
Below is Monica’s panel from the Gov 2.0 Summit. Check out Twitter hashtags #g2S and #gov2events for continuing commentary on the event and on the unfolding Government 2.0 phenomenon.
More Useful Links
Complete coverage of Gov 2.0 Expo & Summit (Sept. 9-10, 2009)
Presentation PPTs from some of the Gov 2.0 speakers
84 videos of presos at Gov 2.0 Summit