Why local media need a brave new mission - and how to get one

At last week's  2012 Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference the most interesting presentations touched on the need for traditional media companies to create brave, new local media brands. 

For the most part, media rebranding has been about simply renaming companies as media companies, rather than "print" or "television,"  especially helpful for media that own both print and broadcast. Thus The Gazette became Source Media, and the trades are littered with companies dropping words like "broadcast, television" as well as "daily, weekly" and so on.

But what has been broken in the way we cover the news is not just a fragmentation of channels. It is the mediocrity of voice.

This one of my biggest regrets about our industry. I spent 15 years in the alternative press, leaders in throwing out the concept of "objective news" and thus freeing themselves from becoming bland Congressional Records of their communties, in order to become the story-tellers of  their communities.

It's tricky. I've had countless discussions and arguments over the right way to utilize the  limited resource of 52 cover stories to touch hidden nerves (hidden, that is, by stodgy newpaper thinking). The goal was to walk into any Starbucks and literally hear people talking about the issue at hand. Besides being "best" at unique franchises - primarily arts, music, culture - tapping into these undercurrents was a way to beat Goliath at its own game.  

But even the watchdog press founded in the Vietman era sat out the biggest story of its day - the start of Iraq war ("it's a national story and none of our business") and unfolding of a national tragedy.

Newspapers and television cease to be meaningful, when their rules for covering news prevent them from being relevant. We need new ones - rules, not media companies. Or we will surely get them - new media companies with new rules.

For the hyper-local pureplays following this site, this also applies to you. Are you simply vying for scraps of local information off of the tables of the larger local media brands? Is that really your purpose?

Today more media leaders are realizing that brand has a financial impact. It is, in fact, a key factor in the life and death of local news media companies as they transition from distributing a little bit of everything about their communities... to, well, something else.

One of the most popular articles on MediaPost this week is the difference between popularity and influence. Heretofore on this site we've collected the smartest thinking on building vast audiences that can be counted - popularity-wise. And we will continue to do so. 

But makes a "brand" influential, is something different, that falls into the "like pornography, I'll know it when I see it" category. Part of brand influence is the perception of "authenticity," so it's a little bit of an oxymoron isn't it?

You have to kick the conversation up a meta-level and talk about values. Influential media attract people who believe in the same things. In short, they share a higher purpose.

Local media who believe that news reporting is, in itself, intrinsically valuable, have no place to go when hundreds of bloggers, twitterers and Facebook sharers are breaking the news they used to own, except to aggregate and comment on it, which is not a bad start.

But defining values can take the company in new, exciting directions. How will you organize the newsroom? What kinds of events to create and charitable initiatives to support? Will it be helping schools  (Lawrence O'Donnell sending desks to schools in Africa, comes to mind)?  Is your purpose to aid efforts that bring truth to power? Entrepreneurship to life? Arts and culture to town? Who are you and what do you value? 

We are, for the most part, underestimating our audiences. Hidden under the impossible mantra of objectivity, is the stipulation that citizens should read that city hall coverage like eating their peas. After all, we also give them sports and murders. So it's a compromise, right?  

And we believe this right up until there are thousands marching in the streets or donating to stop an African leader from creating child armies. 

Embracing subjectivity does not mean a disregard for fact checking, but rather an understanding that almost every decision - not just front page choices - involves an allocation of scarce resources around often presupposed subjective choices. Why not make them, and make them transparent?

So how do you get started? We'll delve into this in future reports. But think in terms of values, and civic themes, instead of traditional beats.

Examples abound: At the alternative press, we knew people were talking about stuff - the increasingly "out" gay community, for example - that  wasn't a feature story, and wasn't on a beat. So we set out to own  those stories.

The Mormon Church-owned Deseret Media has a brave new mission, ("A national voice for values with an audience of millions") with a clear set of non-traditional editorial beats.  That is exactly the way to do it. It even surveyed audiences to confirm these new "themes"  (strengthening the family, for example) are ones people feel are critically important in their lives and undercovered by newsmedia.

The editorial department was reorganized to cut costs on traditional coverage and invest more in coverage of the new beats. Meanwhile, while a vast network of 2000 mostly free bloggers provide online-only content (note to business side: the most financially successful local traditional media in the digital space create online only content).  

Leave it to the Mormon Church to cough up a real value-based, and dare we say alternative, journalism, that, it turns out, taps a deep well of emotional resonance, and a wider national footprint for its brand.

Similarily, Atlantic Magazine, an old, effete, east coast intellectual magazine that had lost its way and its influence (since this is not only about popularity), rose again from brand ashes with a new purpose, "Brave new thinking," which generated story ideas like "Is Google making us stupid?"

Financial impact? These stories get shared. People - including the younger DNA you need - are more inspired to come work for you. The staff you have feels that what they do is important. And those of you who remember being attracted to this industry as a holy calling, well, you get to feel that what you do is exciting and meaningful work, not simply a tangled financial knot you better sort out or your career is toast.

In case this is all too forward thinking, Gannett's  CMO also spoke about how its recast mission energizes its initiatives. Its full statement of values and purpose is the voice over for an emotionally uplifting video that gives Obama's 17 minute infommercial a run for the money. 

The point is, you don't need to be a national media company, but rather to know which issues run like currents through your communities.

I don't even like the word "mission," because it sounds like a plaque on the wall and try to talk about "purpose" which indicates actions will be taken. 

So in the next few weeks, in addition to talking about growing audiences and revenues, we will also look at how smart local media companies create meaningful missions - that is statements of purpose.

If you have a mission for local media companies you think is unique and successful? Please reach out to me at alisacromer@gmail.com.

Many thanks to Borrell and Associates for an outstanding conference. We will include a conference summary and more coverage in next week's reports.