Engage Your Community to Power Your Business Coverage: San Francisco, Sept. 1

News organizations still tend to define themselves by their newsrooms, their paper, their programs rather than by their news or their community.

Reporters and editors have never been very good at interacting with their readers, viewers, audience.  It’s been much easier traditionally to determine what the news agenda is and then send it out to the audience.

But it is essential that editors and reporters take part in an ongoing dialogue, plug into their community and include the consumers of news in the process.

This half-day session, hosted by MarketWatch, will give business journalists a clearer picture of the importance of community and expose them to tools and tactics for learning from their communities.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS:

John A. Byrne is the chairman and CEO of C-Change Media Inc. Until recently, Byrne was editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com. He holds the distinction of authoring a record 58 cover stories in BusinessWeek magazine and is also the author or co-author of eight business books, including two New York Times’ bestsellers. Byrne also served as editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine. He founded C-Change Media, a digital media company, to take advantage of the sea change that is roiling the traditional media business. C stands for content, curation and community, the three common attributes of each C-Change Web venture.

Dave Cohn is founder of Spot.Us, a nonprofit project of the “Center for Media Change” and funded by various groups such as the Knight Foundation. Spot.Us is an open-source project to pioneer “community-powered reporting.” Through Spot.Us, the public can commission and participate with journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics. Contributions are tax-deductible, and Spot.Us partners with news organizations to distribute content under appropriate licenses. Spot.Us is plotting how to expand beyond its current four cities.

Robin J. Phillips, managing editor of BusinessJournalism.org, is an online journalist with experience at newspapers, magazines, as a freelancer and with a little time at a wire service. Before moving to the Reynolds Center, she was Online Community Manager for azcentral.com, the online site for The Arizona Republic. She was Deputy Business Editor at Newsday and small business editor at BusinessWeek Online. She teach journalists to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools to expand and manage their networks.

AGENDA:

1 p.m.: Robin Phillips introduces the workshop.

1:10 p.m.: The Importance of Engagement in Digital Journalism
John A. Byrne

1:45 p.m.: SpotUs.com: The Basic Concept and Engagement Model
David Cohn

2 p.m.: Helpful Tips: What Works and What Doesn’t Work?
Byrne, Cohn and Phillips

3 p.m.: Break

3:20 p.m.: Real-Life Examples: Do’s and Don’t's When Engaging Community
Participants are asked to come with ideas or projects they are working on
so the panel can help explore ways to engage the community.

4:40 p.m.: Wrap up and Final Questions

5 p.m.: Adjourn

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Our workshops are often oversubscribed. Signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” award certificate.

This free seminar is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. If you have any questions about the workshop or the center, please e-mail Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

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