If you're in the media business in Chicago, you probably either attended or have heard about the Chicago Journalism Town Hall held on February 23. The meeting, which featured some of Chicago's celebrity reporters as well as some upstarts like Chicago Huffington Post and Chi-Town Daily News, centered on how to save "journalism".
There was little discussion of the business of news or why people should ever pay for news. Instead, most of the talk was about the expenses side of the balance sheet, as opposed to the revenue side.
But a room full of editors and reporters, who focus on gathering news rather than selling it, shouldn't be expected to figure out how to save the news business.
That's why Scott Smith and I decided to put together our own town hall - The Chicago New Media News Town Hall.
Our conference will focus on who is willing to pay for the news and what they want. We need a new system. This conference is meant to elicit some of those ideas. "New Media" is in the title because Scott and I (as well as many others) believe the future of profitable news media will be on-line.
But also, we want to avoid the value judgements about "journalism" and what is "news" that pervaded February's meeting. Moving forward, we want to define the term "news" broadly by using the dictionary definition, "1: a report of recent events 2: previously unknown information." Scott and I, and many of those in the news gathering business, believe that news is what the consumer chooses it to be. It can be the latest development in the commodities markets, it can be pictures of the latest wizz-bang gadget, or it can be details on the sale of the Chicago Cubs.
Whether or not people are currently paying for these kinds of information they are certainly consuming it. Now let's figure out what they're willing to pay for and how to get it to them.
Interested? Here's the proposal Scott and I are shopping around. We'd love to get your feedback.
Dad, husband, MBA, homeowner, publisher of hyperlocal 
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