Interview with Danny Schreiber of Silicon Prairie News(download video here or play it below on the page)

Silicon Prairie News Spotlights Midwest Innovators, Business, & Culture

In a couple of years we’ll look back and say Silicon Prairie News was one of the early benchmarks of new journalism. Its founders, Jeff Slobotski and Dusty Davidson, and Managing Editor Danny Schreiber have created a multimedia stage to tell stories of business, innovation and community about Omaha and the visionaries in the surrounding Midwestern states. As they have grown on the web, many new social celebrities on the coast have taken notice giving Silicon Prairie News a wildfire-like status that attracts the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk pouring for a SPN party at South by Southwest, and iconic CEOs including Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Dennis Crowley of Foursquare will be among the speakers at the Big Omaha conference produced by Silicon Prairie News.

Now, it’s still new and its collaborators still shaping its content and structure. It has the feel of a new venture with a wide open horizon to discover, much like the 360 degree view from it’s origin in Omaha, Nebraska. In my early career I worked in Nebraska as a broadcast journalist with 3/4 inch camera’s a tape deck editors, so I know that literal and figurative view very well. This is a media entity similar in boldness and feel to that of CNN when it first started in the early 1980s. Then local news reporters contributed to CNN’s success by submitting stories, it was a network of part time stringers, the culmination of which was rapid growth.

Silicon Prairie News with Danny Schreiber from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

I get the same feeling when I look at Silicon Prairie News, Tech Crunch, and Mashable, yes I put Silicon Prairie News among those new media giants without hesitation. The difference is, this generation of news gatherer is not bound by technology because they don’t need antennas, only the web. They are not fearful of competition because there is more synergy among entities participating in the same social space than animosity. They are not encumbered by bureaucracy but uplifted by the limitless potential of their ideas.

Danny Schreiber, Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News and I chat in this video about how social media became something that was inevitable for him, the utility of Twitter and the need for improved filters for the social web to provide greater benefits, and his admiration for Princess Lasertron, (it’s a long story, Danny explains.)

Big Omaha

While flying to Omaha is not the easiest of connections, the Big Omaha conference is worth the lay over. It will be a intimate venue with big name players and a look at a part of the country most people fly over. For me, it’s a half day’s drive and a chance to hook up with old friends. Give the agenda a look and consider attending May 13-15.

The future of news is both a fiscal and emotional issue. Newsrooms across the country are struggling with the economic realities across the spectrum from energy costs to the impact of the internet. On the emotional side, the press, vilified as it is by those whose agenda it suits, still remains a cornerstone of a free, democratic society.

Somewhere in the 1980s, the discussion of fairness of news organizations became a central part of the political and general discourse in American society. This debate chipped away at the credibility and integrity of journalism as an institution. The bickering, some real, some imagined combined with the explosion of blogs and citizen journalism created threads of 19th century yellow journalism which was woven into the once trusted resource of Cronkite and Murrow. The result is a crossroads for American journalism.

Despite the gloom of many newsrooms, it is an exciting time for American journalism. When accomplished reporters for the New York Times (and many other newspapers) are not constrained by one format and can tell their story with video on their newspapers website, that is exciting. It is exciting, when a television reporter can extend their piece, which before the web was a one time only production, to include conversations from viewers via a blog. It is an exciting time when the insights of citizens can be tapped to cover a topic that may only affect a small neighborhood, but nonetheless, makes that community grow closer.

The issue is in large part about the money and who will pay for this information. Economies of scale of the mass produce and consume 1900s no longer apply. Financial sustainability of the news media as we know it now requires innovation on the part of the news organization to develop new products, creativity on the part of business/advertisers to financially support communities and causes in which they believe, (without getting in the way of truthful reporting where appropriate), and citizens to become more involved with the news.

I see it this way. Before 2000, the news was a cookie sheet. A metal surface used to produce the same product on a regular basis. Today news is the cookie dough. Consumers of the news want to shape the information as they need it. They want to add to it from other sources, they want to share it with anyone and everyone, and they want to consume it wherever, whenever, and however it best suits them. Journalism will thrive when it figures out how to generate revenue with this new dough.

People like Chris O’Brien and the Next Generation Newsroom project are in the middle of these exciting times. The Project for Excellence in Journalism and Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute has done an wonderful evaluating the trends in news organizations and the way Americans are consuming information.

Today, Thursday, June 12 I’m participating in a panel on the changing face of the news media put on by the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. Add your comments below, email them to me at amaruggi AT providentpartners DOT net or tweet them at www.twitter.com/AlbertMaruggi

Panel Discussion – Changing Face of Media/Alternative Media Sources/Credibility vs. Sensationalism.
Purpose: We are interested in exploring whether or not, how and why traditional media such as newspapers and television are being supplanted by internet resources and user generated media such as Youtube and Facebook. How are younger generations (Gen Y) using the new media and how they will gather news and information in the future.
Moderator:
Liz Bogut – Communications Director, Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce
Panelists:
Joel Kramer, Editor and CEO of MinnPost.com
Kristin Henning, Publisher, The Rake
Barbara Laskin, Media Relations Manager – Macalester College
Thom Fladung – Editor – Pioneer Press
Albert Maruggi – Founder and president of Provident Partners