Professor James Baughman, of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communications, passed away on Saturday, March 26, 2016. Professor Baughman was a supporter of SPJ, and participated in some of our meetings. We will miss his enthusiasm for the mission of journalism. Professor Baughman discussed “Journalism Issues – Past and Future” at our 2013 conference on Chester Wells, honoring the 1913 University of Wisconsin graduate who was elected the second national president of Sigma Delta Chi, which later became SPJ. Professor Baughman’s presentation is on the media page of that conference.

Memoriam from the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communications

That was the message from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss, a Madison native who was the keynote speaker at the Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration on May 31-June 1.

The event commemorated the 100th anniversary of the election of UW-Madison graduate Wells as the Sigma Delta Chi national president and the creation of the Wells Memorial Key, the Society of Professional Journalists’ highest honor for service to the Society. Wells died in office shortly after his election, and SDX members created the Wells Key in his memory. SDX later became SPJ.

View more Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration coverage:

• Audio and video from speakers and panels
• Photos
• Journalism education and the rise of infomatics
• Clicks and hits: pursuing a proper online journalism strategy

Organized by the Madison pro chapter of SPJ, the event also celebrated the careers of the more than 30 living Wells Key winners. A dozen of them traveled to Madison from across the country to participate in the celebration. Madison-area journalists, UW-Madison students and young journalists from the Simpson Street Free Press in Madison also attended.

For photos of the event, go here. For full audio of the event, go here. Sponsorship was provided by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the Wisconsin State Journal, the Wisconsin Historical Society and UW-Madison’s Union South.

In addition to Maraniss’ talk, the event featured original research by Madison SPJ past president Gordon Govier about Wells’ life, a discussion about the future of journalism, a keynote lunch address by UW-Madison professor James Baughman and a showing of the film “Deadline USA.”

Maraniss described his three-legged reporting tool: Visiting the place. Getting the documents. Conducting the interviews. That’s followed by thinking: “trying to figure out what you’re trying to say and have it make sense and satisfy our sense for story.” (Listen to Maraniss’ talk here.)

Govier unveiled his in-depth research about Wells in which he found that Wells was a natural leader who served successively as managing editor of the Daily Cardinal, editor of the Badger Yearbook, and editor of Wisconsin magazine (a literary journal) while a University of Wisconsin student. When he died, he was within days of leaving his home in Freeport, Ill., to travel to the University of Oklahoma, where he was to become the founding director of the new journalism program. He was troubled by a throat problem which he feared would limit his lecturing ability and returned to Madison seeking a surgical solution. He did not survive the operation. (Listen to Govier’s talk or watch a video of the presentation here.)

At the panel discussion, Steve Geimann, a Bloomberg News editor, Gordon “Mac” McKerrel, a journalism professor at Western Kentucky University, Amanda Theisen, producer at KSTP in St. Paul, and Lauren Fuhrmann, public engagement director at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, discussed the future of journalism. Geimann and McKerral are former SPJ national presidents who have won Wells Keys. Theisen is the Region 6 director, while Fuhrmann is the Madison pro chapter vice president. Former president and Wells Key winner Robert Leger moderated.

The group discussed changes to the business, the role of social media, the future of journalism schools and the emerging emphasis on ‘infomatics,’ and the changing expectations for young journalists. (Listen to the panel here. Read two guest blog posts from celebration attendee Amelia Rufer, a recent UW-Madison graduate, here and here.)

Baughman described the journalism world of Chester Wells as one with emerging professional standards and ethics. It was around that time that journalism started to be accepted as a key player in American democracy, he said. But the relationship between journalists and their audience is changing, he said. “For many Americans there is no longer trust in the messenger. That’s what worries me,” Baughman concluded. (Listen to Baughman’s talk here.)

Maraniss emphasized journalism’s ability to tell the stories that help make sense of our lives. Baughman called for the restoration of trust between journalists and audiences. We launch the next 100 years of the Wells Memorial Key with those lessons.

David Maraniss presentation:

James Baughman presentation:

Journalism Issues, Past and Future Panel audio available on yourlisten.com.

View more Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration coverage here.

The Internet allows consumers of news to pick and choose what they read. Journalism’s challenge is one of ethical and monetary significance: to write about topics that attract readership while serving as gatekeepers of information critical for democratic participation. News organizations need to identify the right balance between what’s interesting and what’s important.

At the recent Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) examined how ethics and profit affect the way news organizations choose what news to report. Helping readers engage may be one way to make important news the news that attracts readers.

The 100th anniversary of the Wells Memorial Key-SPJ’s highest honor-included a panel of professionals that explored contemporary and potential issues in journalism. One such question regarded the ethics behind using online metrics like clicks per story to determine story choice.

“It provides the wrong incentive to people to write to the hit count,” said panelist Steve Geimann, editor at Bloomberg News, former president of SPJ and 2001 Wells Memorial Key recipient. “Who is going to be there when something really important has to be covered? If it doesn’t get hits, we’re not going to cover it and I think that’s a little dangerous.”

Panelist Amanda Theisen, a newscast producer at KSTP-TV, said her station measures the impact a story has on the audience when editors determine what should be covered. And she may be on to something.

“There has to be some sort of greater impact, whether it’s boiling it down to facts and figures, or this is what you are going to see as a taxpayer or as a person living on this street,” said Theisen, SPJ’s Region 6 director.

KSTP-TV is achieving hits with stories that cover important information. According to Theisen, stories that reach the “impact” standard achieve significant traction on their website.

“Once you put it in front of them on a silver platter and say, ‘this is how it’s going to affect you,’ then they take an interest,” said Theisen.

It is not enough to consider what the public needs to know. Now, reporters need to continually be thinking, ‘in what ways can I make readers care?’

Andrew Donahue is a Knight Fellow at Stanford University and former editor of Voice of San Diego. In a January 2013 article for Nieman Journalism Lab, Donahue discussed his experience covering last year’s city council elections with the Voice of San Diego.

“We made a public call: We’re coming to your neighborhood. Show us what needs fixing,” wrote Donahue. “We then sent a reporter into each district for one week.”

The reporters spent time with residents to understand what issues mattered most in every district. Reporters conducted extended interviews during “ride-alongs,” where local residents drove reporters around to show them parts of the city in most need of repair.

According to Donahue, the Voice of San Diego wrote about the needs residents identified. Then, reporters brought that agenda to the candidates to ask how they planned to handle it. Donahue cited development, infrastructure, parks and transit as the most important issues for the majority of residents.

“Perhaps that’s all obvious, but damn it was powerful. People loved it. They drove us all around their communities to point out the tangible problems that needed fixing,” Donahue explained. “We immediately had a stronger connection with San Diego’s neighborhoods.”

So how can we start to apply this type of thinking to everyday coverage? Identifying creative ways to get the public’s opinion before the story can help identify the angle to take, according to Donahue. Afterwards, Donahue recommends that reporters advocate for plans to address the issues and “become a part of the resolution.”

The Internet has given control to the public to determine what’s most important. If journalists hope to continue serving as the gatekeepers, they may need to engage citizens and establish interactive relationships.

I believe this means that journalism must accept greater responsibilities if it hopes to maintain its current role and maintain an inherent value that supersedes the value of the Internet. Because, as former Chicago Tribune reporter Casey Bukro pointed out during the panel discussion, “While we debate what the gatekeeper does, the fence has disappeared.”

View more Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration coverage here.

Panel discussion on the future of journalism at the Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration on Saturday, June 1, 2013 in Madison, Wis. Panelists from left to right: Steve Geimann, Lauren Fuhrmann, Amanda Theisen, Gordon “Mac” McKerrel, and moderator Robert Leger. Malory Goldin/ University of Wisconsin-Madison student

By Amelia Rufer

With the Internet increasingly becoming a central platform for news, journalism needs to update its revenue model…fast. But between an experienced, older generation of reporters and tech-savvy, j-school graduates is a chasm of competing worldviews that can leave little space-or funding-for new hires and new ideas.

Social media moguls like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly controlling the digital marketplace, all founded by Millennials-a generation that’s innovative and resourceful in technological endeavors.

According to Gordon McKerral, associate professor and news-editorial sequence coordinator in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University, some college journalism schools are moving away from journalism and more towards “informatics,” the study and application of information technology to enhance journalism and other fields of study.

“A lot of schools are concentrating a lot more energy on how to move information rather than journalism. I think there’s a big distinction between those two,” said McKerral, who sat on a panel at an event hosted by the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). The panel discussion regarded future issues facing journalism. The two-day celebration marked the 100th anniversary of SPJ’s Wells Memorial Key award.

I agree with McKerral’s assessment that moving information and creating it are two distinct endeavors, the former of which not necessarily constituting as journalism. But couldn’t developing new ways of moving information allow news organizations to earn a profit that would support their journalism efforts?

“Yes, moving it is where you make money. I think the problem is when you’re making a lot of money moving that information, supporting the journalism side? I don’t see that happening,” answered McKerral.

According to McKerral, “They’re making a lot of money moving the information, but that money they’re making isn’t going back into developing and improving making more quality content. It goes into making more money moving information. That’s just a business decision, not much we can do about that.”

As a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism & Mass Communication, I can attest that the job market for the majority of my peers is rough. That is, if we want to work for a newspaper.

I believe journalism is becoming a more entrepreneurial endeavor because it gives younger journalists with technology skills a space to contribute to journalism in new ways with different revenue models.

If news organizations were open to hiring staff to specifically design ways of moving information, the organization itself would profit from its success. The problem is that news organizations are not always willing to pay new staff to do something that’s not journalism in the traditional sense of the word.

Throughout my college career as a student journalist, I have come to understand methods of moving information-perhaps not journalistic on their own-as very journalistic endeavors when combined with original reporting.

At UW-Madison, we have a hyperlocal class where we learn the business model to support our own hyperlocal site, in addition to learning hyperlocal reporting. Most students ended up with long form investigative pieces that uncovered stories untold in local media.

The hyperlocal model provides a very modest living and it’s predicated on a smaller staff to allow for low break-even costs. Local businesses are more open to advertising because the audience is local and thus highly targeted. The hyperlocal markets for reporting and advertising are merging, so there is additional business in managing people’s advertisements. Hyperlocal journalism business owners often take partial roles as community organizers of sorts for additional monetary support from hosting forums, events and concerts.

The West Seattle Blog produces $100,000 of annual revenue that supports founder Tracy Record, her husband and her child—all of whom contribute the majority of the reporting. Record essentially serves as a hyperlocal ad agency. Other sites have modeled revenue options that include philanthropy, subscriptions, and receiving money to pursue specific stories of interest.

The City University of New York hosts an entrepreneurial journalism program for recent j-school graduates or mid-career journalists. The school is one semester long, and pairs 13 journalists with 13 computer software programmers and the students launch their own businesses.

Homicide Watch is a site created by journalists Laura Amico and her husband Chris, who studied computer programming and developed software that aggregates homicide information onto one platform. In addition, they go to the courtrooms and visit the victims’ families to provide original reporting. How do they profit? They sell the “Homicide Watch” software to news organizations.

There are new journalists who are capable at both creating and moving information and who are deeply passionate about the future of journalism and its role in this nation. But if these movers and shakers don’t get the industry support they need to collaborate, they will find another way.

View more Wells Memorial Key Centennial Celebration coverage here.

MADISON – The Madison pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to announce a two-day celebration of the 100th anniversary of SPJ’s Wells Memorial Key. The key is the highest honor for service to the Society, and the celebration honors the nearly three dozen living Wells Key winners. The celebration will also honor Chester Wells, a 1913 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and the second national president of Sigma Delta Chi, as SPJ was originally known.

The event will take place May 31-June 1 in Madison at Union South on the University of Wisconsin campus. It will feature an address by David Maraniss, author of “Barack Obama: The Story” and “When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi;” an educational discussion about the future of journalism; a historical tribute to Wells and a special screening of “Deadline USA.” Also as part of the celebration, SPJ will partner with the Wisconsin State Historical Society for a special display of historical newspaper archives.

About one-half of the living Wells Key winners and numerous national and regional SPJ and SDX officers are expected to attend.

The entire schedule is as follows:

Friday, May 31

2-4 pm: Special display and discussion of famous/historical newspaper archives at Wisconsin State Historical Society

5 pm: Reception

6 pm: Dinner with speaker David Maraniss, author of “Barack Obama:The Story” and “When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.”

Saturday, June 1

10 am-12 pm:  “Journalism Issues Past and Future”

Moderator: Robert Leger, former SPJ president; 2012 Wells Key winner; president, Sigma Delta Chi Foundation; opinions editor, The Arizona Republic

Panelists: Steve Geimann, former SPJ president; Wells Key winner; former president and current director, Sigma Delta Chi Foundation; news editor with Bloomberg News; Gordon McKerral, former SPJ president; Wells Key winner; director, Sigma Delta Chi Foundation; associate professor, School of Journalism and Broadcasting at the Western Kentucky University; Amanda Theisen, SPJ Region 6 director; news producer, KSTP in Minneapolis; and Lauren Fuhrmann, vice president, Madison SPJ pro chapter; public engagement director, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

12–2 pm: Lunch with speaker UW-Madison Professor James L. Baughman on the “Changing Face of Journalism”

2-4: Screening of “Deadline USA”

Registration is $75 for all events. Separate registration is available for Friday for $55 and for Saturday for $30. To register, please use this Everbrite website: https://2013wellskey.eventbrite.com/#

A block of hotel rooms have been reserved at Union South, the site of the event, for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The rate is $127 and it includes underground parking and wifi. Reservations must be made by April 30. Call 608-263-2600 and mention the Wells Key Seminar to get one of the reserved rooms. Reserve online with the group code WELLSKEY at https://www.myfidelio.net/webui/AvailabilitySearch.aspx?chain=IQ&property=USWUH

Please contact Terry Shelton, Commemoration Committee, Wells Memorial Key Anniversary at [email protected] 608.262.3038 for more information.