An interview with Clyde Bentley as he begins his Fellowship year.
By Alecia Swasy
Clyde Bentley spent roughly two decades in the news business, doing everything from reporting Hollywood celeb news for Newsweek to editing a monthly cattle magazine. But he got one of his best lessons on journalism when he sold ads in Oregon and Texas.
“…the bumble bees of the community….”
“Newspaper ad people are the bumble bees of the community,” visiting every business in town. In turn, they have a pulse on the economy, and know what “stories they want and need,” he says.
Too often, traditional media outlets set the news agenda based on what senior editors view as important, say, politics and crime, instead of really listening to what real folks want. “That’s not the agenda for most people,” he says. Instead, readers are more concerned with everyday life, such as their family, jobs and pets.
That sense of community helped Bentley, associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism’s print and digital news program, shape MyMissourian, a citizen journalism, project started in 2004. As part of the project, students found people to share their stories, stories that usually don’t make it into print. This month, there’s a photo of Joe Barbee of Columbia’s Daniel Boone Little League, the state champs. And J.M. Stock shared the love story of his parents, married for 71 years before his mother died in April. Stock’s father passed away three days later.
Bentley now wants to help tailor community journalism to the next medium: cell phones. As one of the 2009-10 Donald W. Reynolds Fellows, Bentley will focus on how smaller newspapers can add mobile phones to their publishing platforms. His working title: Putting the news in every pocket or purse.
To research whether the cell phone is a logical extension for news organizations, Bentley has to first survey what’s already being done in Europe and Asia, where cell phones are all ready being used by media companies.
His research will include a national survey of attitudes and uses of cell phones. He plans to blog about the technology and uses aimed at news professionals. And he hopes to host a forum at RJI to bring people together to share ideas and tackle the barriers that are keeping media companies from making the jump to mobile.
“Large dailies have technical staffs, but smaller newspapers have close connections with communities.”
“The best way is to try to come up with a platform for small newspapers,” Bentley says. “Large dailies have technical staffs, but smaller newspapers have close connections with communities.”
One challenge is tailoring the news to what readers want, but also when they want it. “People do not like to be text messaged every five minutes,” he says.
Bentley, who has been talking to major cell phone makers about his research, sees advertising potential. In Europe cell phone companies are using GPS devices in telephones to help advertisers. For instance, the GPS can track when a customer is walking near a store, which generates a text message inviting her to stop by for a discount.
The technology issues are already being addressed by cell phone manufacturers, which are always looking for the next breakthrough. Bentley believes the more difficult component is the “strategy and culture of newspapers.”
“We don’t precipitate change. When we went to online journalism, reporters were very resistant to modifying stories. Now we have to modify them to a screen that’s two-and-a-half by three inches,” he says.
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