Randy Smith presents "Journalism in Exponential Times" during the annual 2012 Reynolds Business Journalism Seminars, hosted by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.org.

1. About me
 Thirty years at The Kansas City Star.
 Pulitzer team in 1981 that covered Hyatt skywalks collapse.
 Several roles: Business editor, City editor, Deputy
ME, overseeing national, suburbs, city desk and special
projects. Last job: Director of Strategic Development.
 President of Society of American Business Editors and Writers;
president of the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships.
 Worked as a reporter and editor in LA and the South for two
other newspapers in the 1970s.

2. Journalism in Exponential Times

3. It’s raining everywhere

4. Competition is growing

7. 
Jobs will be different

8. Fewer high paid anchors in our cities

9. Fewer investigative stories at big papers
and networks

10. Journalism is not dead

11. More new ventures

14. Samsung’s view of the future

15. What does this tell us
 Media will be interactive – we will be able to smell
flowers as they’re being arranged.
 3D will be the standard – not a big screen
exception.
 We will be able to work at great distances in ways
that we’ve not yet imagined.
 There will still be 24 hours in a day, but we’ll be able
to get more accomplished.

16. Are there any hints about future business
models?
 Saves time.
 Interactive.
 Helps us achieve our desires – a birthday surprise
for a loved one.
 Convenient.
 Ease of use.
 Fun and entertaining.

17. 
Preparing students for the journey
10 lessons from my first year of teaching

18. You’ll need to recruit students
 Don’t expect students to
beating down your door to
be business journalists.
 There’s money and jobs in
business journalism.
 But where’s the romance?
 And math is scary.
 How do you do it?

19. Lesson 1: Honey is a potent force
 Innovation.
 Entrepreneurism.
 Exploring your ideas.
 Large interest in service
work/international.
 Excellent journalism.
 New ideas.

20. Three new classes
 One graduate level course for MBAs and journalism
students that brings real entrepreneurs to the class
with real problems.
 One graduate/undergraduate course that teaches
journalism students how to take an idea and shape
it into a business plan.
 One graduate seminar class that takes students
around the world to look at a variety of businesses
who are succeeding/failing.

21. And they’re applying for jobs where?
 Reuters
 Bloomberg.
 Wall Street Journal.
 AP
 Business Journals.
 Business departments of large metros.
 Radio/television.

22. Second step on the journey
 Is there an e-reader or an Ipod in the house?
 Can I get a free newspaper? (quiz them weekly)
 Cameras, digital recorders?
 Bloomberg terminal?
 Searching the internet: Dorothy Carner exercises.
http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/j2100exercis
es.htm
 What’s missing from the library? The Economist?

23. Third lesson: Math isn’t that scary
 Lots of accolades for early reading programs.
 But how many accolades are there out there for early math
programs in schools?
 First exercise in undergrad class is a confidence booster for
anyone with math phobia. That’s most everyone in journalism
school.
 Test their fifth grade math skills: Percentages, ability to
add, subtract, multiply and divide.
 Homework assignment: Build an Excel spread sheet with the local
baseball team’s salaries in descending order.
 We need to create a math friendly environment.

24. A budget assignment due on Monday
 Assume $25,000 in student debt.
 Assume a $159/month car payment.
 Three months contingency fund.
 We’ll assign you a city.
 Research all of the expenses that you might have.
 Bottom line: How much money will you need to make in
your first year on the job?
 There’s one thing that I’m leaving off the following list.

25. Doing a budget
Portland Oregonian Job Budget
Rent $6,000 $500 per month
Bills $3,000 Springfield COI + 57%
Food $6,500 Springfield COI + 57%
Est daily driving x 365 / est milage x
$3.25 average gas price, + est oil
Transportation $2,000 changes and tires
Car payment of $160 monthly, per
Car Payments $1,800 assignment
Insurance $2,100 Car + Renters
Entertainment $2,000 A generous amount, for miserly me.
Including clothing, replacement
appliances, and a hefty chunk for
Other $3,000 whatever it is I forgot.
Loan payments $2,900 Per on online loan calculator
Emergency $8,825 Annual expense / 4, + COBRA X 3
Can live much cheaper under normal
circumstances, but planned for the
Total $38,125 worst.

26. What was left out of this exercise?

27. By the end of the class, we’re doing this

28. Fourth Lesson: Entrepreneurism
 Teach basic business skills: How to
build a budget, how to protect your
ideas, how to market your ideas.
 Expose students to entrepreneurs
and look at some case studies.
 Assign some case studies on
companies that are succeeding:
Angie’s List and Politico are two that
we did last semester.
 Challenge them to come up with
their own models, and present their
ideas in class. Who knows? New
ideas might be worth funding.

29. New ideas from unusual places
 OPubCo’s $5 million venture
into television monitors.
 Gannett’s 22 Broadway in
Nashville.
 McDonald’s milkshake study.

30. Don’t be like Western Union…

31. When this guy showed up!

32. Western Union could have
 Bought out Bell
 But they didn’t believe the telephone would ever
surpass the telegraph.
 Bell started his own companies, and first attracted
rich people who wanted to talk to their servants.
 Soon telephone wires were strung in one
community after another. Western Union today is
known for the transfer of money.

33. Fifth exercise: Good Books
 How do you get everyone to
work on the same team?
 How do you sell your ideas?
 How do you convey
urgency?
 How do you build success?
 John Kotter’s “Our Iceberg is
Melting.”

34. Clayton Christensen: Seeing What’s Next
 Resources, Processes and Values Theory
 Incumbent companies are not as creative as
independent counterparts. So they’re more likely to
be vulnerable to disruptive innovations. Everything
that they do - resources, processes and values -
lock them into a mindset that does not allow them
to think like an entrepreneur.

35. Sixth exercise: Good writing sells
 Too much of business
journalism is difficult to
read.
 Focus your students on
award-winning work that
analyzes the complex in easy
to understand ways.
 Feed them stories about
entrepreneurs who
succeeded and why – and
those that don’t.

36. Seventh exercise: A world view
 Students are flocking to international service
projects, but they do not have a real
understanding of the world.
 Create opportunities for them to attend
exciting presentations, and have them write
about them from a business perspective.
 David Crane and diamonds.
 The Center for the Digital Globe
(http://cdig.missouri.edu/aboutcdig.html).
 12-hours of interdisciplinary work focused on
understanding the world through different
disciplines: A&S, Law, Journalism, Business
and Textile Management.

37. What continent skipped the PC?

38. Africa

39. What’s the next Saudi Arabia?
 And what does this tell us about business
journalism and business models?

40. Bolivia – 50% of world’s lithium

41. Consider my recent job
 An firm in India did most our basic back-office
financial work.
 A German company watched over our presses 24/7.
 A Philippine company handled all of our circulation
department’s phone calls/messaging.
 A Danish firm developed and watched over our
computer software.

42. Eighth exercise: Stress versatility

43. Keys to your versatility
 Stress the tools on your tool belt: digital, academic,
writing, reporting, radio, television. Teach this right
away!
 Work history with an accent on accomplishments.
 Education with an accent on what you learned.
 Achievements. For example, student body president.
 Activities. Try to show community involvement.
 Show your ability to learn and adapt to changing
technology.

44. A key lesson: Fix it yourself
 Most of the technology that we’re teaching today at the
university level will be obsolete within a few years.
 Learning Dreamweaver. Work with your computer folks
to create a how-to video.
 Learning other technologies without a teacher holding
your hand.
 Real skills for the real world.
 Michelle Nicolosi at seattlepi.com (Newsroom went
from 170 to 42).

45. Ninth: Help students find work
 Spend time helping students with their resumes.
Too many colleges don’t do this anymore or make it
a backburner item.
 Talk to them about how to approach an interview
and what/what not to say.
 Teach them how to research the prospective
company and also themselves.

46. Some of my tips on getting ready

47. Facebook, Linked-in, etc.
 Google yourself and see what comes up.
 Is there anything that you wouldn’t want an employer to see on
any of your social networking accounts?
 Do you write your opinions on current events of the day? This will
come up.
 Do you have a blog? Not a negative unless you’ve done
something embarrassing. If so, expect it to come up.
 Several media companies have turned down applicants because
their blogs/facebook postings show they can’t be impartial.
 FYI. Anything you submit will likely end up on the Internet.

48. Toughest questions to answer
 An exercise for your class. Divide into teams.
 Tell me about yourself. Focus on professional experience
and talk about your successes.
 What are your strengths?
 What are your weaknesses, and what are you doing to
correct them?
 Always have three questions for the interviewer.

49. Never tell a lie - Lincoln

50. Can you speak Spanish?
 Your resume says that you speak Spanish.
 “Yes, I do,” said the applicant.
 “Good,” said the recruiter.
 “Let’s do the rest of the interview in Spanish.”
 “I should have said that I’ve only had Spanish in grade
school,” said the applicant.
 “So you can’t speak Spanish?”
 “Yes, I can’t speak Spanish.”

51. Filling in the blank slate

52. Follow-up with a handwritten note

53. Tenth: Be available
 This is complex stuff.
 Students need to feel
comfortable with you.
 They have different hours
than we do.
 They have other pressures
outside of your class.
 Make sure that they learn.

54. Final Point
 We should not forget our foremost mission: To train
journalists in the basics and fundamentals of our
field.
 Our industry will always need journalists who
understand the basics and can write clearly, putting
news and events into context.

55. A new day for business journalism.