Welcome to the new industry hub

If you ever went to the old PANPA website, this new effort will be a bit of a surprise, if not a shock.

The static brochure-ware is gone. We have built a basic site riddled with Web 2.0 technologies on a budget of pretty much zero. Unashamedly, we are trying to create a site that promotes the spirit of community, where media colleagues – especially those from newspapers and online properties -  can discuss the future of their industry in an open and respectful environment.

We are using an internet device much derided by too many journalists – the blog. Those who characterise this publishing tool as evil, ill-educated, untrustworthy or whatever their gripe is, just don’t get it. Blogging has a power that gives everyone the ability to create and comment.

So why has PANPA (finally) got the blogging bug? A couple of reasons. Firstly, one of the most powerful newspaper CEOs in the region grumbled to me, ‘I want to know why my journalists have to go to The Guardian (in the UK) to read and discuss the future of newspapers…’

Good point. So now they don’t.

Secondly, any association worth a pinch needs to be able to create and tap into the emotions and needs of their community to be relevant. Any editor should say much the same of their newspaper or website. Our blogs are a way in which important issues for the industry will surface and be discussed in ways we have never done before.

PANPA’s community is a rich cocktail of philosophies, experiences and skills that all come together to make some of the world’s best newspapers and websites. That diversity is its greatest strength and its most significant challenge.

This is the way we are tackling that challenge: PANPA has so-called “Advisory Groups” and these cover Journalism, Sales & Marketing, Print & Production and Digital Business. Each one has up to 15 senior staff on it, and they help PANPA organise events and provide guidance on industry issues. We have created a blog for each of these groups (see the Blogroll to the right), so they can discuss their areas of expertise and create the style of blog that is most suitable for their group (The digital group is in the process of forming under the leadership of Hugh Martin, of APN).

There is another blog – Media Students’ View. And with respect to everyone else, this is my favourite. Old crusties like myself are never going to set our organisations on a realistic strategy if we do not continually listen to our youngest consumers and our future media leaders. What will they blog…who knows? It’s a blank canvas for them, just as it is for everyone else. But who can afford to ignore them? (Media students from Charles Sturt Uni are making initial contributions, and others will join them soon)

Is this the best we can do? Ha, I hope not. This is just the start. We have videos to post, audio interviews with industry leaders to get done, a bit more tech stuff to sort out… We could have spent months messing around with this, but decided to get it up and let it run its course.

A couple of boring but important points: We moderate each posting. We don’t like defamatory flames or disrespect of colleagues. Treat your postings and comments with the respect you treat your own newspaper and/or digital property, and we’re all good.

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Tags: advisory groups, blogs, journalism, media, PANPA, the guardian