Innovation in a Reinvented World: 10 Essential Elements to Succeed in the New World of Business

Industry Snapshot: Journalism, News Media, and Publishing

Not since the Gutenberg press printed its first copies of the Bible using movable type has ink-print copy gone through so many changes. Thanks to innovative technologies and devices, the world of news and publishing continues to transform itself into a game-changing content machine.

News rooms and journalists unable to recognize and respond to the changes swirling within and around their industry—slow to jump in and embrace the reinvention fray—will continue to lose an audience looking to receive content in new ways, tailored to their needs.

According to the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), citizen media continued to explode in 2009 and 2010, thanks to the popularity of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. But PEJ's ongoing analysis of more than a million blogs and social media sites finds that 80 percent of the links are to U.S. legacy media.

What would happen if traditional newsrooms closed their doors, since even citizen journalists are dependent on legacy media for links to their content? Although technology is making it easier for citizens to participate in content creation, it also means that the news we get will increasingly be fast and furious.

One high-profile example was that of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and the NPR newscast team reporting she had died in an assassination attempt instead of being seriously wounded. NPR two-source rule—common in most newsrooms—hurt ...