JESSICA DaSILVA

For the past few weeks, I’d been applying, researching and preparing to run for editor in chief of The Independent Florida Alligator, which is billed as the nation’s largest student-run newspaper.

As of Aug. 1, I have the job. I’ve been looking forward to this since I started at the Alligator, and I’m surprisingly feeling a lot of mixed emotions now that I’ve got it.

When I started, I knew I would stick around out of loyalty to the paper and hoped to one day head the organization. However, as I started getting more involved with online journalism, the burning desire to take over grew from frustration with editors who ignored or looked down on our Web site from their high horse.

Some past editors saw the site as nothing more than a way to archive print stories and occasionally scoop The Gainesville Sun. As a student at a college newspaper, I can see the potential for our Web site to take risks and do some truly great journalism – with less bureaucratic oversight than a traditional news organization.

And knowing the types of people we’ve had on our online staff (i.e. Brett Roegiers and Megan Taylor), there’s no reason we shouldn’t be producing consistently stellar online content.

One concern I have is the content management system our site is running on. After some severe miscommunication, our well-meaning general manager signed a two-year contract for a very rigid and outdated CMS. The online staff should not have to spend most of its night shoveling stories onto the Web site.

It’s been a year, and I don’t see why we should continue dealing with the problems this CMS is causing. At the same time, it’s a matter of weighing the penalties of breaking the contract and switching to an open-source CMS with keeping the contract and letting the same limitations persist.

I know what I want, but I’m not a dictator, and I need to involve others in the decision-making process.

In the mean time, I’m getting these great online ideas from people who are returning for the fall, and I get so excited to hear them. Then I wonder how long it would take to make it happen or if we can even do them on this CMS, and I worry.

I just want the best for the Alligator. I want to make Alligator.org a journalism juggernaut. I lose sleep over potential setbacks.

All this time, I’ve imagined myself as being the one who could better the online product while maintaining the integrity of the print product. Now, I feel frustrated that maybe I won’t be the one to get the staff or administration to change their print-centric mindset.

I get discouraged, and I worry about my qualifications. I only know multimedia basics, but I guess it is a matter of mindset over skill set. At the same time, I know it’s going to be long and arduous process and that I have to keep my chin up.

I have so many ideas to start improving our Web site, but now I’m starting to feel overwhelmed. There is a big mess to clean up. It’s like I’m Ty Pennington on Extreme Home Makeover, except he’s not sure how many volunteers are going to show up.

Then when I feel down, I think of past editors who did a great job with the paper yet were rigid when it came to innovation and an understanding of the Web site’s potential. That’s the difference. I can see that, and I’m open to so many ideas.

As I’ve been telling prospective staffers, this is the semester for innovation and ideas. I don’t care how crazy it sounds; I will try any idea once. The way I see it, if we try something and it flops, well, we just won’t do it again. This semester is our chance to experiment.

My spirits have been picking up this week, though. One of my section editors agreed to stick around even though it meant turning down an internship.

“I just knew I would be leaving at the wrong time,” she said. “I didn’t want to look at the paper and Web site every day and wish I had been a part of it. I know you’re going to do a good job.”

Those were words I needed to hear.

In my last two posts, I had a couple of comments critiquing my praise of “hyperlocal news” coming to The Tampa Tribune and asking me what I thought about LoudounExtra.com.

The comments said Rob Curley’s Loudoun project was nothing new and insinuated that it was a failed project, which seemed based on a headline from the Wall Street Journal.

Based on the actual article, I don’t think LoudounExtra is really presented as a failed project. It seems to be fairly shown as a hyperlocal project that just wasn’t as good as it could have been because of a few key elements overlooked by Curley.

In Curley’s blog post about the article, he mentions that Russell Adams, the reporter, was concerned about the headline. As we all know, sometimes headlines don’t reflect the story as well as they could. Adams and Curley both agree on this point - Loudoun was not a “flop,” but it could have been a lot better.

Also in Curley’s post are the three missing elements that lead to LoudounExtra’s downfall: promotion, integration and communication.

I think we can all agree that if you don’t promote a Web site, link it to its mother Web site or communicate the site’s use to the community, there isn’t a good chance it’s going to develop a steady flow of visitors. LoudounExtra didn’t have an audience mostly because Curley didn’t connect the audience to the site, which he took full responsibility for.

The way I see it, there are other reasons that Loudoun wasn’t as effective as it could have been. Namely, the fact that the county is too large and diversified. As it says in the WSJ article, “Loudoun County is a 520 square-mile area with seven towns whose residents share little else besides a county government.”

This project of following a large county is really just doing the job of a regular regional newspaper. While I wouldn’t consider this a traditional hyperlocal experiment, it’s hyperlocal in comparison to The Washington Post’s average readership.

Still, look at that site! It’s a masterpiece of local journalism. I wish all local newspapers had a site like that.

For it to truly be hyperlocal, the site should be broken down even further to cities or even neighborhoods. This would require the same amount of extreme reporting effort focused on much smaller demographic areas.

I think that would be a great move for local journalism. If news organizations could evaluate the population of the community they’re serving, that could lead people to figure out what kind of news to play up. What’s the biggest group? Young families? The elderly? College students? News Web sites could easily play up issues or features that relate to the community the best.

That’s what the audience editors are for in the new structure at the Trib. They’re supposed to evaluate the demographic and what news it values. To me, that’s what hyperlocal is: Finding out who your readership is and getting them the news that relates to their lives.

Of course, the news won’t solely be tailored to the demographic. The readership needs its meat and potatoes news, too. But when it comes to placement on the Web site, audience information might make all the difference.

I was talking to some of my fellow interns over dinner last Friday, and they brought up a valid point. If the Trib is really committed to going hyperlocal, they’re going to have to rely on the bureaus a lot more. Because most of the layoffs came from those, I would hope to see more reporters distributed there from the main news center.

And to really make TBO a local information powerhouse like LoudounExtra, Internet training is a must. If it’s only to get people thinking in terms of Web site potential, even that would help. But it’s going to require a lot of footwork and database building. That data team in the reorganization is going to be the crux of the hyperlocal movement.

Also, I think TBO needs to find a few designers to come up with a site design that’s cleaner and easier to navigate. The site has all this great content and tons of great packages, and they get lost in the complexity of the design. It needs to be simple and effortless.

So while LoudounExtra might not have worked as well as it could have, that doesn’t speak for the entire hyperlocal movement. Local news is part of the job, but breaking it down into the hyperlocal will make it more personal to the audience.

It’s a move that could really improve coverage and the relationship with the audience, so long as a true commitment to it is made.

A few days ago, I wrote a blog post heard ’round the world about changes at The Tampa Tribune. The reactions I received in the comments were more than simply mixed. In the days since I posted it, I’ve carefully thought about the chain of events that ensued and prepared a response. My only hope is that it leads to new understanding and meaningful discussion.

So without further delay, here are the lessons I learned from this experience:

1. Specify

I should have specified in my post that I was not praising the fact that Janet Coats laid off 10 employees, but that she approached the layoffs with a plan. For those who misinterpreted my words, I offer my sincerest apologies. I could never praise someone for putting 50 employees in situations that would jeopardize their ability to pay mortgages and buy groceries, but I realize that’s not a choice that was in Janet’s hands.

The way I see it, Janet could have called a meeting to tell everyone she laid off 10 people and left it at that - a meeting that I’m sure has gone on in newsrooms around the country - but she didn’t. She held a meeting to say she didn’t want to lay off her employees, but that she had to… and that she had a plan.

Whether this plan will work, she’s still doing something about it. She’s trying her best. This is why I said Janet is my hero. It’s not because I’m looking for a good recommendation letter or trying to earn her favor, but because I admire the fact that she is trying to do something innovative in light of the layoffs and in hopes that it might lead to a solution.

A lot of the criticism involved my quick acceptance of this plan. Let me specify again that I don’t think this is THE plan that will single-handedly save journalism, but a step in the right direction. This plan is just an experiment that could possibly lead to the discovery of a better plan. And who knows where that plan could take us? I’m commending the Trib’s leadership for taking the risk to experiment, not the exact model in question.

I could never praise layoffs. I have friends in this business who are worried about their jobs getting cut while others, including myself, are wondering if there will be any openings for us. And please don’t think these layoffs make things easier for college grads; it doesn’t. Those positions are cut - not left open for cheap college grads.

2. Anticipate

When I wrote that post, I never dreamed it would result in such a rift between journalists. My lack of specifics resulted in a lot of misinterpretation, and journalists left dozens of comments protesting the changes at the Trib. Comments protesting the layoffs spurred more misinterpretation among more journalists who saw this as resisting the changing landscape.

The majority of us understand the importance of online journalism. Yet had it not been for my lack of anticipation, my blog post could have become a forum for discussion about the Trib’s plans, how newspapers can generate revenue on the Internet or anything else. Instead, it became a forum for name calling (on both sides).

I’ve learned that when I write my blog posts, I need to try to anticipate every reaction and every feeling that might be hurt, and then decide if that is a reaction that I want to provoke.

3. Spell check

‘Nuff said.

This evening at the Trib, editor in chief Janet Coats sat in a rolling chair in the center of the newsroom while everyone gathered around for the latest news on layoffs.

She went over the list of who was layed off and why. Then she reexplained that 10 more layoffs were to come in the following weeks and how the newsroom would start reorganizing around its new business model.

It was a hard plan for some people to accept. The fact Janet made up her own crazy new business model for a newspaper without a prototype or any idea where it would take her was frightening to a lot of people. They didn’t seem to like an emphasis on changing the reporting model to focus on immediacy instead of the beat system. That didn’t stop her.

There would be mistakes, she said. And sometimes those in charge would fuck up. But there is nothing else to do.

“We can see a better future for journalism right across the bridge on the other side, but the bridge is on fire, and if we just stand here, we are going to burn up with it.”

A few hands shot up into the air.

“Does this mean the Tribune isn’t bringing in any profits?” someone asked

“The Tribune hasn’t been bringing in profits for a long time … This isn’t about profit margins anymore … We weren’t even in the black this year.”

“How is this new model going to affect our competition with The St. Petersburg Times?”

That set Janet off on quite a diatribe.

First, she said people needed to stop thinking of the Times as competition. She said she understood that it’s hard to think that way when the paper is right across the Bay, but that it is the truth. Not every story will be covered and it won’t be covered in the same way the SPT will cover it. The Trib simply doesn’t have the resources for the old business model.

“I hope (The St. Petersburg Times) keeps doing more of the same,” she said. “I’d like to see them try and do it with a reduced staff. It will only make us stronger.”

Then she dropped the reality bomb:

“People need to stop looking at TBO.com as an add on to The Tampa Tribune,” she said. “The truth is that The Tampa Tribune is an add on to TBO.”

Wow. Someone said that? And that someone was the editor in chief? But wait… there’s more.

She continued from this point, saying she wasn’t sure, but that this had to be a step in the right direction. If we don’t move, she said, newspapers will continue their “death spiral - because that’s what this is.”

She compared newspapers to the music industry. Having increased access to music has undermined the corporate giants of the music industry. They are not making money, but demand is just as high if not higher than it ever has been.

That’s how the news is, she said. There is a high demand for it, but with abundant access to it, it’s time to rethink how we can carve out a niche. Her idea? Hyperlocal journalism.

A sports reporter in the Tallahassee bureau was layed off for no other reason other than the fact that it didn’t make sense to keep a full-time staff member there. The layoff was purely geographic. It’s better to keep one more reporter in Tampa than a sports reporter in a town about four hours north of Tampa.

Now there will be more of an emphasis on the hyperlocal and giving the community news about itself. If they want national news, they have several national news sources to get it. Instead, the Trib should be used to give the community something they can’t get from the NY Times or WaPo. Give them their news.

Through most of this meeting, I just wanted to shout, “Amen!” and “You go girl!” because Janet understands what’s up. She can see the trend in the industry: Innovate or obliterate. She stressed more than several times that if newspapers don’t change then NEWSPAPERS WILL DIE.

It’s hard, she admitted. Sometimes she feels temptation to get out of this business and join PricewaterhouseCoopers where she can have a decent salary and lifestyle. But then she thinks of the role of a news organization, and she knows she could never do that.

“This is who I am,” Janet said. “If you asked me who I am, I would first respond that I’m a journalist - probably before I even said I’m a mother.”

Janet believes in the news industry. She believes in holding government, media and the public accountable. And she knows there is not another job that makes such a huge difference and weilds such power. News organizations offer society so much, and that is why she cannot take another job - because journalism is her calling, and she knows there is nothing else she could ever imagine herself doing.

“It’s worth fighting for,” Janet said.

Out of all her quoteable moments, those were the words that stuck with me. It was that powerful statement that conveyed the hope, faith and prayers of all journalists worldwide. That maybe this industry can’t be demolished because of its importance and that maybe our love and passion for it could be enough to keep it running.

Well, it’s going to take more than love and passion. That love and passion must move us to find solutions to keep our industry, our jobs and our identities alive and well. Still, it’s going to take passionate people like Janet Coats to figure it out.

People might be angry or frightened by what Janet is saying, but she’s right, and they need to start recognizing that. She is doing this because she cares. That woman is not only carrying the burdens of an entire newsroom on her shoulders, but the burdens of a community entitled to quality news. And I know she’s taking the right steps.

On my way out of the newsroom, I saw Janet hobbling on her crutches (she broke her ankle) on her way to the elevator and talking to someone. I wanted to tell her how much I supported what she did, but I didn’t want to interupt. Plus, I’m just an intern. But if I had the chance, I would have said this:

Janet, you’re my hero, and I think this is worth fighting for too.

UPDATE: The line “I’m sick of all the whining” was not referring to anyone at the Trib. I realize these people are losing their jobs, and I’m not trivializing that. I realize these people have mouths to feed and mortgages to pay. Being the oldest of four children, I understand how tight money is. I was referring to the overall sentiment that’s out there (be it in the blogosphere, J-schools, etc.) of people who want the news industry to find a solution, but don’t seem to want to use the Internet to fix it, which is just silly.

I wasn’t going to blog about this, but I guess since it’s already out there, I can talk about my reaction to the huge staffwide meeting at the News Center today.

Today, everyone in the newsroom gathered in a huge conference room where they told us they would lay off about 20 more people (11 tomorrow, effective immediately) and start reorganizing the newsroom based on the layout featured on Mindy McAdams’s blog.

Being an intern and standing in the back of the conference room while this meeting was going on, I was just blown away.

At first I was shocked at hearing about the layoffs… I thought to myself that in that room of 100 people or so, there were about 20 people who would have their jobs ripped from them. What would they do? Where would they go? I almost felt guilty being an intern; I have one of the safest jobs in the newsroom.

When I heard about the reorganization, I was hesitant at first, but I’ve had some time to think it over.

I want to say I admire the leaders at the Trib for taking control. As the newsroom to first spearhead the convergence movement, it only makes sense they would pioneer a new flow chart for reporting.

And frankly, I’m kind of sick of all the whining. A lot of journalists have been sitting around lamenting their losses instead of thinking up ways to fix their situation.

I understand that being innovative and adventurous is a scary and vulnerable move because no one really knows what the best way to deal with this, but what are the options? We can’t just let our industry crumble to pieces while we get booted from our jobs and move into cardboard boxes.

When I returned from the meeting, a few people made jokes about me changing my major. I don’t like these jokes, but typically, I casually laugh them off. Today I said, “Oh, it’s staying. I’m not dedicated to the medium so much as I’m dedicated to reporting news. I don’t care about the medium. I care about informing the people.”

That put an end to it.

The way I see it, nothing will change unless we force it to. Together as an industry, we need to grab fate by the horns and wrestle it into the direction we want it to take. We can’t be bullied out of our profession.

That’s what the Trib is doing. They know they don’t have all the kinks worked out and that they’ll make some mistakes, but the fact that they’re trying something this radical only shows us how determined they are to stay alive. And those are the people who will make it.

To be continued…