45 Minutes with Robert Scoble — Advice for News Publishers
Robert Scoble, one of the most recognized voices on social media, shares his opinions on how traditional newspapers, like the Mercury News, and news outlets, CNN and BBC, must change to absorb the new “on-the-street” journalist. These new field correspondents can leverage their own blog, Flickr, YouTube, or yet-to-be-invented social media solutions to provide real-time news. Scoble relates a personal example of living in the bay area during the earthquake of 1989. At that time, the news was too centralized to the “hot” news spots, while the thousands of other locations around the bay did not get covered — both good news (like, hey we’re okay in this part of town) and other trouble spots. Digital photos, cellular communications, broadband web connectivity, WordPress and Blogger.com are challenging news outlets. Scoble gives his recommendation of how these outlets — and the journalists struggling to keep their own jobs — need to change to include this new type of field correspondent. Between cell calls, Brad Baldwin talks to Robert while driving from San Francisco to PodTech‘s new offices in Menlo Park.