Digital Journalism has forced “Old Journalism” to change, but that’s only Half the Battle 

The way in which journalists work may be evolving and diversifying because of digital journalism, but the game still remains good reporting and storytelling, according to The Huffington Post’s Kate Sheppard.

Sheppard is continuing along the crossroad-marked path when it comes to the still burgeoning frontier that is digital journalism. After beginning her career with an online news publication, Grist, and having subsequently worked for publications such as Mother Jones and The American Prospect, she now serves as The Huffington Post’s Senior Environmental Reporter. When it comes to the Environment and its effect on Washington politics, she knows her beat. She also knows what it was like to enter the workforce during the new era of Digital Journalism from the different perspectives of non-profit and profit news organizations.

Until joining The Huffington Post, Sheppard had worked for non-profit publications only. Her tenure at The Huffington Post, a for-profit organization, has allowed her to examine how digital journalism meshes with the habits of readers in light of technological advances, mobile technology and the ensuing effect that has on a publication’s success and cutting-edge reputation.

Rather than eliminate the need for journalism, Sheppard agreed that digital journalism has had the opposite effect.

“A few years ago, there was all this hand wringing, are we going to need journalism, are we going to have reporters,” Sheppard said. “In reality, the digital wave has created more of a need for information, now we’re not just reading a newspaper, we’re looking for constant updates on our phone, we’re watching TV while we’re on our iPad, it’s sped up a lot and changed the ways of packaging. The big revolution is the kind of stories, how we make them, and how we get them to people.”

“Fundamentally, it’s the same thing we’ve always done, which is finding good information and telling good stories,” Sheppard said.

When it comes to digital journalism, Sheppard said it has definitely had an effect on how she does her job as a reporter.

“I think differently when I’m collecting information – quality of the audio, maybe some kind of slideshow,” Sheppard said. “I have to think about taking photos, ideally photos that are usable, what the format might look like. That sort of guides me when I’m out in the field. I’m now thinking about fast stories and longer pullback stories that might attract a different kind of reader.”

Sheppard said it’s important to accommodate different kinds of readers. She pointed out that some people want a minute by minute update, and others want to know what new thing they should read this week.

“That’s the hardest thing about my job, the time scales and the different kinds of readers,” Sheppard said.

Digital Journalism has required traditional news organizations such as The New York Times and The Washington Post to evolve in order to compete with online organizations without compromising the reputation of their respective histories as print newspapers.

Facing a future where the traditional newsroom may be obsolete is not unrealistic, given the almost weekly headlines detailing the latest cuts in newsroom staffs, one of the more recent being The New York Times. The idea of “The Grey Lady” may be incompatible with digital journalism, and yet, digital journalism may be what keeps the craft alive.

“A lot of those older institutions, it’s trying to move a very large vessel in a new direction,” Sheppard said. “There’s a lot of readjustment going on in the journalism world, but we’ve settled down to a point where journalism isn’t going to disappear.”

“There was a period where the old journalism looked upon the internet and saw it as a place with people in their pajamas and kids playing around, not doing serious journalism,” Sheppard said. “There is that in some older journalism organizations to some extent, but they are realizing that they can’t stay there.”

Sheppard agreed that these organizations are doing some interesting things to become faster and more relevant, although she did say that they were creating migration-driven material that The Huffington Post did years ago. For instance, The New York Times recently launched “Watching” on their website, which is a tailored newsfeed which publishes the most up to date headlines in real time.

Sheppard said that the issue isn’t whether or not journalism will disappear altogether, but rather, it’s a question of money.

“What is the funding model that is going to allow it to continue, and more specifically, what is the funding model that is going to allow it to be good and not just the lowest common denominator – junk?” Sheppard asked.

The idea of the funding model ties back into the habits of readers – how do you get someone to come to your site and stay there?

“To me, the big future question is how you pay people to do good reporting,” Sheppard said. “Cat videos are self-sustaining, but sending somebody out to do weeks of work takes an investment. How do you make space for people to tell good stories that are not going to have a million hits?”

Sheppard said there are still a lot of people trying to figure out the best way to deliver a lot of information as fast as possible while making journalism a career that people can stay in for a long time.

As a graduate student in American University’s Media Entrepreneurship program, Sheppard has a keen interest in the relationship between the business and ethics sides of journalism. She mentioned the specific mindset in journalism where the ethics side can’t talk to the business side, which she said often leads to not the best decisions on either side.

“I can write a great story, but if no one reads it, does it matter?” Sheppard asked.

Prior to joining The Huffington Post, Sheppard’s background was at solely non-profit news organizations. She said part of the reason she went to work for The Huffington Post is because it’s a for-profit organization; she wanted to work in an environment where the bottom line had to be taken into account.

“How do you combine the non-profit thinking of how to tell good stories versus how to get people to read those good stories?” Sheppard queried.

Her involvement with AU’s Media Entrepreneurship program is allowing her to study business models and other ways to get people to care enough about the product to pay for it.

Sheppard’s point about funding models raises the question about the future of drawn-out investigative reporting stories that are important on a community or societal level, but may not advance the proverbial bottom line in the form of those million hits.

Kickstarter is well-known for helping independent filmmakers raise money for individual projects running the gamut from filmmaking to art to dance. Kickstarter has been helping journalists raise money for projects for some time, but in June 2014, Journalism received its own category on the Kickstarter website. Perhaps entities such as Kickstarter will be one of the models for certain types of journalism moving forward, as it has already proven in some instances.

In the middle of this frenzied, data-driven environment, there are readers with their iPhones and iPads who may seldom go to the front page of any site with the specific purpose of seeing the top headline on said site, but rather find themselves there because they clicked on some other story.

Anyone can create a blog and become a self-proclaimed expert on any topic of choosing. On the other hand, blogging has served to feature voices in the community where local papers have been swallowed up by regional publications.

“Blogging has allowed people to share their stories, which allows a lot of different stories to rise to the top,” Sheppard said. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

In addition to keeping their profession alive and evolving, journalists must meet the challenge of understanding and mining everyone’s news and information habits wherever that may lead. And yet, how can we predict what people are going to do when even they may not know what they’re going to do? How will our practice and evolving understanding of digital journalism help us to encompass the melange of individual minds that comprise the digital realm?

Journalists like Kate Sheppard are doing their utmost to find out.