Knoxville News Sentinel editor talks media economics with UT students

Jack McElroy, editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, spoke to journalism students at UTK about the changing landscape of news media.

Newspapers are struggling because they are not generating enough advertising revenue, said Jack McElroy, editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, to a gathering of journalism students Tuesday in Alumni Memorial Hall.

“Advertising is the big problem that newspapers have,” McElroy said.

Businesses have more places to advertise than ever, according to McElroy. Because of the increase in options, fewer businesses place advertisements in newspapers.

Before the Internet evolved and expanded, the newspaper was one of the few outlets for detailed information, according to McElroy.

“We had the only big printing press in town, it was a license to print money,” he said.

McElroy used the example of craigslist to show how the role of the newspaper has changed.

“When I was young, if you wanted to buy a car or find a place to live, you would go to the newspaper and find the classified ads,” he said. “If you think about it, your finger and that paper were sort of like a slow search engine.”

McElroy said newspapers used to rely on classified ads for revenue. All it took was one man with a computer in California to change all of that, according to McElroy.

“Newspapers used to make a lot of money doing that,” he said.

Last week, McElroy fired several employees of the Knoxville News Sentinel to “better adapt to the changing media landscape.”

CNN editor addresses UT students about storytelling in news media

Jan Winburn, senior editor of enterprise at CNN Digital, spoke to students at UT’s Patrick Auditorium Monday about the role of storytelling in news media.

“The future of journalism is in storytelling,”  said Jan Winburn, senior editor for enterprise at CNN Digital, to a gathering of journalism students Monday at UT’s Communication Building.

“I am biased to story telling and I think storytelling is very much the direction this business is going,” she said.”

New media formats have forced news companies to change the way they present information, according to Winburn. She said people now get a large portion of their hard news from social media, which has forced traditional media to take a new angle by telling stories.

“As the world is changing, I think a lot of editors like myself are realizing that we are not going to be a place people go if it’s just about the news,” Winburn said. “We cannot just continue doing 24 hours of showing what happened.”

Winburn said news is everywhere, and has therefore become a commodity. This has made it harder for traditional news companies to capture an audience, forcing them to adopt new methods of presentation.

“There was a time when it could be exciting to be first with the news, but as time has gone on, [being first] has become the commodity,” she said.

Winburn said that to tell a story effectively, a reporter must understand the person he or she is interviewing. She said a reporter must be able to ask meaningful questions to get the subject “to go somewhere they rarely do.”

“The most important tool you have as a journalist is your curiosity,” she said. “How well you think about the material will determine how effective the story you tell is.”

According to Winburn, good stories come from tragedies and loss. She said news outlets often drop the story after reporting on the tragedy, but a good storyteller will see a new story developing.

“You know from that moment something else is going to start to unfold, a new story. These are stories that will take you around the tragedy and teach you something about human nature,” Winburn said.

Winburn said a series of articles published by Esquire Magazine about the experience of being attacked by a shark and the story of President John F. Kennedy’s gravedigger are examples of effective storytelling to replace hard news.

“There is always the first shark bite of the year,” she said. “But there was one the year before that and the year before that as well.”

Before becoming an online journalist in 2009, Winburn spent 30 years as an editor and writing coach at newspapers. As an editor her writers have won several national awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.

Local leaders gather to celebrate Knoxville’s birthday

Liza Zenni, Executive Director of the Arts and Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, talks with County Commissioner Charles Busler, left, and a member of the public Friday at the Founders Day Luncheon in downtown Knoxville.

Congressman John Duncan, Jr. and Mayor Madeline Rogero spoke about the importance of local history Friday at the Founders Day Luncheon, celebrating Knoxville’s 223rd birthday.

“Knoxville was a great place to grow up,” Duncan said. “When I look back and think about how small of a place Knoxville was, almost everything past Bearden Hill was a farm.”

VIDEO of Founders Day Luncheon

Duncan told the audience, which consisted largely of representatives of seven historical locations in the Knoxville area, that the work they do helps make Knoxville special.

“I really love all the work you are doing in supporting these historic homes,” Duncan said. “It’s these places that make Knoxville a little bit special and a little bit more unique.”

Duncan was referring, specifically, to the Blount Mansion, Crescent Bend, James White’s Fort, Mabry-Hazen House, Marble Springs, Ramsey House, and Westwood.

Preservation of the historical locations is funded partly by public funds, but most of it is from private grants and donations.

The historical sites are significant to the story of Knoxville and Tennessee. The Blount Mansion was built and 1792 and is referred to as the “birthplace of Tennessee,” Marble Springs was home to the first governor of the state, John Sevier.

“Each home has its own unique and different story, and to get those stories you really have to visit those sites,” said Sam Maynard, Executive Director of James White’s Fort.

The sites are open to the public and offer visitors an interesting look into the history of the city.

“William Blount was the first person to be impeached, he was a scoundrel,” said Katie Stringer, Executive Director of Blount Mansion. “We have all kinds of great stories about him.”

Several city and county officials also attended the gathering to celebrate Knoxville’s birthday. Knox County Commissioner Dave Wright gave the closing comments.

“This is about creating visibility and patting those people on the back that preserve these sites,” Wright said. “This is primarily on their backs.”

The luncheon was held at The Foundry near World’s Fair Park. Attendees were treated to music; they sang happy birthday to Knoxville, and a video montage of the featured sites.

“It’s amazing how you can find out about a huge part of American history by visiting these homes,” said Liza Zenni, Executive Director of the Arts and Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville. “Our goal is to just keep them moving.”