The Personal Journalist

Michael Hedges January 17, 2008

“Hi, I’m your personal journalist,” is coming to a device near you. Having what you want, when and where you want it is mantra in new media. Delivering the goods has been elusive, until now.

Try as we might, media keeps failing to find its next big thing. Business models don’t mesh with consumers. And technology is a separate universe. Demand is high and consumption is unpredictable. The solution is sitting, figuratively, right in front of you.

The technical architecture that changed the relationship between media and its listeners, viewers and readers has run into a brick wall. Actually, we should call it a gold wall because beyond it lies all the gold. Algorithms and gigantic processors can produce ‘favorites’ by crunching data from past behavior. But have you noticed that the results are never quite enough or never quite right?

Two of the biggest trends in service industries are the personal trainer and the personal shopper. Both fulfill, for those accepting, the need for expertise. Reading a book – on the couch with the TV on – about improving fitness motivates only until the program changes or the chips run out. Gym membership, another rising trend – particularly in January, satisfies the social need to say ‘I go to the gym’ but does very little for that extra three kilos of post-holiday joy. The personal trainer, however, listens to what you say, takes what she knows and says ‘You know, throwing the medicine ball for 10 minutes will help your energy level better than lifting weights.”

Every working parent, usually mothers, knows the shopping paradox. Having two school age children means 40 birthday parties a year, and a tiny gift for each. Then there are the family members. Then there is the grocery shopping. LeShop, an online shopping service in Switzerland, has tripled its turnover in three years and will come close to €100 million in 2008. Such services, becoming more available in Europe, work well for people who know what they want and need. Just point, click and enjoy.

For the more challenging and demanding, the personal shopper saves the day. Navigating scores of stores when time and ideas are short is an anxiety producer. Reduce that stress. Hire an expert.

Must the search for information, not to forget entertainment, be any different than finding broccoli or the strength to lift it?

Enter the personal journalist who welcomes you to each day saying, “What would you like to know today?”  Maybe it’s at their fingertips; a news item, a press release, analysis, podcast, video clip. Maybe your personal journalist needs a few hours to find everything you need to know about childrens television programs in Bulgaria. “Bob, I’ll be back to you with that tomorrow morning.”

The personal journalist is a wave or two beyond the tried and busted ‘user-generated content’ and ‘citizen journalist.’ Neither found a business model. Citizen journalism, a term invented by accountants, past its prime when listeners, viewers and readers lost interest in ‘reports’ from the 16 year old on the corner with a cell-phone camera. Blogs, touted as giving voice to many, became, largely, ranters ranting to themselves or PR people posting the daily spin. Blog creation has peaked, wrote the Pew Research Center in a 2007 report. The successful became niche publishers, albeit of the traditional media model. The rest are just out there, hanging by the Web.

User-generated content is another concept designed to warm the accountants’ books. Couple it with the much vaunted social networking sites and zillions of web hits are created. All content may, indeed, be equal for 20 year old user/creators but an adult looking for knowledge and clarity is left empty. Unfortunately, sources for adults have evaporated into the dither of click-through ads.

Imagine a typical appointment with the personal journalist. Busy humans, executives in their own right, need to acquire knowledge efficiently. While an executive might be buried in reports and analysis and numbed by 15 news channels, the personal journalist answers the need by asking the right questions, getting the story and delivering it in 750 words, voice or text, to the device of choice. Is it worth €75 a hour - the rate personal trainers charge – to avoid the 3 hours sifting through 250,000 search engine results, only 2 of which might yield a shred of knowledge?

The personal journalist does, in fact, do what journalists do best: keep their eyes open. In addition to providing the news you need, the personal journalist brings serendipity to the day. What a joy it would be to have that concise ‘news for you’ mixed with the occasional ‘…and think about this.’ And best of all, the personal journalist is ‘on and gone.’ No promos. No pop-up ads.

Media in the 21st century is buckling under the empowerment of users to get the information and entertainment they want, whenever and however they want it. The next step in that empowerment provides both clarity and expertise with greater sensitivity to time economy. Sad for some, technology will take a smaller role.

Of course, you might want to share your personal journalist with others. What might that be called?