What I did on summer break, or, as it’s also known, ONA19
Let’s create a propensity model that informs our econometrics with respect to the time cone.
OK, I don’t know what that means either, but stuff like that sure did sound impressive at ONA19 in New Orleans on the week of Sept. 11, 2019. It was the 20th annual convention of the Online News Association and the largest gathering of smart-sounding, slightly drunk invaders to the Crescent City since 1814, when the British stumbled through the bayou to lose the Battle of New Orleans.
Before I go any further, know that I loved it. It was energizing, upbeat, interesting, stimulating and I met two dozen great colleagues and connected again with a like number of old friends. That said, it is sometimes difficult for a mere journalist of a certain age to wrap his head around a lot of the data science that is celebrated by ONA convention attendees. And, frankly, I take a good bit of it with a grain of salt. I’m mindful that the same people who are talking about AI and UX today as if they are the answer to all our revenue problems, were saying events would make us all rich five years ago and 10 years before that were shouting that information wanted to be free and so on.
But, the people who gather for ONA conventions every year for the last 20 years are indisputably our best chance to find a path forward. That begins with the fact that they look much more like the world than the people huddled in cubicles in most legacy newsrooms, my own included. It is younger, for one thing, and the ideas of these young people are taken seriously. Company founders, directors and senior editors in journalism companies are often in their 20s and 30s now. They are serious people with good ideas and we no longer pretend we have to wait 20 years for them to have important ideas. The conference is indisputably more diverse than any other journalism gathering. Women and people of color were a part of every panel and discussion. There was no talk of layoffs, extending the runway of a dying business or how great things used to be. It is the only journalism conference I’ve been to in more than a decade that looks forward with optimism, that brings together the doers, that celebrates a multidisciplinary approach.
In a series of Medium posts, I want to set down some of the themes as I perceived them and perhaps also highlight some side conversations, some important connections and some things I would like to do as a result of three days in New Orleans.
I hope you will keep reading.
