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Dispatches from behind the locked doors of the API Summit

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Mark Potts brings news of a rogue liveblog that made it through the virtual razor-ribbon today at the super-secret API newspaper crisis summit in Reston.

Big ups to Chuck Peters, CEO of The Gazette Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for 1. knowing how to use Twitter and coveritlive.com to get the news out fast attempt to bring more participants into the room, even if only virtually and 2. having the guts to do it, at the risk of the rolled eyes and possibly hostile glares of his CEO co-summiteers.

Chuck Peters:  Just cutting costs is most likely “incorrect action”, without reengineering to meet key consumer needs.

Chuck Peters:  Do you agree with Steve Yelvington that we have “painted ourselves into a corner” by following our success, like GM?   Check out http://www.yelvington.com/node/501

Peters kept the news conversation flowing for several hours, eventually fielding questions and suggestions from participants on the liveblog and on Twitter. It ultimately became impossible for one person to both participate in the conference and field all the questions and suggestions flowing through his liveblog. Too bad the room wasn’t filled with others such as Yelvington, Potts, Jarvis and others to bring some perspective and other voices.

But for now, Chuck Peters, your colleagues and friends salute you. And congratulations for making it out alive!

UPDATE: What kind of coverage can you expect to get when 50 newspaper CEOs gather in one place to discuss the future of desperately struggling industry? Apparently, once you get past one brave soul with laptop and an EVDO card and some media-bloggers outside of the mainstream media, not much. Run a Google search for “American Press Institute” and, as of this writing at least, there’s nothing. Search the Romenesko blog – the industry gossip and tip sheet – and there’s nothing, not even a link to Chuck Peters’s liveblog.

What’s wrong with the U.S. newspaper industry? In this case, a stunning lack of curiosity, it would seem.

UPDATE 2: Made a few edits based on Chuck Peters’s comments below. I still think what he did today was great, but if he chooses to not call it strictly reporting, I’ll abide by that.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thanks Tim, but I was not trying to report, or get news out. I was trying to engage several people who care about these topics, and expand the input into the meeting, as was noted in the liveblog.

    I am too tired to put all the happenings into context, but did respond to Mark Potts post at http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recover… in my Complete Community Connection blog at http://cpetersia.wordpress.com

    Somehow, someway, we need to get the right people in the room to have a substantive discussion so that we don't all reinvent the wheel.

    Thanks for participating!

    Chuck

  3. Thanks Tim, but I was not trying to report, or get news out. I was trying to engage several people who care about these topics, and expand the input into the meeting, as was noted in the liveblog.

    I am too tired to put all the happenings into context, but did respond to Mark Potts post at http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recover… in my Complete Community Connection blog at http://cpetersia.wordpress.com

    Somehow, someway, we need to get the right people in the room to have a substantive discussion so that we don't all reinvent the wheel.

    Thanks for participating!

    Chuck

  5. Thanks Tim, but I was not trying to report, or get news out. I was trying to engage several people who care about these topics, and expand the input into the meeting, as was noted in the liveblog.

    I am too tired to put all the happenings into context, but did respond to Mark Potts post at http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recover… in my Complete Community Connection blog at http://cpetersia.wordpress.com

    Somehow, someway, we need to get the right people in the room to have a substantive discussion so that we don't all reinvent the wheel.

    Thanks for participating!

    Chuck