Covington’s advice, which appears in the current issue of the Harvard Nieman Reports, comes from personal experience at the Newsplex, where journalists come from around the world to train and learn about new media.  Here are some common attitudes and myths, and Covington’s perception of why they’re wrong.

Newspapers should concentrate  on writing for new media platforms. Covington sums up Newsplex’s philosophy as, “news organizations will be best served if they focus on stories—not delivery platforms.” This new attitude will help answer tough questions, like whether to release a story to the Web or hold it for print. The story should dictate its own publishing.

Newsrooms are full of creative people who will eventually figure out multimedia publishing, no planning necessary. This underlying attitude is the first hurdle for many news organizations. Covington says that newsrooms need a concrete plan and priorities before going multimedia. “Someone at the highest level of the organization must declare that convergence is important, set priorities, and then provide the resources to make necessary steps happen,” says Covington. “However, top-level commitment alone is not enough; grass-roots engagement must be part of this strategy.”

Convergence is complicated and requires expensive new technology and staff. Not so, says Covington. Alternatives to expensive software are available, sometimes even for free. The learning curve can be steep on expensive programs (like Final Cut Pro and Flash) anyway. And as hiring new staff goes, Covington says some of Newsplex’s best students have been traditional journalists with minimal multimedia experience.

Further, though print journalists are uncomfortable in front of a camera,  Covington says many have produced successful video content by emphasizing their knowledge of the story when filmed.

Finally, convergence does not have to be complicated. Simple audio is easy to learn, allowing print journalists to produce podcasts easily.

Video is the one area where newspapers may want to hire some experts, as video is more complicated and rapidly becoming more popular.

Adding user-generated content forums will automatically draw an audience.  Not necessarily, and newspapers have better luck with this when they hold onto some level of editorial control. The most successful uses of community content involve professional editing and community content alongside professional content, as is the case with the new Assignment Zero.

The current issue of the Nieman Reports, Goodbye Gutenberg, is an analysis of media convergence and contains other essays useful to newspaper editors trying to make the Internet work for their papers. Click here to read on.

Source: Harvard Nieman Reports via The Convergence Newsletter