Going digital isn’t just an upgrade — it’s a complete transformation in the way journalism is done

paidContent reporting:
 Guardian deputy editor Katharine Viner noted in an excellent speech on Wednesday...

...But the real meat in Viner’s speech is her argument about how all of this changes (or at least should change) the nature of a journalist’s relationship with what Jay Rosen and Dan Gillmor have called “the people formerly known as the audience.”

“Digital is not about putting up your story on the web. It’s about a fundamental redrawing of journalists’ relationship with our audience, how we think about our readers, our perception of our role in society, our status. We are no longer the all-seeing all-knowing journalists, delivering words from on high for readers to take in, passively.”

The benefits of doing open journalism

The benefits of being more open to the people who used to be the audience, Viner says, go beyond just touchy-feely things like being more connected to your readers, or getting them to retweet or distribute your content (which is what many media outlets and journalists seem to feel the social web is for). That openness can improve your journalism in a number of ways:
Readers often know more than you: The Guardian editor gives the example of a story about deep-water drilling and how an open Google Doc allowed experts from a range of fields to provide their knowledge about that topic, an approach that the British paper does better than just about anyone else.
Openness brings accountability: Instead of trying to disguise errors, the way many traditional outlets do, Viner talks about a story where the paper made a mistake and then in addition to correcting it, published a blog post discussing the mistake. Readers said this actually increased their trust.
Being open can produce scoops: Asking readers for their help can make them more likely to bring you information that changes a story dramatically, Viner notes — such as the 2009 story the Guardian did about the death of a newspaper vendor during the G20 protests in London.

Paywalls are antithetical to the open web..

“A paywall is a typical “newspaper mindset” answer to that need – readers paid for content before, let’s make them pay again. But journalistically, paywalls are utterly antithetical to the open web. A paywalled website is just print in another form, making collaboration with the people formerly known as the audience much more difficult. You can’t take advantage of the benefits of the open web if you’re hidden away.”

Viner goes on to talk about the benefits of linking, even to one’s competitors — something many media outlets still aren’t very good at — as well as the challenges of bringing the conversation about a story into the comment section of a newspaper, and how few journalists are good at that either. It’s a tremendous speech all in all, and if you care about media at all, I would encourage you to read the whole thing.
http://paidcontent.org/2013/10/10/going-digital-isnt-just-an-upgrade-its-a-complete-transformation-in-the-way-journalism-is-done/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=0473fc1e61-c%3Amed+d%3A10-11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-0473fc1e61-99152541