Mass Comm Week

I got to go to the first session of the week, Starting a New and Sustainable Publication. There were three panelists from three different publications, and all three had some good things to say about print and their small publications. They didn't really talk much about how they utilized social media or how they worked with it, but they did talk about it a little bit when somebody posed the question in the audience. They talked about how each of their publications was small but very niche oriented. They were all focusing on very specific audiences that they felt the city of Austin really needed. That's how they make it, by focusing in on one specific target market. And it works. Each publication is surviving but running on quite a small staff. And many of the editors and photographers they use are freelance, which I thought was interesting. They don't have in-house staff to do any of that kind of stuff. Prospective interns and employees were told to have a knowledgeable background in social media as well as video production and editing, photography and creative suite programs. It wasn't a surprise to hear that, but I thought they were never going to talk about social media. I was glad when they did.
Overall, a pretty good panel.