(Annette Moser-Wellman) -- When we peer into the crystal ball called "news," one thing we're sure to see more of is imagery. Audiences will expect more still pictures and video in news coverage and more people will want to share theirs. How can news organizations prepare for some of these changes ahead?

"The one thing you can't deny is that we are in an increasingly visual society," Hobby claims. "You probably get more of your news in a visual form that you do in a print form on a daily basis, whether you realize it or not. There are more and more and more outlets for visual journalism and visual content than there ever were before."

Hobby believes that, even now, a successful photojournalist is first and foremost a storyteller and that the expanding market for visual news will be dominated by those who excel at this art. While there will always be a place for the citizen journalist upload, he thinks that increasingly news organizations can create a niche by the power of their narrative.

"I think the art of storytelling in photojournalism is constantly evolving, but the core that's there - the values and the skill set - those really don't change. The technology changes daily and the biggest technology now is the convergence between still pictures and audio and video. Ultimately, technique is going to start to slide into the background and the final way that the story is presented is going to be driven by what suits the story," he said.

But the pace of this storytelling enterprise will continue to be quick and the ability to feed every story meaningfully to the Web will continue to be imperative.

"The deadline for most everything we shoot is five minutes ago. It needs to be up on the Web now. [At the Sun] we need to update our Web page dozens of times a day just from our department alone. We're getting much more heavily into video and more multi-media content. We want to be this 24 hour a day, round the clock, continuous TV channel, for lack of better words, on the Web."

Hobby is passionate about news organizations staying focused on consumers and letting users guide the experience online. Everything from photos to video to linking should be designed with the hope and intent that the consumer can be engaged with it, he said.

"You don't have to bang your head against the wall producing a tremendous amount of content. The trick is looking to see what content is already being produced. For instance, there are literally hundreds of blogs being done in the local area -- everything from cooking, to local interests, to sports out the wazoo. Why can't we news organizations wrap our arms around that and aggregate that community under a network of branded linked blogs?"

Hobby admits that's exactly what has helped him grow his site so quickly. Instead of trying to throw a lot of resources into content, he is "trying to aggregate a community and create a shared, user-based knowledge exchange." It's providing users not just what they ask for, but what they don't even know they need, that makes for a satisfying experience online.

Hobby is doing just this at Strobist. He found an interest group that was underserved, aggregated the lot and provided a forum for new ideas and shared passions. "I began trying to teach people what I didn't learn in college. There was a big knowledge gap between what I was taught and what I needed to know once I was into the field, especially working with color being commonplace now. You really need to know how to light a lot of situations. … I thought maybe a few hundred people would be reading it. What I didn't expect was for a million or so amateurs to pick up the ball and run with it."

Newspaper professionals often refer to their audience as readers. Perhaps 'readers' should be changed to 'viewers' as more pictures will be 'viewed' than articles 'read'.

And if news organizations are really smart, perhaps they will start calling the audience 'our community' - recognizing, welcoming and celebrating their contributions in the development of content.


What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below or by e-mailing Media Management Center at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu.

Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc. , an innovation consultancy, and author of "Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age," published by Media Management Center. She teaches in MMC's Advanced Executive Program and Digital Strategies for Media Executives seminars.

This TechScout article is part of a new series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view others in the TechScout series.