Previously: Radical change with Rignam Wangkhang. New audience expectations with Tess Jeffers. And the erosion of news aggregation with Andrew Deck.
Three reasons why ONA is great: The Online News Association held its annual conference in New Orleans. I confessed to Alba Mora Roca that I had major FOMO and asked if she could help, even if it’s just a few links. And she took the time and sent this:
Diversity isn’t just a buzzword: It’s a rare, eclectic, truly global conference where you witness women of color thrive in leadership positions (Niketa Patel as the CEO, Charo Henríquez leading the board) and features people you do not normally hear about. There’s immense richness in that. It also means you meet people working across a myriad of roles and organizations. You meet data journos chatting with photojournalists, audience strategists learning from nonprofit founders. The unexpected conversations are where the gold is. I left with an impact tracker from a nonprofit peer and GitHub repo with code from the The Lenfest AI Fellows, neither of whom work in my lane day to day, yet both immediately useful.
Human connection is the new premium: The in-person magic happens everywhere at ONA—over oysters, during jazz improv concerts, in unexpected TableTalk conversations. Communities like JSK Fellows, the Women’s Leadership Accelerator, and News Futures create meaningful connections that go beyond typical card exchanges. This is where you find your tribe. “Give them flowers. Recognize those who lift you up,” says Robert Hernandez, emphasizing that no one rises alone. That’s why people keep coming back every year.
You don’t need to be big to make a big difference: Documented, El Cafecito, and El Tímpano prove how tight crews out-innovate through focus and community trust. ONA featured them in the opening presentation because they punch way above their weight class. Their creative resilience under political pressure shows what’s possible when journalism serves community first.
Not sure if this eases my FOMO, but it’s a great takeaway. Thank you, Alba!
You’ve got mail: I’ve sent 20 of these newsletters so far. And while I post on LinkedIn, I try not to be beholden to the whims of one platform. In addition to sending emails, I’m blogging like it’s 2010. And over the summer, I did a series of post, calling it my Summer of AI. These are the Top 5 in order of visits to the website:
What about access by crawlers and chatbots, you ask? They are there, hidden in the logfiles. I see referrals from ChatGPT. But other than that, I’m not collecting much data, shortening IP addresses and deleting files every week. But we’ll crunch the numbers another time.
This is THEFUTURE.
