Agenda

The Brand Journalism 2.0 Summit

Like newspapers in their heyday, organizations are now running newsrooms, complete with beat reporters, editors, news meetings and daily deadlines – all aimed at delivering timely news, captivating features and thoughtful commentary in text, video, photography, infographics and podcasts. Here’s our tentative schedule as we went to press for our Boorn Brook Farm summit.

Late July 2019: Pre-summit survey. In our short survey before the summit, we’ll ask you a few questions about who you are, what you’ve done and what you’d like to take away from the summit. We’ll use your feedback to fine-tune our agenda.

Tuesday, Aug. 6

2:00-5:00 p.m.

Brand Journalism 2.0

Use Tuesday morning to travel to Manchester Center, Vermont, on Aug. 6. Check in at the lovely Taconic Hotel, your home away from home for the next three days. Catch the shuttle at 1:30 p.m. for the ride to Boorn Brook Farm, just 10 minutes away.

When you arrive, we’ll walk the property with our host, Jeff Nyweide, and learn about the farm and its history.

Then we’ll head into the barn for our afternoon session. On our to-do list:

  1. Review your answers to the pre-summit survey
  2. Define the elements of Brand Journalism 2.0, including:
    • Full integration with internal comms and your primary website
    • Podcasting and short videos
    • Story packages, long-form text, photos, video and infographics
    • Commentary and thought leadership
    • The strategic use of print
    • Third-party collaborations
    • Social media strategy

And we’ll ask a few provocative questions:

  1. Have you made the business case for brand journalism? Is it widely accepted in all quarters? Do your leaders get it?
  2. Is everyone playing nice? How’s your relationship with marketing, internal comms and the C-suite?
  3. How are measuring the impact of your brand journalism?

Show ‘n Shares: Some participants will take you on a quick tour of their branded news sites.

5:00 p.m.

Green Mountain Falconry School

Reception, appetizers, birds!

We’ve been at it all day. Let’s take a break and enjoy the farm. Time for a hawk walk!

Wednesday, Aug. 7

8:15 a.m.

Get on the shuttle for our morning reception and to talk content and strategy with one of the iconic brands located in Manchester, New Hampshire. (It’s a surprise.)

11 a.m.

“The job of the future is editor in chief”

“Companies are realizing they need a new weapon in the war for attrition: an editor in chief. Because it’s never been harder to reach distracted consumers, more companies are hiring editors and content creators to build everything from podcasts to news websites to print magazines to grab your interest.”

Back at the farm, we’ll dive into specifics:

  1. What is your business case for brand journalism? We’ll help you craft one.
  2. How have you reorganized your news team (or how would you like to)? We’ll give you a template.
  3. How are defining content? We’ll help you broaden your content map.
12:45 p.m.

Lunch on the farm

Enjoy a country lunch, Vermont style!

2:00 p.m.

Big companies are adopting the brand journalism approach

Here are a few:

  • Airbnb started a print magazine.
  • BlackRock, the giant money manager, recently hired a global head of content.
  • Robinhood, a millennial financial services company, bought MarketSnacks, a financial newsletter and podcast company (now called Robinhood Snacks).
  • Goldman Sachs launched its own talk show, GS Talks.
  • Verizon is hiring an “Editor in Chief – Social.”
  • Blue Apron, Slack, Away, Shopify and Casper have all launched podcasts.
  • Stripe, an online payments company, has a quarterly magazine and recently published its first book.
  • And Bumble, an online dating app, just launched a lifestyle print magazine, Bumble Mag.

 

In our afternoon session, we’ll answer some of these questions:

  1. Experts and leaders: Thought leadership and commentary: Have you taken the plunge?
  2. User-generated content: Are you publishing content from employees and readers?
  3. Multimedia: How are you employing photography, video, infographics, etc.
  4. Old-school: Is there a place for print?
5:00 p.m.

Taconic Hotel

Freshen up, check your email (or not)

7:00 p.m.

Dinner meeting

Dining at one of Manchester’s great eateries

Thursday, Aug. 8

8:30 a.m.-Noon

What's next?

In our final morning session, we’ll prepare for what’s next. What’s on your to-do list? How will you set your priorities? Build your plan and share it with your colleagues. Among the possible items:

  1. Build the strategy argument and make the business case (or expand what you have)
  2. Transform your comms department into a news team
  3. Raise the level of your game on content
  4. Add new tools and channels
  5. Develop thought leadership and user-generated content