Thursday, January 20, 2011
Michael O'Brien of the Ottawa Citizen.
The Ottawa Citizen began as The Packet in 1845, and has continued as the first choice for news and information in Canada's capital for over 160 years. Each week, eight out of ten newspaper readers in Ottawa stay informed with the Citizen's in-depth analysis of local, national and international news and events. Distribution of the Citizen includes home delivery, retail stores and boxes and ottawacitizen.com, a 24-hour, up-to-the-minute breaking news and information website. Combined, this aggregated audience reaches half a million residents of Canada's capital each week.
The Citizen sets the standard in Ottawa for corporate responsibility with a community investment second to none. As the premiere media supporter, the Citizen sponsors arts and cultural groups, social services, health and education facilities, local business chambers and both professional and amateur sports teams. A strong focus on family and youth literacy projects includes a Newspaper in Education program, Raise a Reader, Canwest CanSpell National Spelling Bee and the Ottawa Citizen Literacy Foundation.
At last week's onsite Mike gave a brief welcome to members and then turned the stage over to the Citizen's Editor-in-chief Gerry Nott. Gerry talked to members about how the newspaper business is currently in a period where it is being challenged like never before. It is in a position not previously provided where it has a good opportunity to engage people.
Gerry talked about how the Citizen wants to become a digital first organization and how it is still struggling with what that means. The Ottawa Citizen is currently an 18 hour operation and they are looking at how they can move to a 24 hour one. Reporters are no longer writing a story today that will appear in tomorrow's edition. They are writing something this morning that will appear in the noon hour ipad version (updated 3x per day) and the web version all before the print article is even started. The challenges for Citizen staff these days is how (in today's fast paced society) to add value, meaning and analysis to print media so that they are not behind for those reading print and also how, in these times where anyone can be a reporter (blogs & tweets), to harness information from the community such as restaurant and/or movie reviews.
After the presentation members were treated to a tour of the Citizen's facilities and then a fantastic meal courtesy of Manny at Hemingway's Catering.
To find out more about the Ottwa Citizen visit their website at www.ottawacitizen.com. If you would like to know more about advertising in the Citizen and how they can work for you, contact Michael O'Brien at (613) 596-3587.
