A typical practice for most editorial staffs is to gather up all the reporters about once a week to pitch/assign future stories. It’s an essential part of the work schedule because it keeps everyone in the loop about what’s going on and also provides an opportunity for feedback from the collective intelligence. For the most part this part of the work week has remained exclusive to staff members and editors, with the other members of the news staff listening in silently.

I won’t pretend there isn’t value in keeping the editorial meetings exclusive, but that is in regard to sensitive stories and probably feature pieces. Everything else should be wide open to others in the community. I’m talking about literally taking a web cam and broadcasting weekly editorial meetings in real time streaming video. The most effective way to accomplish this task is by using the service offered for free by Ustream.tv.

How to do it
Editors should create a budget that does not include exclusive feature stories or other sensitive pieces requiring specific finesse. Split those budgets into categories: education, Crime, City governement, etc. Each of those sections can be turned into individual channels on Ustream thus allowing a somewhat manageable group of outsiders to participate through the live chat that is up during the meeting. It’s not as if you are catering to the crowd, but you aren’t ignoring them either. There is much more value in acknowledging your community than there is with keeping it exclusive for the sake of tradition. Experiment with what works. (Certain categories of news may translate better to the Ustream process than others.)

Why It Should Be Done
Streaming the budget meetings will give the community a tangible location in which to meet the reporters and hear what is being done, what isn’t being done and why. The “scooping” era of journalism on the internet is valid only because people do not care where they get their news from and by the same token most people are weary of trusting newsblogs like they do a newspaper [my own opinion]. Soon the only thing that will matter is a dedicated community. Ustreaming makes the community a part of the newsroom. Don’t look at it as a peeping tom looking over your shoulder as you do your job, think of it as multiplying your newsroom by 10 in every department.

Live, Streaming Accountability
Opening up the staff meetings to members in the community will improve journalism by adding a much needed dose of accountability into the mix. When members of the community are watching the newsrooms they’ll start to identify who the editors are and what departments they’ve been charged with managing. At the same time, those people will start identifying the beat reporters. No more faceless news reports. Streaming the budget meetings will strengthen journalism and make each of us work harder to not only report the news, but rectify any errors made.