At the start of the month, I had the pleasure of attending and blogging for ad:tech Chicago. I thought I would re-share my notes from one of my favorite sessions of the conference. You can view all of the ad:tech Chicago coverage on the ad:tech blog here.

"This is not the end of the newspaper business. It’s not the last chapter; it is merely Chapter 11.”

Fred Lebolt, President and Publisher of (and prepare for attribution to an incredibly long title) Sun Times Newspaper Group Suburban News Division and New Media Integration, kicked the Transformation of News Media session off with this rather epic sound bite. Fred was joined on the panel by Mark Marvel (MSNBC), Kinsey Wilson (NPR), Kay Madati (CNN) and moderator David Griesing (The Chicago Tribune).

Rather than cranking out a giant post attempting to summarize an incredible panel, I thought I’d share a few more sound bites that caught my attention and captured the key takeaways.

Local is incredibly valuable in the new model:

“Our ability to share deeply relevant local content and engagement is key…. One of the keys of local content is the database- not merely disseminating the local news but using the apps model and making that content very easy to target and easy for the audience to find.” –Lebolt

“Our view is that, in the future, no single or handful of news organizations will dominate the local scene…. It is an advantage that we don’t have a big established legacy in local communities.... We are attacking local as a startup would. Partnerships are important and you have to let those partners stand on their own.” –Marvel on the acquisition of EveryBlock

Selling against breaking news is tough but there is a huge opportunity for media companies to serve as creative consultants:

“Monetization of breaking news is tough because the advertiser has less control and involvement.” –Marvel

“The second Black in America 2 took two years to make. We worked hand in hand with the sales team to create a content exerience that was meaningful to the audience and the advertiser.” -Madati

“When I was at USA Today, we had a unit dedicated to it [creative consulting]. We had a person who worked between the sales and editorial group and would work on RFPs to provide creative solutions. We had designers in house.” -Wilson

“This isn’t the displacement of the agency. It’s a consultative relationship.” -Lebolt

As Kay Madati stated, social media integration can’t just be “about publishing headlines” in new places:

“We look at social media integration in three parts: news gathering, publishing and content delivery and audience engagement.

In terms of news gathering, we’ll miss the boat if we’re not actively playing attention in the space…. we got killed for not being more aware and on top [during the Iran protests] and we’ve made a lot of changes since then.

You also have to be a player as a publisher in the space. Talent and shows need to be inserted into the conversation. However, it’s not just about publishing headlines.

Audience engagement is a little harder but it’s so important…. How do you integrate immediate feedback into programming? Rich Sanchez is doing this on a daily basis with Twitter and Skype.” -Madati

Reinstating a pay model won’t work but there is absolutely a value that can be placed on specific kinds of content:

“It can’t be about metering the news; The idea that people will pay for individual bits of highly perishable content is a tough hill to climb.” –Wilson

In relation to the new NPR iPhone app, Wilson noted, “We did the math. We’ll make more money on sponsorship than on 99 cent downloads.”

“If we were in the business of making pens, no one would ask us to distribute them for free. However, it’s difficult after 15 years to call a mulligan at this point and say, ‘Let’s try this again.” Quality content is an expensive proposition, but it has value…. This will happen in varied vectors. Media companies will establish highly specialized content and charge for that; verticle niches that are specialized to target key audiences will be worth paying for and finally, convenience factors will be built in that make content easily accessible. People will pay for finely tuned information and audience focus or convenience. The question is, do you, as the advertiser, value a much smaller, but finely tuned audience willing to pay for content, or a significantly larger, although less targeted audience?” –Madati

“The future is about finding a false way to keep people out…. MSN has more daily viewers than the top 20 newspapers combined. We can’t start gating the way in and place a funnel there.” -Marvel

Trust, personalization and storytelling are key differentiators:

“Google is the one company that has made us rethink our own business. Google makes news a commodity. It’s ubiquitous. As a user, you get the top five links and you don’t necessarily care who’s providing it. We’re trying to provide enough value so you’ll click on our link, trust our link.” -Madati

“As one of my colleague says, NPR is the only news organization that people put in their personal ads.” -Wilson

“Our differentiator going forward can’t just be about the collection of information. We must present a combination of news, whimsy and storytelling” – Wilson

Image borrowed from milllkmaid on Flickr.