Communication Gurus

The technology is here. What’s the best way to use it? This question is frequently raised to Randy Covington, director-IFRA Newsplex at the University of South Carolina (USC), and Charles Bierbauer, dean of USC’s College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. Together, they are helping organizations embrace a future in which people acquire news and information in different formats and across different platforms.

The tide has turned. Gone are days when Americans caught up on the day’s events after work by reading the newspaper with one eye and the other on the television’s evening news. People are receiving news all day via the Internet, radio, i-Pods, cell phones, blackberries and other mobile devices. So now, seasoned journalists in newsrooms all over the world are scrambling to adapt to high tech information dissemination. In addition, corporations and non-profit organizations are rethinking their business strategies for internal and external communications.

According to a February study by Zogby International, nearly half of survey respondents said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago. “This trend is impacting news organizations,” said Covington, former news director of WIS TV in Columbia. “Circulation is declining, ratings are falling, everything exists in silos and newsrooms need reorganizing. In the past, newsrooms were organized to function by production deadlines. Now, they need to focus on the story, and then decide how to disseminate the information, which can be done instantly.”

In 2000, Kerry Northrup, then director of Advanced News Operations for IFRA, acknowledged the newspaper industry needed a jump start. Created in the early 1960s, IFRA is a newspaper trade association based in Darmstadt, Germany, and is best known for setting the international standard for newspaper writing. Northrup, an alumnus of USC, began creating a plan for a prototype newsroom of the future where new techniques and technologies could be tested and news organizations could come to train.

His ideas came to fruition in 2002 when IFRA officially partnered with USC’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications and South Carolina ETV to build Newsplex. IFRA donated $2.5 million to build the facility, which is used for client training, and South Carolina ETV contributed the space rent free until November 2008.

Northrup served as director until 2005, when he returned to Darmstadt as director of IFRA’s publications. Covington was named as his replacement.

“When I came on board in 2002, construction had begun and the space looked like the world’s largest handball court,” said Charles Bierbauer, former CNN senior Washington correspondent. “It doesn’t look like any newsroom I’ve ever been in; but in this age of spaceless communications, it doesn’t matter where you are to send or receive the news. I’ve learned that 21st century global communication is not spatially related.”

Covington and Bierbauer are working to locate a suitable building on campus to host Newsplex after November when the facility's lease at ETV expires. Moving Newsplex on campus will better integrate it into the journalism school.

Newsplex provides support to both IFRA and USC. IFRA’s client base is newspaper organizations. The University uses the facility for classes, academic conferences and research. Its clients include media organizations as well as government agencies, corporations and non-profit entities. Hundreds of journalists have come to Newsplex from every corner of the world, including many countries in Europe, South America, Australia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Clients include the U.S. Department of Justice, Associated Press, Reuters, S.C. Chamber of Commerce and S.C. Hospital Association.

“We help demystify today’s technology for our clients,” said Covington. “We explain audio and video as well as things like creating online communities and search engine optimization. We have touched a huge number of journalists since 2002. This is a new frontier we’re civilizing.”

According to Covington, training is important, but not the only part of Newsplex’s mission, which is to help news organizations and strategic communicators better understand and serve their various audiences and constituencies. Staff members also provide consulting and orientation.

Skip Foster, publisher of “The Star” in Shelby, N.C., is a big believer in Newsplex, "The training and consultation we received from Newsplex completely changed our entire news operation. Randy Covington's team is perpetually rethinking the way content is gathered and disseminated. And they are enthusiastically willing to take ideas formulated on campus and get their hands dirty implementing those ideas in the 'real world.' Newsplex gurus drove to our small town and spent days working with our staff and plowing through the installation of technology so that we could carry out grand and wonderful new ways of covering the news. Also, it doesn't hurt that these are simply some of the nicest, friendliest folks you'd ever meet. During tough times in the newspaper business, the people at Newsplex have helped us all keep the faith."

Marcia Purday, vice president-communications and public relations, S.C. Chamber of Commerce, worked with Covington to customize a communications class for public relations professionals who are Chamber members. These classes were so successful they blossomed into a three-part series that addressed internal and external communications.

“I had heard about Newsplex and the remarkable experience that Randy Covington and his staff are providing communicators from all over the world so I jumped at the chance to attend a session at Newsplex arranged by the State Chamber for interested members,” said Patricia Smoake, vice president of the South Carolina Hospital Association.

“The day was a real eye-opener for me. I learned that no matter how small a communications operation and how tiny the budget, there are plenty of ways to use new media to get your messages out as effectively as the largest organizations. I brought that realization back to our not-for-profit organization, where we are working to identify ways to use convergent media. I have arranged three one-day sessions to be held at Newsplex over the summer for hospital communicators so SCHA’s members also have the benefit of this wonderful resource available right here in our state,” continued Smoake. 

Bierbauer is delighted when he hears from satisfied clients. “The best part of my job is participating in training the next generation of communicators,” he said.

He admits that his career has been a “great circle route. There’s been no single path. It’s sequential,” he said. “I don’t think of this position at USC as a separate career.”

Neither does Covington. “I have an amazing job,” he said, “and I just stumbled into it. The best part of the job is traveling all over the world. I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder. Since April, I’ve been to Seoul, London, San Juan, Washington D.C., and Denver. I will have traveled to Dubai, Sao Paolo and Bogota by the end of the summer.” 

Charles Bierbauer and Randy Covington.
Two South Carolina experts who are teaching professionals all over the globe how to ride the tidal wave of change rolling through the communications industry.
 
For more information, visit http://newsplex.sc.edu/.
Jill K. Willis is the president of Capstone Public Relations.