03-17-2010 SMITH HOSTS SUCCESSFUL JOURNALISM FORUM AT MU Randy Smith, former director of strategic development at the Kansas City Star and a 30-year veteran at the newspaper, is off to a fast and auspicious start as the Donald W. Reynolds Chair of Business Journalism at the University of Missouri. Smith, who left the Star last August, hosted and organized a symposium this week at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (LINK) titled "Business, Technology and the Media: Charting a Course Through Chaos." Smith put together a talented group of more than 60 journalists, entrepreneurs, executives and technology experts, including Miriam Pepper, Kansas City Star vice president and editorial page editor, and former Star reporter Jim Fitzpatrick. The first day featured a half-dozen presentations, including one called "A Live Look at 2040," led by Mark VandenBrink, vice president of technology solutions for Samsung Telecommunications America. The second day of the conference was dedicated to creating new business models related to the media and technology. Divided into six teams, symposium participants brainstormed and then fashioned rough molds for six enterprises. One of the business models was the concept of a "newsroom cafe," which would expand the coffee shop to an emporium for information and discussion. Another concept, called Discover IT, was a news-streaming service aimed at teens (and their parents, who, presumably, would pay the bill) with sophisticated phones.
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