In less than 72 hours at South by Southwest I managed to watch a virtual reality movie, sit through a live podcast taping, preview a new video game trailer from a massively famous auteur and take caviar bumps while reading a recently relaunched print — yes, print — newspaper at an unhinged “new media” party.
This column is my attempt to string together lessons for news organizations from a short stint at the trendy and massive tech and culture gathering in Austin. After listening to all sorts of creators, my biggest takeaway: The future of journalism — or content, as SXSW denizens like to call it — is liquid.
That means, according to Der Spiegel co-CEO and head of product Stefan Ottlitz, news organizations should personalize their reporting and writing to fit a rapidly fragmenting information ecosystem. In other words, take those straight news stories about the church property redevelopment and break them into short vertical videos, podcasts or chatbots. Turn them into live or virtual events.
Get ready for the death of web browsers.
Articles should flow seamlessly between platforms, with news organizations reshaping them to fit whatever container audiences prefer. Stories aren’t static anymore — they’re adaptable and constantly in motion.
Ottlitz spoke at the AI x Journalism House at the festival, put on by Hacks/Hackers and the Online News Association. Der Spiegel has far more resources than local news outlets in the U.S., but its commitment to using generative AI to make articles more digestible for Gen Z — like in-article summaries and contextual information — is admirable and worth considering for those with the funding and expertise.
The most concrete advice from the news leaders I talked to at the event, including Lee Enterprises CTO Virginia Fletcher, was for news outlets to get their archives in order. News organizations can’t get to liquid content if they have a Frankenstein’s monster-like system of different formats. With a structured database of articles, media outlets can quickly convert what they have into different mediums — and have a tidy trove of data to sell when the AI companies come knocking.
But beyond more ways to consume news, audiences want news brands with clear values and personalities, along with humor and innovation. Not just “unbiased” analysis of the day’s events.
That was clear during the couple of hours I spent at a raucous dance party hosted by The Onion, burgeoning social platform Bluesky and TikTok bidder Project Liberty. I’ve never seen so many cool people (my definition of cool, which is somewhere between indie sleaze and Matthew Lillard in “Hackers”) reading print newspapers. Everyone I talked to saw The Onion as more than a satirical news site.
(I had to leave Austin before the 404 Media party, but I’d expect a similar level of fandom from an outlet that is among the best at covering the weirdest and worst things AI has to offer.)
The Onion and its CEO Ben Collins, who recently launched a print subscription, have been outspoken about their disdain for Big Tech and billionaires. In fact, if Collins reads this, he’ll roll his eyes at how many times I use the word “content” and the idea of chatbots used in news.
Print copies of The Onion sit on a table at the Good Party for Bad Times at SXSW, hosted by The Onion, Bluesky and Project Liberty. (Courtesy Zach Villafaña)
I often use a Bluesky post from Collins in my AI ethics workshops, where he publicly apologizes for using an AI-generated image in an Onion article. He revitalized that satirical paper with strong, public values and transparency that other publishers should consider to woo young audiences. And the big theme of the Good Party for Bad Times was a move away from the big platforms — Facebook, Instagram and X — to decentralized social media where users control what they see; not algorithms.
Deja Foxx, a content creator and the founder of GenZ Girl Gang, highlighted that same point in a panel the following day. She’s experimenting with the semi-private messaging platform Discord to build more intimate audiences that aren’t subject to the whims of a social platform’s owners. The panel was centered on debunking misinformation about reproductive rights on social media. Foxx noted her factual posts have been hidden due to running afoul of Instagram’s policies on pharmaceutical sales.
Foxx said she’d love to partner with journalists to help, but needs buy-in from news organizations. That includes skill-sharing — a workshop on fact-checking and newsgathering, for example — and concrete outcomes.
One stunning statistic from another SXSW creator workshop: 85% of influencers never hear back from brands about their campaign’s impact after collaborating. Publishers face a similar challenge — they need to demonstrate value to creators they partner with. That means they must lead conversations with influencers about what impact their collaborations will have on their audience and the amount of reach they offer.
There’s a philosophical hurdle to clear first: Influencers are often advocates, not neutral observers. Newsrooms need to get comfortable working with people who have clear positions on issues.
I ran 10 blocks on a still-healing broken foot to catch a live taping of “Comedy Bang! Bang!,” the surreal mock talk show hosted by Scott Aukerman. It reminded me that journalists take themselves too seriously. As audiences increasingly look for personality in their news sources, the line between subscribers and fans is blurring. It was also a good reminder that live events are revenue streams and relationship builders.
One of my most SXSW-ish experiences was the virtual reality documentary “Address Unknown: Fukushima Now” (produced by an old friend). In it, the viewer “walks” through a destroyed Fukushima following the nuclear accident, listening to narration from former residents. It is powerful, and I would absolutely “watch” an extended reality investigation from an outlet that could afford to do it.
I caught a panel featuring Texas Tribune CEO Sonal Shah (a member of Poynter’s national advisory board) and Upasna Gautam, senior product manager at CNN, about leading during this digital upheaval. Shah made the point that AI will empower and not replace journalists, and that trust from the audience comes from actually meeting reporters. Human reporters.
For example, she said, the subject of a delicate story about the measles outbreak in a Mennonite community in Texas reached out to say he appreciated the Tribune’s reporting.
I should mention that while I was only at the AI x Journalism House for one day of my three-day SXSW adventure, I was on the verge of falling into a fugue state while wandering West Sixth Street with the word “content” echoing in my head.
Much like the caviar and remixed Panic! At the Disco blasting at the Good Party for Bad Times — unexpected, a bit disorienting, but oddly invigorating — the path forward for journalism is about embracing new experiences. And not being afraid to get weird.
Revelers in tinfoil hats dance at the Good Party for Bad Times at SXSW, hosted by The Onion, Bluesky and Project Liberty. (Courtesy Zach Villafaña)
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