The SMiB10 conference is fast-approaching. I’ve been asked to talk about conventional media and its approach to social media as means of publishing continue to modernise. The title, anti-social media, is a bit out of kilter really in that, generally speaking, conventional media is now very pro social media. At least that’s what it says publicly.

What the conventional press hasn’t yet worked out is how it will make money in a changed media landscape. Nothing new in that statement, but here’s what I plan to drill into at the conference:

Summary: it’ll cover the state of the national and local press in the UK, what local press in particular thinks of social media and what role local press could play in community engagement.

Paying for content: what the national newspapers and magazines are doing, and how the local press may look to adapt these ideas to save its skin.

Trailblazers: examples of conventional media using social media well.

Further from home: the local media is getting local, taking a blunt approach of transposing print-like content to the web. Few are well engaged on a local level.

Nay-sayers: are journalists really willing to get involved with social media, or do they look down their noses at it?

Money: how some local journalists are working out and tapping into the value of their content. And which are on Twitter.

Future ideas: delivering local content profitably to local people.

I also plan to touch briefly on Robert Maxwell, bubblewrap and excrement.

I’ve had some really good input from local journalists, publishers and PRs to date. All input welcome. Please leave a comment below or DM @mynameisearl.