The New Media Innovation Lab is a research and development program designed to help media companies create new and exciting multimedia products. Operated by the Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU, the lab brings together students from across campus – journalism, business, computer engineering and design. Beginning in 2006 and extending through the 2007-08 school years, the New Media Innovation Lab has worked on projects for Gannett Co., one of the nation’s largest news corporations, to research the news consumption habits of young people and develop applications conducive to reaching this audience. Students at the NMIL are expected to provide solutions for client objectives and have created applications such as Facebook widgets, online entertainment shows, local music online databases, and online games.

The director of the lab is digital media leader Retha Hill, who joined the Cronkite faculty in the summer of 2007 after nearly eight years at BET, where she was vice president for content for BET Interactive, the online unit of Black Entertainment Television and the most visited site specializing in African-American content on the Internet. Hill was an early media innovator who helped launch The Washington Post’s first Internet news operation. ASU President Michael Crow said the New Media Innovation Lab not only gives “ASU journalism students exposure to the latest technologies but will also enable them through their own work to help shape the future of journalism.”

The NMIL gives students the opportunity to experience the cutting-edge creativity, innovation, and collaboration required of those involved in “start-up” companies. The concept for an innovation lab focusing on new media products was developed by Crow and Sue Clark-Johnson, president of the newspaper division of Gannett. Gannett executives work closely with the innovation lab on the first series of research and development projects. Gannett owns 90 U.S. daily newspapers, including The Arizona Republic, 22 television stations, including KPNX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, and more than 130 U.S.-based Web sites, including the highly successful azcentral.com (operated jointly by the Republic and KPNX-TV). The New Media Innovation Lab has its own classroom and office space in the digital media wing of the Cronkite School’s new state-of-the-art complex in downtown Phoenix.

It adjoins the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, devoted to the development of new media entrepreneurship and the creation of innovative digital media products. Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan said the ASU project differs significantly from new media efforts at other universities. “The ideas from the New Media Innovation Lab at ASU are driven by our students - some of the best and brightest - working together from many schools and departments across campus,” Callahan said. “And our relationship with Gannett makes this a very real, focused research and development effort. Our students have an unparalleled experience, and they get to see the tangible impact of their innovations in the new media market.”