By Ryan G. Murphy, Digital Media Editor

On Wednesday morning I had the privilege of attending the Walter Cronkite memorial service in New York City with a few of my colleagues and RTNDA board members.  As one of the youngest people in the audience – I was born after Cronkite retired from CBS in 1981 – I initially felt more awestruck than nostalgic. As with most journalists my age, my perception of Walter has been formed much more by his legacy and influence than by how I remember him on air, as some of my older colleagues do.

After listening to remembrances from people like Nick Clooney, Bill Clinton, Tom Brokaw, Andy Rooney, Bob Schieffer and President Obama, it’s clear that Cronkite’s reach in reporting, the television industry and even politics, is far greater than I originally thought. To say that I am under qualified to memorialize Walter Cronkite is certainly an understatement and it’s not my intention for this blog entry.

There are two key things I took away from Wednesday’s service – lessons that Walter posthumously reinforced as I listened about his life. I think both can be true determinants of one’s success in journalism and in life.

The first was how quick Walter was to adapt to rapid and major change. More specifically, how quickly he embraced new media.  It’s funny to read “new media” and Walter Cronkite in the same sentence because it’s so easy to picture his seasoned face (in black and white, of course) perched in front of the camera reading the day’s news. It seems so much like the model we’re moving away from, so archaic. But in the 1950s, television was the day’s “digital age.” As anchor on CBS, he served in a role that he invented at a time when newspapers and radio had set the standard for so long. If that’s not adaptability, I don’t know what is.

As our organizations continue to move towards a digital model and begin to figure out ways to better monetize web traffic, rapid and sometimes uncomfortable change will certainly be a part of that. Like Walter though, it’s important to recognize opportunity and embrace the accompanying changes if we want our organizations to set trailblazing paths. It’s a simple lesson but one I think we can all benefit from if we look closely at how we, as organizations and as journalists, are moving forward.

The second and perhaps more important lesson I learned Wednesday was the significance of valuing and strengthening relationships. Certainly, Walter was revered by his family, friends and colleagues – because he often took the time to show them that he cared. What impressed me more though was the relationship Walter had with his viewers – and it’s for the exact same reason, because he showed them he cared.

Today, with our news sites and Facebook updates and Twitter feeds we have more opportunity for relationships with our viewers than ever. However, just because they are numerous, doesn’t mean the relationships are deep. We seem to worry so much today about increasing numbers – increasing viewers, followers, page views, ad dollars, revenue. We sometimes force feed our audiences sensationalized news during an ever-expanding news cycle. Where’s the care in that?

Like a relationship with a friend or a family member, if we don’t nurture the relationships we have with our viewers, they will fizzle out. Walter kept his flourishing by establishing trust – by always getting the story right and working tirelessly to establish transparency and depth in his reporting. With Walter, it was always about the story, nothing more. And now, while we scramble to figure out how to “get it right,” it might be that Walter had it right all along – simply show that we care.