January 2009
11 posts
1 tag
Paying for foreign reporting requires creative...
Whether the shuttering of foreign bureaus by metropolitan newspapers and some TV networks in recent years — to refocus efforts stateside as budgets tightened — was a good thing or bad is certainly worthy of debate. But what is certain is that, as a result, there are now fewer reporters covering fewer stories in foreign countries for American news organizations. Some of those that do...
How to grow local revenue, despite the ad...
So, what to do about this over-abundance of advertising inventory in our local markets? Unlike some in this industry who are looking, again, at some form of paid content as the solution to the revenue crisis, I still believe that there’s a lot of life left in the ad-supported model. We haven’t been particularly creative in building ad solutions that work well for advertisers and that...
Five people I wish Jim Romenesko quoted more
(This is a follow-up to Friday’s list of five people outside journalism that all journalists should read.) I will forever be in Jim Romenesko’s debt for a number of reasons. First, he’s a great read, reporting as he does every last scrap of news about the journalism biz. Second, he’s wicked fast, an example many of our local market reporters could still learn from. If...
Why it's so hard to move revenue from print to...
It’s shorthand for the chief problem of transitioning a local news operation’s business model from print to online: Newspaper revenue dollars become online pennies. Despite increasing readership online, advertisers continue to pay a much higher price when they place their ads in print. A lot of that has been laid to inertia on the part of advertisers and a lack of sales imagination at...
Six essential non-journalism bloggers for your...
I have a confession. My feed reader is half-full of journalists writing about journalism. Which, in itself isn’t all that bad, I suppose. But perspective is welcome after an hour wallowing in twelve takes on the latest bad news from the world of publishing. So that’s why the other half of my feed reader is full of people who do not hold journalism degrees and don’t work in...
Buy a newspaper or save a newspaper: Your choice
What’s the better way to save the newspaper business? Sign a pledge on Facebook to buy a newspaper on February 2nd? Or work from within to show journalists how to use Facebook (or MySpace or Twitter or Google or just how and why to link) to advance journalism beyond the old business of ink on paper? The first may briefly make you feel good about yourself, but the second just might change...
CNN and Facebook create the next great...
There’s no shortage of post-Inaugural commentary available on the web today. So I’ll keep this short. But I have to say that the CNN/Facebook integration absolutely rocked. Look at this: Read the whole post at The Nieman Lab.
Some news about this blog and me
Starting on January 21st, my journalism-focused blogging is moving to The Nieman Journalism Lab, thanks to a gracious invitation from Josh Benton, the director of the lab. I’ll be joining Martin Langeveld and Mathew Ingram as the new additions to the Lab. In case you haven’t already discovered it, The Nieman Journalism Lab is a terrific site focused on the future of journalism....
Every picture tells a story
Look at this photo (unfortunately a low-res screencap) for what’s currently right and wrong about journalism: [caption id=”attachment_871” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”Screencap from Seattle P-I web site.”][/caption] Here’s my take. The two women in the foreground are doing the work of a newsroom, reporting news and publishing...
Flowcharting the trolls
This is great. Leave it to the Air Force to bring some semblance of order to a process (HT: Dave Fleet) - monitoring comments and discussions and deciding which to engage with - that has more than a few of us pulling out our hair on a regular basis. They’ve even created a simple flowchart, which I’d suggest, is worth printing out and pinning by your desk, whether you’re running...
2 tags
Who are the digital natives? And what do they...
[caption id=”attachment_848” align=”alignnone” width=”525” caption=”Count the digital devices. Photo by debaird, via Flickr CC”][/caption] Anyone in the business of trying to communicate in a substantial way with younger people - and while this generally falls into the subset of “Anyone With A Web Site that’s not aarp.org,”...