In a first for me, as I attempted to navigate over to the Pasadena Star-News's Web site, Google diverted me away to a page with a warning message that said pasadenastarnews.com is a "Reported Attack Site."
I'd never seen such a thing. By clicking on the "Why was this site blocked?" icon, I found out Google has determined certain pages associated with the site are uploading malicious software onto visitors' computers.
Immediately suspicious that my own computer was being hijacked in some way, I switched Web browsers (from Firefox to Safari to Explorer) and did Google searches for the Pasadena Star-News. The Google search results all included a hyperlink under the newspaper's name that said, "This site may harm your computer."
It's not completely clear to me what caused Google to flag the Star-News. Is it because of a complaint from a reader? Does Google have a program that checks for malware? Hell, I didn't even know Google offered such a feature.
A generic explanation from the Google Web Search Help Center says, "We want our users to feel safe when they search the web, and we're continuously working to identify dangerous sites and increase protection for our users. This warning message appears with search results we've identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer."
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Whittier Daily News do not carry such warnings. Neither do the other LANG papers in Southern California.
I'll try to get more information about this strange phenomenon tomorrow morning.
*I've asked several people to go to pasadenastarnews.com to see what happens. Some get the newspaper page without seeing any warning. Others get diverted to the "Reported Attack Site" page like I did. I first thought Google Toolbar was the common denominator for the latter group, but that doesn't appear to be it. Maybe it's related to the security level setting on one's browser? Also, only the Google search engine includes a warning when you search for the paper's site. Yahoo! and Ask.com have no such warnings.
**I should note that while I appreciate efforts by my browser to knock down annoying pop-up ads and warn me away from sites that might harm my computer, the flagging of a newspaper site raises some First Amendment concerns - especially if the "warning" tag is the result of an outside complaint.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Layoffs by the Bay
Citing budget woes, the publisher of the Bay Area News Group-East Bay says 29 people will be axed from the newsroom as of July 11. That's about 15 percent of the staff, I'm told.
This follows nine layoffs at the Mercury News announced yesterday.
The memo from BANG-EB Publisher John Armstrong follows:
Colleagues:
As you all know, we are not immune to the financial challenges facing the economy in the East Bay and the newspaper business in general.
We have just completed work on our budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. We are forecasting a 10% drop in revenue over the next 12 months, which comes on the heels of a 17% revenue decline in this fiscal year. In my nearly five decades in this business, I’ve never experienced a downturn so deep and so broad.
Given this continued erosion of our revenue base – coupled with a more than 20% jump in the price of our most expensive commodity, newsprint – we found we had no choice but to take additional steps to sharply reduce our operating costs.
Consequently, I write to let you know we have started a significant restructuring of our operations, including employee layoffs from the management and staff ranks in all divisions and other changes to bring our overhead in line with lower revenue.
The employees subject to layoffs today were notified individually. Also, we sent a letter to the Media Workers Guild requesting a meeting to discuss our intention to lay off, on July 11, approximately 29 newsroom employees.
You will recall we achieved a reduction in our workforce in March through a buyout program. At the time we hoped that our revenue base would stabilize and additional job cuts could be handled through natural attrition.
Unfortunately, the decline in revenue accelerated in April, May and June, spurred by the prolonged real estate slump, its ripple effects on virtually all segments of the East Bay economy and the continuing migration of ad dollars to the Internet. When it became obvious that another reduction in workforce was unavoidable, we concluded we could not utilize buyouts this time because we needed to move quickly and we could no longer accommodate the randomness of buyouts.
In making the decisions on which jobs to eliminate, we were guided by three objectives:
We are losing quality people in our organization, which is sad and unfortunate. We wish them every success in their new endeavors. I ask those of us who remain to roll up our sleeves, renew our commitment to our mutual goals and aspirations and support each other as one team moving forward.
John Armstrong
President and Publisher
BayAreaNewsGroup-EAST BAY
This follows nine layoffs at the Mercury News announced yesterday.
The memo from BANG-EB Publisher John Armstrong follows:
Colleagues:
As you all know, we are not immune to the financial challenges facing the economy in the East Bay and the newspaper business in general.
We have just completed work on our budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. We are forecasting a 10% drop in revenue over the next 12 months, which comes on the heels of a 17% revenue decline in this fiscal year. In my nearly five decades in this business, I’ve never experienced a downturn so deep and so broad.
Given this continued erosion of our revenue base – coupled with a more than 20% jump in the price of our most expensive commodity, newsprint – we found we had no choice but to take additional steps to sharply reduce our operating costs.
Consequently, I write to let you know we have started a significant restructuring of our operations, including employee layoffs from the management and staff ranks in all divisions and other changes to bring our overhead in line with lower revenue.
The employees subject to layoffs today were notified individually. Also, we sent a letter to the Media Workers Guild requesting a meeting to discuss our intention to lay off, on July 11, approximately 29 newsroom employees.
You will recall we achieved a reduction in our workforce in March through a buyout program. At the time we hoped that our revenue base would stabilize and additional job cuts could be handled through natural attrition.
Unfortunately, the decline in revenue accelerated in April, May and June, spurred by the prolonged real estate slump, its ripple effects on virtually all segments of the East Bay economy and the continuing migration of ad dollars to the Internet. When it became obvious that another reduction in workforce was unavoidable, we concluded we could not utilize buyouts this time because we needed to move quickly and we could no longer accommodate the randomness of buyouts.
In making the decisions on which jobs to eliminate, we were guided by three objectives:
- Protect the core strength of our franchise, which is local news and information.
- Maintain advertising sales presence in the markets we serve.
- Minimize the impact on our web sites and other digital services.
We are losing quality people in our organization, which is sad and unfortunate. We wish them every success in their new endeavors. I ask those of us who remain to roll up our sleeves, renew our commitment to our mutual goals and aspirations and support each other as one team moving forward.
John Armstrong
President and Publisher
BayAreaNewsGroup-EAST BAY
Garyslist
Want to get into the newspaper business? Or maybe you just don't think the summers here are warm enough?
Bridget Lewison, formerly of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, is inviting anyone with the stomach for 100-degree-plus nights to apply for one of three open positions at the Mohave Valley Daily News in "glorious" Bullhead City, Arizona, right across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada.
The paper is hiring a page designer/copy editor, an education reporter and a lifestyle magazine editor. (I'm not exactly sure what "lifestyle" the magazine plans to chronicle - six sassy habits of retired police sergeants? - but I'm sure Lewison can explain it.)
Other openings might come up in the near future, she adds. For further information, contact Managing Editor Wayne Agner at wagner@mohavedailynews.com,or call 928-763-2505 ext. 119.
I don't plan to make a habit of running job listings here, but I figured this one wouldn't hurt.
Want to get into the newspaper business? Or maybe you just don't think the summers here are warm enough?
Bridget Lewison, formerly of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, is inviting anyone with the stomach for 100-degree-plus nights to apply for one of three open positions at the Mohave Valley Daily News in "glorious" Bullhead City, Arizona, right across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada.
The paper is hiring a page designer/copy editor, an education reporter and a lifestyle magazine editor. (I'm not exactly sure what "lifestyle" the magazine plans to chronicle - six sassy habits of retired police sergeants? - but I'm sure Lewison can explain it.)
Other openings might come up in the near future, she adds. For further information, contact Managing Editor Wayne Agner at wagner@mohavedailynews.com,or call 928-763-2505 ext. 119.
I don't plan to make a habit of running job listings here, but I figured this one wouldn't hurt.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sharpening knives (updated)
MediaNews plans to layoff nine newsroom employees at the San Jose Mercury News.*, **
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times newsroom is preparing for another round of cuts - mostly layoffs this time, according to Tell Zell.
*Editor & Publisher reports that Martin Gee is one of those getting the pink slip at the Mercury News. Gee created the "Reduction in Force" page on Flickr to document the last round of layoffs.
**Steve Geissinger, long-time capitol bureau chief for the Oakland Tribune, is a victim of the latest layoffs.
MediaNews plans to layoff nine newsroom employees at the San Jose Mercury News.*, **
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times newsroom is preparing for another round of cuts - mostly layoffs this time, according to Tell Zell.
*Editor & Publisher reports that Martin Gee is one of those getting the pink slip at the Mercury News. Gee created the "Reduction in Force" page on Flickr to document the last round of layoffs.
**Steve Geissinger, long-time capitol bureau chief for the Oakland Tribune, is a victim of the latest layoffs.
Quick read
Number of comments on AngryJournalist.com: 5,391
Number of jobs lost at newspapers this year: 5,383
Number of comments on AngryJournalist.com: 5,391
Number of jobs lost at newspapers this year: 5,383
The changing face of AP
I don't know what percentage of stories and photos in small- and medium-size newspapers come from AP and other wire services, but I do know it's substantial. Indeed, many local papers could not put out a daily without the copy provided by wires. And as belt-tightening owners continue to shrink down their own newsrooms, the demand for AP content only grows.
Which is why so many editors are worried about AP's shifting strategy, as outlined in today's Wall Street Journal:
Long a newspaper-centric organization, the AP has shifted its focus in recent years. With readers and advertisers migrating away from news on printed paper and toward cable TV and the Web, the AP is devoting more of its resources to producing content for other news outlets. These include the very Web portals that pose the greatest competition for newspapers, such as Yahoo and Google, which are now among the AP's biggest customers.
Newspapers account for only 27 percent of AP's total revenue, the story says. The big money is in covering Wall Street for Yahoo Finance and the like. And the revenues are being invested in tailoring content to mobile devices.
This doesn't mean AP will stop writing stories, but it isn't as interested in staffing bureaus in places like Ohio or Montana or Arizona. That means less local copy for local papers. In fact, concerned editors in Ohio say AP is becoming more of a taker than a giver.
MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton is chairman of the AP board and in the same WSJ story he defended the change in focus:
[Singleton] says that he welcomes a healthy debate about the AP's role in reporting and delivering the news but that the editors' complaints are misguided. "When you're faced with downsizing your news operations and making dramatic changes in how you operate, you always look for someone to blame," he says. "And AP has been a handy entity to complain about."
Singleton knows plenty about being blamed for harming newspapers. But his defense is not simply political. What is AP is doing is consistent with his own strategy, which is to break down the walls of individual newsrooms and to create more of a MediaNews wire service that shares content over a broad region. This gives him leverage to be the "local" provider of quick-hit wire pieces to mobile phones and computers, while the AP focuses more on national niche markets - entertainment, politics, business, etc.
I don't know what percentage of stories and photos in small- and medium-size newspapers come from AP and other wire services, but I do know it's substantial. Indeed, many local papers could not put out a daily without the copy provided by wires. And as belt-tightening owners continue to shrink down their own newsrooms, the demand for AP content only grows.
Which is why so many editors are worried about AP's shifting strategy, as outlined in today's Wall Street Journal:
Long a newspaper-centric organization, the AP has shifted its focus in recent years. With readers and advertisers migrating away from news on printed paper and toward cable TV and the Web, the AP is devoting more of its resources to producing content for other news outlets. These include the very Web portals that pose the greatest competition for newspapers, such as Yahoo and Google, which are now among the AP's biggest customers.
Newspapers account for only 27 percent of AP's total revenue, the story says. The big money is in covering Wall Street for Yahoo Finance and the like. And the revenues are being invested in tailoring content to mobile devices.
This doesn't mean AP will stop writing stories, but it isn't as interested in staffing bureaus in places like Ohio or Montana or Arizona. That means less local copy for local papers. In fact, concerned editors in Ohio say AP is becoming more of a taker than a giver.
MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton is chairman of the AP board and in the same WSJ story he defended the change in focus:
[Singleton] says that he welcomes a healthy debate about the AP's role in reporting and delivering the news but that the editors' complaints are misguided. "When you're faced with downsizing your news operations and making dramatic changes in how you operate, you always look for someone to blame," he says. "And AP has been a handy entity to complain about."
Singleton knows plenty about being blamed for harming newspapers. But his defense is not simply political. What is AP is doing is consistent with his own strategy, which is to break down the walls of individual newsrooms and to create more of a MediaNews wire service that shares content over a broad region. This gives him leverage to be the "local" provider of quick-hit wire pieces to mobile phones and computers, while the AP focuses more on national niche markets - entertainment, politics, business, etc.
A gun in every holsterIn what is probably the most important Second Amendment decision in U.S. history, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the right to bear arms is a right of the individual, not a collective right regulated by the state.
The decision does not automatically undo any gun laws, except for the near total ban on handguns in Washington, DC that was at the heart of the case. However, expect lawsuits.
From a cultural standpoint, this could change the nature of politics in rural American where, as Barack Obama delicately put it, people are known to cling to guns and religion as markers of who they are and what they believe.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A dismantler dismantlesSam Zell didn't make his money putting things together. He made it pulling things apart.
So, true to his stripes, Zell confirmed today that he will sell the Times building in Los Angeles and Tribune Tower in Chicago as a way to "maximize the value of our assets."
The announcement comes as Tribune Co. contends with mounting debt and warnings from Wall Street that the company could slip into default.
From Zell's statements, it sounds as if he will sell the building on Spring Street and then rent back some of the office space to use for the newspaper. But, who the hell really knows?
Other ugly things happening at Tribune-owned newspapers:
- The Hartford Currant goes down the newshole with a plan to cut 57 employees and trim 67 pages per week from the paper.
- The Baltimore Sun plans to cut about 100 employees.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Passage to India
AP confirms what Mediabistro reported last week: The forward-thinking OC Register is outsourcing copy editing to India.
Deputy Editor John Fabris provides the spin: "In a time of rapid change at newspapers, we are exploring many ways to work efficiently while maintaining quality and improving local coverage."
AP confirms what Mediabistro reported last week: The forward-thinking OC Register is outsourcing copy editing to India.
Deputy Editor John Fabris provides the spin: "In a time of rapid change at newspapers, we are exploring many ways to work efficiently while maintaining quality and improving local coverage."
Ramble On
Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic has an interview with Tribune innovation guru Lee Abrams. Among the items of wisdom (I paraphrase here): The best way to uphold the journalistic tradition is to break from the past. The best way to illustrate the human cost of war is for the reporter to make it more about herself. And afflicting the comfortable/comforting the afflicted probably isn't as relevant as it once was.
Here is one of the more jaw-dropping exchanges:
JG: Why were you surprised to find out that your company has reporters based in Iraq?
LA: I was in Los Angeles, sitting in this casual little meeting waiting for someone to show up, and there was this lady who had just got back from four years in Iraq, I forgot her name, I met 300 people in two days, and she was telling me about security problems, bullets in the background and all that, and it really struck me that there should be pictures of her with Iraqi children in the newspaper to show she was there. Whereas in the newspaper, it just says, “Times Staff Reporter.” I really never thought about it, that there was really a person over there going through hell to get this.
JG: It didn’t strike you that there were employees of the newspaper over there doing this work?
LA: It was just ink to me, just reading. Oh yeah, here’s what’s happening in Iraq, but then I didn’t feel the human side.
JG: So more first-person in the papers, then?
LA: I would have loved to see diaries, because what she was telling me was fascinating, living in these special secured floors of the Baghdad Hotel. It was like theater of the mind.
Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic has an interview with Tribune innovation guru Lee Abrams. Among the items of wisdom (I paraphrase here): The best way to uphold the journalistic tradition is to break from the past. The best way to illustrate the human cost of war is for the reporter to make it more about herself. And afflicting the comfortable/comforting the afflicted probably isn't as relevant as it once was.
Here is one of the more jaw-dropping exchanges:
JG: Why were you surprised to find out that your company has reporters based in Iraq?
LA: I was in Los Angeles, sitting in this casual little meeting waiting for someone to show up, and there was this lady who had just got back from four years in Iraq, I forgot her name, I met 300 people in two days, and she was telling me about security problems, bullets in the background and all that, and it really struck me that there should be pictures of her with Iraqi children in the newspaper to show she was there. Whereas in the newspaper, it just says, “Times Staff Reporter.” I really never thought about it, that there was really a person over there going through hell to get this.
JG: It didn’t strike you that there were employees of the newspaper over there doing this work?
LA: It was just ink to me, just reading. Oh yeah, here’s what’s happening in Iraq, but then I didn’t feel the human side.
JG: So more first-person in the papers, then?
LA: I would have loved to see diaries, because what she was telling me was fascinating, living in these special secured floors of the Baghdad Hotel. It was like theater of the mind.
The inessentialness of copy editors
Everyone who knows anything about the Internet, or online journalism, or accounting, knows that copy editors are an expensive luxury. Old news in a new news world. Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post proves the point in his column this week:
The inessentialness of copy editors is underscored by the advent of sophisticated spellchecking systems which have introduced a hole new level of error-free proofreading. No longer can we say that the editor's penis mightier than the sword. The sword's main foe is a computer now, and the computer is up to to the task.
Everyone who knows anything about the Internet, or online journalism, or accounting, knows that copy editors are an expensive luxury. Old news in a new news world. Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post proves the point in his column this week:
The inessentialness of copy editors is underscored by the advent of sophisticated spellchecking systems which have introduced a hole new level of error-free proofreading. No longer can we say that the editor's penis mightier than the sword. The sword's main foe is a computer now, and the computer is up to to the task.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Downie steps aside
To no one's surprise, Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. announced today he will retire come September, after 17 years on the job and 27 Pultizer Prizes:
“A new, young publisher needs a new, younger editor,” Mr. Downie, 66, said.
A replacement is expected to be named in the next few weeks.
To no one's surprise, Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. announced today he will retire come September, after 17 years on the job and 27 Pultizer Prizes:
“A new, young publisher needs a new, younger editor,” Mr. Downie, 66, said.
A replacement is expected to be named in the next few weeks.
Heretical, California
What's with the triple-digit heat? Well, a survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds Californians are a little closer to hell than the rest of the country:
Californians are less likely than other Americans to consider religion "very important" in their lives or to be "absolutely certain" in their belief in God.
Californians pray less than others in many parts of the country. They are less inclined to take the word of God literally. And they are ready to embrace "more than one true way" of interpreting their religious teachings.
What's with the triple-digit heat? Well, a survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds Californians are a little closer to hell than the rest of the country:
Californians are less likely than other Americans to consider religion "very important" in their lives or to be "absolutely certain" in their belief in God.
Californians pray less than others in many parts of the country. They are less inclined to take the word of God literally. And they are ready to embrace "more than one true way" of interpreting their religious teachings.
Unreal
Redesigns aside, I'm not sure Tribune innovation guru Lee Abrams has succeeded in shaking up anything other than the rules of English grammar. But a friend passed on a line from one of his many free-form screeds that should help explain why reporters are beginning to revile him (emphasis mine):
16. Think like your reader. Were does the paper intersect you reader's life? If you had a real job what stories could we collect that would make your live easier or make you smarter..
Sic.
Redesigns aside, I'm not sure Tribune innovation guru Lee Abrams has succeeded in shaking up anything other than the rules of English grammar. But a friend passed on a line from one of his many free-form screeds that should help explain why reporters are beginning to revile him (emphasis mine):
16. Think like your reader. Were does the paper intersect you reader's life? If you had a real job what stories could we collect that would make your live easier or make you smarter..
Sic.
A long night*
Newsrooms may be shrinking across Los Angeles, but the LA Press Club still managed to find three or so hours of material for its awards night on Saturday. A complete list of the winners is here.
A few standout moments from the night. Harry Shearer tried mightily to mine the beatification of Tim Russert for humor. Few in the audience responded. Shearer had better luck skewering Lee Abrams, Tribune innovation guru, for his exclamation-point speak, and Sam Zell, Tribune owner, for his fondness of the word fuck. Since I left my Mayhill Fowler-brand audio recorder at home, I can't offer a transcript, and paraphrasing jokes is a sure-fire loser, but through a wine-soaked memory I remember the Zell line had something to do with Zell using "fuck" more than 300 times in his latest memo, and that was just the first sentence.
The most amusing speech of the night came from Steve Lopez, who won the President's Award. He, too, took aim at Abrams and Zell, and at Shearer's suit. Lopez noted that Abrams came to visit the Times last week and was genuinely surprised to discover the paper had a bureau in Baghdad. Seriously. Lopez also recounted his trip to the beach to knock on Sam Zell's front door, which prompted a fuck you from Zell, and then promised to go back again.
The most moving defense of journalism of the night came from Daniel Pearl's father, Judea Pearl, in introducing the night's Pearl honoree, Bob Woodruff. In losing his son, Pearl said realized how elusive the truth can be and how dangerous the road sometimes is in trying to finding it.
On a more personal note, KCRW's Warren Olney won two awards, both for shows produced before I came here. The Los Angeles Daily Journal also took home a couple honors for work done in the Southern California office - I was up in the Capitol for them. Unfortunately, I didn't see a single nomination from the MediaNews newspapers in the San Gabriel Valley, despite some deserving work. I gather they didn't submit anything. Neither, it seems, did the Daily Breeze.
*Updated
Newsrooms may be shrinking across Los Angeles, but the LA Press Club still managed to find three or so hours of material for its awards night on Saturday. A complete list of the winners is here.
A few standout moments from the night. Harry Shearer tried mightily to mine the beatification of Tim Russert for humor. Few in the audience responded. Shearer had better luck skewering Lee Abrams, Tribune innovation guru, for his exclamation-point speak, and Sam Zell, Tribune owner, for his fondness of the word fuck. Since I left my Mayhill Fowler-brand audio recorder at home, I can't offer a transcript, and paraphrasing jokes is a sure-fire loser, but through a wine-soaked memory I remember the Zell line had something to do with Zell using "fuck" more than 300 times in his latest memo, and that was just the first sentence.
The most amusing speech of the night came from Steve Lopez, who won the President's Award. He, too, took aim at Abrams and Zell, and at Shearer's suit. Lopez noted that Abrams came to visit the Times last week and was genuinely surprised to discover the paper had a bureau in Baghdad. Seriously. Lopez also recounted his trip to the beach to knock on Sam Zell's front door, which prompted a fuck you from Zell, and then promised to go back again.
The most moving defense of journalism of the night came from Daniel Pearl's father, Judea Pearl, in introducing the night's Pearl honoree, Bob Woodruff. In losing his son, Pearl said realized how elusive the truth can be and how dangerous the road sometimes is in trying to finding it.
On a more personal note, KCRW's Warren Olney won two awards, both for shows produced before I came here. The Los Angeles Daily Journal also took home a couple honors for work done in the Southern California office - I was up in the Capitol for them. Unfortunately, I didn't see a single nomination from the MediaNews newspapers in the San Gabriel Valley, despite some deserving work. I gather they didn't submit anything. Neither, it seems, did the Daily Breeze.
*Updated
Not just newspapers
Broadcast news has been on a long, fast trip to bad for a long time, in my opinion. But shrinking budgets - and the commensurate shrinking of staffs - have starved television news divisions. Corporate concerns have taken precedence and left a dearth of tough-minded investigations of the rich and powerful in their wake:
Investigations of the rich and powerful, the multinational corporations and monopoly industries, have all but dried up, say a coterie of journalists still trying to ply their trade. To be sure, enterprise reporting on the network level is far from dead. Investigations are, for instance, still staples at 60 Minutes and PBS's Frontline. Brian Ross and his producers are a vibrant force in TV investigations that singlehandedly keep ABC News in the game. But the days of news divisions rich with staff and resources claiming multiple hours a week of primetime real estate with newsmagazines are now history.
The Insider wasn't a look back, it was a look ahead.
(via Romenesko)
Broadcast news has been on a long, fast trip to bad for a long time, in my opinion. But shrinking budgets - and the commensurate shrinking of staffs - have starved television news divisions. Corporate concerns have taken precedence and left a dearth of tough-minded investigations of the rich and powerful in their wake:
Investigations of the rich and powerful, the multinational corporations and monopoly industries, have all but dried up, say a coterie of journalists still trying to ply their trade. To be sure, enterprise reporting on the network level is far from dead. Investigations are, for instance, still staples at 60 Minutes and PBS's Frontline. Brian Ross and his producers are a vibrant force in TV investigations that singlehandedly keep ABC News in the game. But the days of news divisions rich with staff and resources claiming multiple hours a week of primetime real estate with newsmagazines are now history.
The Insider wasn't a look back, it was a look ahead.
(via Romenesko)
Happy Monday
Worst year ever?
If you're a newspaper company, it just might be. The New York Times looks at the numbers and talks to the analysts and finds rot everywhere it turns:
For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse. This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue, raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies.
-snip-
“It’s going a lot worse than anybody predicted, and if we have double-digit ad declines for two years, some newspapers will be in real financial jeopardy,” said Edward Atorino, an analyst at the Benchmark Company. Even with less severe losses, “You’re going to see structural changes: papers could drop a day or two per week, they could outsource printing.”
There's also more talk of bankruptcies and this mind-blowing factoid: The San Francisco Chronicle is losing $1 million a week.
Grab a stiff drink and read the rest of the story here.
Worst year ever?
If you're a newspaper company, it just might be. The New York Times looks at the numbers and talks to the analysts and finds rot everywhere it turns:
For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse. This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue, raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies.
-snip-
“It’s going a lot worse than anybody predicted, and if we have double-digit ad declines for two years, some newspapers will be in real financial jeopardy,” said Edward Atorino, an analyst at the Benchmark Company. Even with less severe losses, “You’re going to see structural changes: papers could drop a day or two per week, they could outsource printing.”
There's also more talk of bankruptcies and this mind-blowing factoid: The San Francisco Chronicle is losing $1 million a week.
Grab a stiff drink and read the rest of the story here.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
A racial divide on the feminist front?
How come prominent feminist leaders aren't rushing to the defense of Michelle Obama? Mary Curtis at the Charlotte Observers says it's because Obama is black.
How come prominent feminist leaders aren't rushing to the defense of Michelle Obama? Mary Curtis at the Charlotte Observers says it's because Obama is black.
More readers, less money
Ten of the 30 most visited media Web sites are owned by newspapers, according to Nielson Online. Drudge Report, which is the first stop for many readers, including reporters, tops the list.
The top newspaper company is Gannett, owner of USA Today, followed by the New York Times. Others on the list include Media General Company (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Tampa Tribune, etc.), The Minneapolis Star Tribune and Hearst (San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, etc.).
Newspaper sites attracted a total of 64.3 million unique visitors. And yet they still haven't found the magic formula for making substantial profits on those hits.
MediaNews Group, the fourth largest newspaper chain in the country, dropped off the top 30 list. There's no explanation why. Perhaps it's due to the runaway success of other sites, or maybe readers are getting tired of the pop-up ads that slow page loading or the ads that cover the top third of the site but just won't close no matter how hard I click my mouse. Buggy blogs in the SoCal area probably didn't help either.
Notes to Denver: Web site redesign should be a priority; busy, flashy, incessant ads detract from the content and drive away new readers; and local papers should have more flexibility to tailor their sites to a local audience.
Ten of the 30 most visited media Web sites are owned by newspapers, according to Nielson Online. Drudge Report, which is the first stop for many readers, including reporters, tops the list.
The top newspaper company is Gannett, owner of USA Today, followed by the New York Times. Others on the list include Media General Company (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Tampa Tribune, etc.), The Minneapolis Star Tribune and Hearst (San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, etc.).
Newspaper sites attracted a total of 64.3 million unique visitors. And yet they still haven't found the magic formula for making substantial profits on those hits.
MediaNews Group, the fourth largest newspaper chain in the country, dropped off the top 30 list. There's no explanation why. Perhaps it's due to the runaway success of other sites, or maybe readers are getting tired of the pop-up ads that slow page loading or the ads that cover the top third of the site but just won't close no matter how hard I click my mouse. Buggy blogs in the SoCal area probably didn't help either.
Notes to Denver: Web site redesign should be a priority; busy, flashy, incessant ads detract from the content and drive away new readers; and local papers should have more flexibility to tailor their sites to a local audience.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Debt troubles at MediaNews
Already on the analysts' short list of newspaper companies facing possible default, MediaNews Group moved a little closer to the edge Thursday with Standard & Poor's decision to cut the company's debt rating two levels to CCC.
From the Mercury News: The rating outlook is negative for the closely held Denver-based company, New York-based S&P said Thursday in a statement. CCC is four levels above default.
Business partners may not continue to support MediaNews if the newspaper market continues to deteriorate, S&P said. The company, controlled by William Dean Singleton, will be forced to restructure in the "intermediate term" at its current rate of cash-flow declines, S&P said. MediaNews is the second-largest closely held U.S. newspaper publisher after Tribune Co.
None of this is good news, of course, for the reporters and editors still working for the Singleton chain. Unless Hearst or some other company decides to ride to the rescue with an infusion of cash, or online ads start generating unheard of revenues, or Singleton decides to sell off a few properties, MediaNews will likely resort to further cost cuts to raise the cash needed to pay down its debt.
The Rocky Mountain News carried a response to the downgrading from MediaNews President Joseph "Jody" Lodovic: "We are in compliance with all our debt agreements and expect to stay in compliance in the future."
Less is more
LA Observed has the memo from Daily News editor Carolina Garcia announcing changes at the paper. Most of them involve cutting things. Or, as she puts it: "At the Daily News, the necessities of the current economy are prompting some much-needed reinvention..."
LA Observed has the memo from Daily News editor Carolina Garcia announcing changes at the paper. Most of them involve cutting things. Or, as she puts it: "At the Daily News, the necessities of the current economy are prompting some much-needed reinvention..."
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Outsourcing hyper-local
First, we learned some newspapers were planning to ship ad production overseas. Then, we learned MediaNews was outsourcing customer services for its Northern California papers to the Philippines. Now, the Orange County Register-owner Freedom Communications plans to send some its stories to India for copy editing.
Gives a whole new meaning to the concept of a foreign desk.
First, we learned some newspapers were planning to ship ad production overseas. Then, we learned MediaNews was outsourcing customer services for its Northern California papers to the Philippines. Now, the Orange County Register-owner Freedom Communications plans to send some its stories to India for copy editing.
Gives a whole new meaning to the concept of a foreign desk.
Tell Zell wants to someone to tell on Zell
The blogger at Tell Zell is trying to recruit ex-LA Times reporters to dig into the business dealings of Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell.
He/she has already two story ideas ready. Project 1 will look at Zell's stewardship of the employee stock ownership plan and Project 2 will look at an lease arrangement between Zell and his sister's investment firm.
The blogger at Tell Zell is trying to recruit ex-LA Times reporters to dig into the business dealings of Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell.
He/she has already two story ideas ready. Project 1 will look at Zell's stewardship of the employee stock ownership plan and Project 2 will look at an lease arrangement between Zell and his sister's investment firm.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Comings and goings
The Pasadena Star-News has a new reporter. Alfred Lee, formerly of L.A. CityBeat, will cover the foothill cities of Arcadia, Sierra Madre and Temple City for the Singleton paper. He started Monday.
Lee was calendar editor at CityBeat until his position was eliminated.
The Pasadena Star-News has a new reporter. Alfred Lee, formerly of L.A. CityBeat, will cover the foothill cities of Arcadia, Sierra Madre and Temple City for the Singleton paper. He started Monday.
Lee was calendar editor at CityBeat until his position was eliminated.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Information foraging
The way we read online will shape what we see online.
Think Nebraska corn fields if you think our habits encourage diversity or complexity.
For newspapers, this trend will reinforce the move toward distraction journalism - short pieces structured to catch the attention of the drive-by reader.
Perhaps journalists should learn to write in haiku.
The way we read online will shape what we see online.
Think Nebraska corn fields if you think our habits encourage diversity or complexity.
For newspapers, this trend will reinforce the move toward distraction journalism - short pieces structured to catch the attention of the drive-by reader.
Perhaps journalists should learn to write in haiku.
Analysts: Tribune, MediaNews at risk of default
In their memos and speeches, Sam Zell and Dean Singleton seek to portray themselves as pragmatists coming to grips with an industry in decline, trying to educate an unruly horde of journalists about the realities of belt tightening and productivity, trying to thrive in an economic environment of some other god's making.
But maybe they simply bought more house than they could afford. According to a story in Bloomberg (via Romenesko), Zell's Tribune Co. and Singleton's MediaNews Group - along with the Journal Register Co. and Morris Publishing Group - risk defaulting on billions of dollars of debt used to expand their empires:
"These companies built their portfolios using leverage and executing a strategy with an investment thesis that was clearly flawed,'' [president of Grist Mill Advisors Mark] Young said. "Almost all of these are going to have to go through a restructuring or bankruptcy to come out the other side.''
-snip-
"It's inevitable that one or more of the many highly levered companies in this industry will get into trouble,'' said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Peter Appert in San Francisco. "Whether that translates into bankruptcy, only time will tell.''
Now, there are plenty of smart business people who got smacked when the credit bubble exploded. But maybe the Zells and the Singletons of the world would do better to take responsibility for their own bad deals as they gut newsrooms to keep the cash flowing. Instead, they eschew humility and heap on the ridicule.
Or, as Singleton said it: Too many whining editors, reporters and newspaper unions continue to bark at the dark, thinking their barks will make the night go away. They fondly remember the past as if it will suddenly re-appear and the staffing in newsrooms will suddenly begin to grow again.
In their memos and speeches, Sam Zell and Dean Singleton seek to portray themselves as pragmatists coming to grips with an industry in decline, trying to educate an unruly horde of journalists about the realities of belt tightening and productivity, trying to thrive in an economic environment of some other god's making.
But maybe they simply bought more house than they could afford. According to a story in Bloomberg (via Romenesko), Zell's Tribune Co. and Singleton's MediaNews Group - along with the Journal Register Co. and Morris Publishing Group - risk defaulting on billions of dollars of debt used to expand their empires:
"These companies built their portfolios using leverage and executing a strategy with an investment thesis that was clearly flawed,'' [president of Grist Mill Advisors Mark] Young said. "Almost all of these are going to have to go through a restructuring or bankruptcy to come out the other side.''
-snip-
"It's inevitable that one or more of the many highly levered companies in this industry will get into trouble,'' said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Peter Appert in San Francisco. "Whether that translates into bankruptcy, only time will tell.''
Now, there are plenty of smart business people who got smacked when the credit bubble exploded. But maybe the Zells and the Singletons of the world would do better to take responsibility for their own bad deals as they gut newsrooms to keep the cash flowing. Instead, they eschew humility and heap on the ridicule.
Or, as Singleton said it: Too many whining editors, reporters and newspaper unions continue to bark at the dark, thinking their barks will make the night go away. They fondly remember the past as if it will suddenly re-appear and the staffing in newsrooms will suddenly begin to grow again.
Things I didn't link to yesterday
McClatchy cuts deep, but deep might not be enough
Tu Ciudad shuttered
USC's Online Journalism Review shuttered
McClatchy cuts deep, but deep might not be enough
Tu Ciudad shuttered
USC's Online Journalism Review shuttered
The trouble with free
The fact that newspaper owners both smart and dumb have found no better medicine for their ailing bottom lines than to practice the medieval art of bleeding has led me to question one of the axioms of the modern newspaper business model: Giving away news for free will bring higher profits... someday.
I say this as someone whose job and lifestyle depend on free access. I gorge on media that I could never afford if I had to pay individual subscription fees. I have come to expect that a simple click will take me from the collected wisdom of The Atlantic to the collected wisdom of the New Yorker, from Time's Middle East updates to Politico's campaign coverage, from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times to a sea of local papers and blogs in between. All without spending a dime. It's a fucking godsend.
It's also the death rot at the foundation of many small- and mid-size publications (which will, in turn, erode the quality of larger publications that they rely on the small guys to refill the talent pool.)
Why is free the problem? It's not strictly a financial issue. Rather, it's one of value.
Imagine you run a successful restaurant. You employ a healthy staff to do the jobs required to keep the place a going concern - creative cooks, attentive wait staff, charismatic bartenders, janitors, dishwashers, parking attendants, etc. Food is the game, the centerpiece of your business. The menu is your selling point, the chef your star attraction.
Then one day you discover your competition has started giving away food for free. They've decided they can make money on pricey cocktails, parking fees and fat tips. To stay in the game, you realize you'll have to give away food for free and hope you'll make up the difference on side businesses, too.
Whether or not you can survive on the bar tabs, how long will it be before great food and top chefs become secondary concerns? How long before you let the quality slip? How long before you hire a less-experienced chef to make it cheaper and faster? How long before you cut the kitchen staff, simplify recipes and lard on the trans-fats and salts to add flavor? After all, you're giving it away free. Sure, you might want to keep the menu as fresh and exciting as possible, but when times are tight and you're bottom line is shrinking, you fire the people who aren't bringing in the cash.
That's why even Las Vegas charges something for the buffet.
Now substitute news for food and you'll have a good idea of what I think is the mindset of the average newspaper owner these days. They look out into the newsroom and see all expense and no profit. They see cubicles full of welfare cases in waiting. News is no longer the game, nor the focus of the business. While we journalists talk about the intrinsic value of news, they talk about the cost of a newsroom that's not carrying its own weight.
Then there are the customers. Americans love to get things for free, but they're generally suspicious of anything that's given away. They often equate free with cheap. As the reader expects less and takes more for granted, the brand and the trust degrade.
So, what's the solution?
Monetizing the newsroom isn't the answer because a monetized newsroom is a compromised newsroom. It runs against the grain of credibility.
Instead, I think newsrooms will have to institute some type of subscription fee. I'm not saying the fee has to be a big moneymaker, but there has to be a more direct link between the news product and the bottom line. Otherwise, business owners are going to keep treating the news side like a bastard child.
But until the New York Times and Washington Post stop giving it away, I'm not sure how any smaller paper can charge a subscription with a straight face. Unless a new wave of city papers spring up ...that will require a healthy mix of guts and serendipity.
The other option is for rich fuckers to set up endowments and start treating newspapers like universities. I'm not going to hold my breath on that idea either.
I say this as someone whose job and lifestyle depend on free access. I gorge on media that I could never afford if I had to pay individual subscription fees. I have come to expect that a simple click will take me from the collected wisdom of The Atlantic to the collected wisdom of the New Yorker, from Time's Middle East updates to Politico's campaign coverage, from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times to a sea of local papers and blogs in between. All without spending a dime. It's a fucking godsend.
It's also the death rot at the foundation of many small- and mid-size publications (which will, in turn, erode the quality of larger publications that they rely on the small guys to refill the talent pool.)
Why is free the problem? It's not strictly a financial issue. Rather, it's one of value.
Imagine you run a successful restaurant. You employ a healthy staff to do the jobs required to keep the place a going concern - creative cooks, attentive wait staff, charismatic bartenders, janitors, dishwashers, parking attendants, etc. Food is the game, the centerpiece of your business. The menu is your selling point, the chef your star attraction.
Then one day you discover your competition has started giving away food for free. They've decided they can make money on pricey cocktails, parking fees and fat tips. To stay in the game, you realize you'll have to give away food for free and hope you'll make up the difference on side businesses, too.
Whether or not you can survive on the bar tabs, how long will it be before great food and top chefs become secondary concerns? How long before you let the quality slip? How long before you hire a less-experienced chef to make it cheaper and faster? How long before you cut the kitchen staff, simplify recipes and lard on the trans-fats and salts to add flavor? After all, you're giving it away free. Sure, you might want to keep the menu as fresh and exciting as possible, but when times are tight and you're bottom line is shrinking, you fire the people who aren't bringing in the cash.
That's why even Las Vegas charges something for the buffet.
Now substitute news for food and you'll have a good idea of what I think is the mindset of the average newspaper owner these days. They look out into the newsroom and see all expense and no profit. They see cubicles full of welfare cases in waiting. News is no longer the game, nor the focus of the business. While we journalists talk about the intrinsic value of news, they talk about the cost of a newsroom that's not carrying its own weight.
Then there are the customers. Americans love to get things for free, but they're generally suspicious of anything that's given away. They often equate free with cheap. As the reader expects less and takes more for granted, the brand and the trust degrade.
So, what's the solution?
Monetizing the newsroom isn't the answer because a monetized newsroom is a compromised newsroom. It runs against the grain of credibility.
Instead, I think newsrooms will have to institute some type of subscription fee. I'm not saying the fee has to be a big moneymaker, but there has to be a more direct link between the news product and the bottom line. Otherwise, business owners are going to keep treating the news side like a bastard child.
But until the New York Times and Washington Post stop giving it away, I'm not sure how any smaller paper can charge a subscription with a straight face. Unless a new wave of city papers spring up ...that will require a healthy mix of guts and serendipity.
The other option is for rich fuckers to set up endowments and start treating newspapers like universities. I'm not going to hold my breath on that idea either.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Toll lanes on the information superhighway
We are living in a special time. A time as magical and carefree as it is fleeting. It is our version of free love. Rivers of free information are flowing through the intertubes and, for a small fee, we have unfettered access to most of it. A virtual orgy of free information. Generations to come will look back on this time with green-eyed jealousy, wishing the world would offer them a chance at the innocent experimentation and instant gratification we had, bitter at us for not realizing just how good we had it.
Because it's going end. Free is, as newspaper companies will vouch, not a workable business model. Free is never really free in the long run. And Internet providers are already plotting ways to cash in on our new found habits.
The latest idea is placing meters on the information flow. The more we use the Internet, the more we'll pay for it. It probably won't happen for a few years - they need more of us to get hooked on the goods before they raise the prices.
Unless, of course, we give up on net neutrality and let the big guys to squeeze out the little guys. That should free up some bandwidth. But even that might only forestall the inevitable.
So, gather ye gigabytes while ye may. Download what you can. Check out every corner of the Internet before they put the fences up and start charging entry fees. Make sure you enjoy this time because it soon shall pass.
We are living in a special time. A time as magical and carefree as it is fleeting. It is our version of free love. Rivers of free information are flowing through the intertubes and, for a small fee, we have unfettered access to most of it. A virtual orgy of free information. Generations to come will look back on this time with green-eyed jealousy, wishing the world would offer them a chance at the innocent experimentation and instant gratification we had, bitter at us for not realizing just how good we had it.
Because it's going end. Free is, as newspaper companies will vouch, not a workable business model. Free is never really free in the long run. And Internet providers are already plotting ways to cash in on our new found habits.
The latest idea is placing meters on the information flow. The more we use the Internet, the more we'll pay for it. It probably won't happen for a few years - they need more of us to get hooked on the goods before they raise the prices.
Unless, of course, we give up on net neutrality and let the big guys to squeeze out the little guys. That should free up some bandwidth. But even that might only forestall the inevitable.
So, gather ye gigabytes while ye may. Download what you can. Check out every corner of the Internet before they put the fences up and start charging entry fees. Make sure you enjoy this time because it soon shall pass.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Union prevails
Newsroom employees at the seven BANG-Easy Bay newspapers voted 104 to 92 to form a union. A simple majority was all that was needed.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
About 53 percent of participating staff cast ballots allowing the Northern California Media Workers Guild to represent more than 200 newsroom workers in collective bargaining for pay, benefits and work conditions. Barring any successful challenges, contract negotiations could begin within a month.
Many saw the vote as a referendum on Dean Singleton's MediaNews:
The origins of the union campaign trace back to 2006, when a partnership led by Denver's MediaNews Group Inc., the owner of the Oakland Tribune and other East Bay papers, purchased the Contra Costa Times and its affiliated publications. The organizing effort began in earnest last fall, after MediaNews stopped recognizing the Oakland group's guild representation; a newsroom consolidation had left more nonunion than union employees.
Newsroom employees at the seven BANG-Easy Bay newspapers voted 104 to 92 to form a union. A simple majority was all that was needed.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
About 53 percent of participating staff cast ballots allowing the Northern California Media Workers Guild to represent more than 200 newsroom workers in collective bargaining for pay, benefits and work conditions. Barring any successful challenges, contract negotiations could begin within a month.
Many saw the vote as a referendum on Dean Singleton's MediaNews:
The origins of the union campaign trace back to 2006, when a partnership led by Denver's MediaNews Group Inc., the owner of the Oakland Tribune and other East Bay papers, purchased the Contra Costa Times and its affiliated publications. The organizing effort began in earnest last fall, after MediaNews stopped recognizing the Oakland group's guild representation; a newsroom consolidation had left more nonunion than union employees.
Since the acquisition, employees have complained of slipping journalistic quality within the chain, which became a key issue in the campaign, by some accounts eclipsing compensation concerns. Many departing employees have not been replaced. In March, the company said it would buy out 107 employees, or about 10 percent of its staff, citing slumping advertising revenue.
"We've been alarmed since the merger at some of the changes we've seen," [organizing committee co-chair Karl] Fischer said. "Morale was poor and a lot of people were leaving."
McHale suffers heart attack
Matt McHale, former deputy sports editor and baseball writer at the Los Angeles Daily News, has reportedly suffered a heart attack. Scott Newman at sportsjournalists.com has the details.
Here's what The Paper Trail had to say about McHale when he left the paper earlier this year:
Matt McHale - sports columnist, started Aug. 1996 - "Matt was here on and off for 20 years, covering the sublime (Kirk Gibson and the 1988 Dodgers World Series championship team) and the ridiculous (some really bad Kings hockey teams) with the same good humor before becoming a deputy sports editor and sharing his story-telling gift with many a young writer. One of this papers' wisest voices. Matt's probably logged more time in press boxes across the country than the rest of our staff combined. A great, great baseball writer. If you ever want to really find out what was happening with the Dodgers during their glory years, Matt's your guy. The last couple of years, he's had some health issues to overcome, but he's never complained about it. The last few weeks, Matt's been writing again. Columns, features, and his first love, baseball. If you have a chance, go back and read some of his last articles, they are some of the finest stories in the paper. Everybody roots for him to regain his health and get back to writing great stuff."
Matt McHale, former deputy sports editor and baseball writer at the Los Angeles Daily News, has reportedly suffered a heart attack. Scott Newman at sportsjournalists.com has the details.
Here's what The Paper Trail had to say about McHale when he left the paper earlier this year:
Matt McHale - sports columnist, started Aug. 1996 - "Matt was here on and off for 20 years, covering the sublime (Kirk Gibson and the 1988 Dodgers World Series championship team) and the ridiculous (some really bad Kings hockey teams) with the same good humor before becoming a deputy sports editor and sharing his story-telling gift with many a young writer. One of this papers' wisest voices. Matt's probably logged more time in press boxes across the country than the rest of our staff combined. A great, great baseball writer. If you ever want to really find out what was happening with the Dodgers during their glory years, Matt's your guy. The last couple of years, he's had some health issues to overcome, but he's never complained about it. The last few weeks, Matt's been writing again. Columns, features, and his first love, baseball. If you have a chance, go back and read some of his last articles, they are some of the finest stories in the paper. Everybody roots for him to regain his health and get back to writing great stuff."
Tim Russert dead
Tim Russert, host of "Meet The Press," has died at the age of 58.
The cause was a heart attack.
Tim Russert, host of "Meet The Press," has died at the age of 58.
The cause was a heart attack.
What's in a newspaper?
The Pasadena Weekly asks whether newspapers have a responsibility to filter out hateful reader comments posted on their Web sites. The Weekly uses the Los Angeles Daily News and Pasadena Star-News (the Weekly's chief competitors) as examples.
The story isn't particularly insightful, but it does raise two issues newspapers should seriously consider as they turn to reader comments as a way to build brand loyalty. The first issue has to do with staffing. Recent cuts have left newsrooms stocked with many fewer reporters at a time when they're being asked to take on increased responsibilities: write and manage blogs, shoot photos and video for the Web, ratchet up byline counts and, now it seems, scrub the comments section of objectively objectionable stuff.
The second issue goes to the very foundation of what a newspaper is, and what it will become: To what extent should the newsroom be responsible for creating and monitoring open forums offer debate? Frank Pine, editor of the Star-News and its sister papers in the San Gabriel Valley, gets at part of this:
“There’s a larger issue in this story,” said Pine, “that is, to what degree should newspaper Web sites allow people to comment anonymously. It’s something that warrants further scrutiny. Certainly it’s a conversation we’ve been having in the newsroom and will continue to have.”
The issue of anonymous comments is certainly worth considering, but an even larger issue, I think, is whether the newsroom should be monitoring comments section in the first place.
Traditionally, the role of the newsroom was to ingest information from a variety of sources and then exercise responsible judgment about what to publish, with what context, and with what emphasis. In other words, the newsroom acts as a filter. Creating a platform for free and open debate is a whole other animal, one newsrooms are not set up to handle.
More importantly, we have to ask whether newspapers adding comments in a benevolent effort to foment civic discussion, or in a calculated effort to build a customer base?
The Pasadena Weekly asks whether newspapers have a responsibility to filter out hateful reader comments posted on their Web sites. The Weekly uses the Los Angeles Daily News and Pasadena Star-News (the Weekly's chief competitors) as examples.
The story isn't particularly insightful, but it does raise two issues newspapers should seriously consider as they turn to reader comments as a way to build brand loyalty. The first issue has to do with staffing. Recent cuts have left newsrooms stocked with many fewer reporters at a time when they're being asked to take on increased responsibilities: write and manage blogs, shoot photos and video for the Web, ratchet up byline counts and, now it seems, scrub the comments section of objectively objectionable stuff.
The second issue goes to the very foundation of what a newspaper is, and what it will become: To what extent should the newsroom be responsible for creating and monitoring open forums offer debate? Frank Pine, editor of the Star-News and its sister papers in the San Gabriel Valley, gets at part of this:
“There’s a larger issue in this story,” said Pine, “that is, to what degree should newspaper Web sites allow people to comment anonymously. It’s something that warrants further scrutiny. Certainly it’s a conversation we’ve been having in the newsroom and will continue to have.”
The issue of anonymous comments is certainly worth considering, but an even larger issue, I think, is whether the newsroom should be monitoring comments section in the first place.
Traditionally, the role of the newsroom was to ingest information from a variety of sources and then exercise responsible judgment about what to publish, with what context, and with what emphasis. In other words, the newsroom acts as a filter. Creating a platform for free and open debate is a whole other animal, one newsrooms are not set up to handle.
More importantly, we have to ask whether newspapers adding comments in a benevolent effort to foment civic discussion, or in a calculated effort to build a customer base?
Union maybe*
Let the nail biting begin. Newsroom employees of the Bay Area Newspaper Group-East Bay - aka BANG-EB - head to the makeshift polls today to vote on unionization. A simple majority will decide the outcome.
*Results should be available at 7 p.m. on the papers' Web sites.
The election has been hotly contested. Group publisher John Armstrong went so far as set up an internal Web site to knock down pro-union arguments. One of his most ardent anti-union supporters was business reporter George Avalos. To get an idea of the level of distrust here, read what he had to say on June 3 in a response to another comment on the internal Web site:
Let the nail biting begin. Newsroom employees of the Bay Area Newspaper Group-East Bay - aka BANG-EB - head to the makeshift polls today to vote on unionization. A simple majority will decide the outcome.
*Results should be available at 7 p.m. on the papers' Web sites.
The election has been hotly contested. Group publisher John Armstrong went so far as set up an internal Web site to knock down pro-union arguments. One of his most ardent anti-union supporters was business reporter George Avalos. To get an idea of the level of distrust here, read what he had to say on June 3 in a response to another comment on the internal Web site:
I suggested there were two REAL reasons for the union's incursion into the East Bay news rooms.
The initial reason I gave was there are more than a few folks who want to settle some sort of score with Dean Singleton because they apparently hate him.
I also hinted there was another reason
I believe the primary reason for this is the union wants to use CCN and ANG journalists as pawns in a membership drive.
Unions have watched haplessly as perhaps thousands of members were dismissed or took buy outs in recent years because of newspaper job cuts.
So union bosses they need fresh bodies that they can coerce into paying dues.
Also: Meanwhile, back down south, union members at the Long Beach Press-Telegram once again rallied alongside city officials as they work to unstall contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group - LANG.
The initial reason I gave was there are more than a few folks who want to settle some sort of score with Dean Singleton because they apparently hate him.
I also hinted there was another reason
I believe the primary reason for this is the union wants to use CCN and ANG journalists as pawns in a membership drive.
Unions have watched haplessly as perhaps thousands of members were dismissed or took buy outs in recent years because of newspaper job cuts.
So union bosses they need fresh bodies that they can coerce into paying dues.
Also: Meanwhile, back down south, union members at the Long Beach Press-Telegram once again rallied alongside city officials as they work to unstall contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group - LANG.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Overshare
Ninth Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski posted pornographic material on his private Web site. The revelation comes as he prepares to hear an obscenity case dealing with pornographic materials.
Ninth Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski posted pornographic material on his private Web site. The revelation comes as he prepares to hear an obscenity case dealing with pornographic materials.
Zell the Destroyer
Columnist Harold Meyerson has some harsh words for Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell in today's Washington Post.
Meyerson also takes apart the column-inch count metric being pushed by Zell and Randy Michaels, which promises to change the very mission of the Tribune papers:
As the company prepares to shed more reporters, it has measured writers' performances by the number of column inches of stories they ground out. It found, said one Zell executive, that the level of pages per reporter at one of Zell's smaller papers, the Hartford Courant (about 300), greatly exceeded that at the Times (about 50). As one of the handful of major national papers, however, the Times employs the kind of investigative and expert beat reporters not found at most smaller papers. I could name a number of Times writers who labored for months on stories that went on to win Pulitzers and other prizes, and whose column-inch production, accordingly, was relatively light. Doing so, I fear, would only put their necks on Zell's chopping block. So let me instead note that if The Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull, who spent months uncovering the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and whose reporting not only won a Pulitzer but caused a shake-up in the Army's treatment of wounded veterans, had been subjected to the Zellometer productivity index, they'd be prime candidates for termination.
Columnist Harold Meyerson has some harsh words for Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell in today's Washington Post.
Meyerson also takes apart the column-inch count metric being pushed by Zell and Randy Michaels, which promises to change the very mission of the Tribune papers:
As the company prepares to shed more reporters, it has measured writers' performances by the number of column inches of stories they ground out. It found, said one Zell executive, that the level of pages per reporter at one of Zell's smaller papers, the Hartford Courant (about 300), greatly exceeded that at the Times (about 50). As one of the handful of major national papers, however, the Times employs the kind of investigative and expert beat reporters not found at most smaller papers. I could name a number of Times writers who labored for months on stories that went on to win Pulitzers and other prizes, and whose column-inch production, accordingly, was relatively light. Doing so, I fear, would only put their necks on Zell's chopping block. So let me instead note that if The Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull, who spent months uncovering the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and whose reporting not only won a Pulitzer but caused a shake-up in the Army's treatment of wounded veterans, had been subjected to the Zellometer productivity index, they'd be prime candidates for termination.
"Accounting event"
Gannett Chairman Craig Dubow turns to the soothing language of accountant-speak to reassure employees that a more than $2 billion write-down of assets is no cause for alarm.
Here's the memo he sent to employees earlier this week:
Dear co-workers:
Gannett Chairman Craig Dubow turns to the soothing language of accountant-speak to reassure employees that a more than $2 billion write-down of assets is no cause for alarm.
Here's the memo he sent to employees earlier this week:
Dear co-workers:
Today we announced Gannett would record non-cash impairment charges of an estimated $2.3 billion to $2.8 billion to after-tax earnings at the end of the second quarter. This is an accounting event - and I stress accounting event - that I believe needs explaining.
Let me begin by assuring you that the company remains healthy. This charge will not hold us back in any way: We can pay our dividends and our debts, make strategic acquisitions and investments, and repurchase shares of our stock. There is no impact on our strong cash flow.
Most importantly, we are continuing to move aggressively forward with our strategic plan. As I told Wall Street analysts this morning, I believe we are leading the transformation of the media industry.
Basically, this charge is a result of the challenging business environment and worsening economic conditions in the U.S. and UK. As I'm sure you know, these conditions have had a significant impact on our stock price. Under current accounting rules, this requires us to take a non-cash impairment charge to reflect the change in stock value.
Again, it's an accounting event. Nothing about our company or its prospects changes as a result of this non-cash charge. Plus, I can't state strongly enough my belief that our current stock price does not accurately reflect the true value of our company or its potential.
I am confident we have a great future ahead of us. So thank you for your loyalty and hard work. As always, I deeply appreciate all you are doing for Gannett.
Sincerely,
Craig
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
To blog, or not to blog...
Simon Owens at Bloggasm surveyed newspapers across the country on whether their reporters should be allowed to blog on their personal time:
Of the 250 surveyed, 39 responded. Twenty-two — 56% — said they wouldn’t mind if writers blogged on non-beat issues without obtaining permission. The remaining 17 — 44% — either required disclosure of the blog, issued caveats over what subjects couldn’t be covered, or had outright bans on having personal blogs at all.
Surprisingly, most of the papers that responded to the survey had no written policy on blogs, Owens notes.
One of the more thoughtful survey responses came from Bill Doak, editor of the East Hartford Gazette:
Simon Owens at Bloggasm surveyed newspapers across the country on whether their reporters should be allowed to blog on their personal time:
Of the 250 surveyed, 39 responded. Twenty-two — 56% — said they wouldn’t mind if writers blogged on non-beat issues without obtaining permission. The remaining 17 — 44% — either required disclosure of the blog, issued caveats over what subjects couldn’t be covered, or had outright bans on having personal blogs at all.
Surprisingly, most of the papers that responded to the survey had no written policy on blogs, Owens notes.
One of the more thoughtful survey responses came from Bill Doak, editor of the East Hartford Gazette:
“Blogs are really a Pandora’s Box for reporters,” he wrote. “On the one hand you have a reporter who, like anyone else, wants to be free to run home and say whatever he or she wants to say to friends, family, other reporters or on a blog. But the reporter risks his or her credibility and objectivity in so doing. Of course there is a place at every newspaper for those with opinions. But a reporter also squanders their objectivity by blogging, and that blog might also jeopardize the objectivity of the newspaper. So, to a degree the blogging reporter risks much more than he or she gains, not the least of which includes employment.”
I'd add that these same risks apply to blogs published by newspapers. Clearly this is a time for experimentation and, like it or not, blogs are becoming a common feature in many newsrooms. But most papers aren't large enough to hire a separate Web staff, so questions of whether reporters should share their opinions, write commentary, or divulge personal matters are landing right on the city desk.We'll give you less so you don't have to ignore as much
The Dallas Morning News is the latest to adopt the "quick-read" newspaper, with its planned launch of the free "Briefing" in August:
John McKeon, president and general manager of The Dallas Morning News , said the publication is aimed at time-crunched families, such as busy dual-income families with children at home and who aren't currently subscribers of The News.
Last week, San Jose Mercury News editor Dave Butler announced plans for his and other MediaNews Group properties to turn the Monday and Tuesday papers (traditionally the papers with the lowest daily circulation) into "quick reads":
We will likely have some newshole cuts in light of a 15%-plus increase in the price of newsprint for the next year. One thing we're exploring - as are a number of other MNG newspapers - is to produce "Quick Read" Monday and Tuesday newspapers. As you all know, we've been moving down this path for some months and would likely continue to do so, particularly tightening up Monday.
Incidentally, McKeon headed the Los Angeles Newspaper Group prior to leaving for the DMN, and Butler is the former editor of the LA Daily News.
John McKeon, president and general manager of The Dallas Morning News , said the publication is aimed at time-crunched families, such as busy dual-income families with children at home and who aren't currently subscribers of The News.
Last week, San Jose Mercury News editor Dave Butler announced plans for his and other MediaNews Group properties to turn the Monday and Tuesday papers (traditionally the papers with the lowest daily circulation) into "quick reads":
We will likely have some newshole cuts in light of a 15%-plus increase in the price of newsprint for the next year. One thing we're exploring - as are a number of other MNG newspapers - is to produce "Quick Read" Monday and Tuesday newspapers. As you all know, we've been moving down this path for some months and would likely continue to do so, particularly tightening up Monday.
Incidentally, McKeon headed the Los Angeles Newspaper Group prior to leaving for the DMN, and Butler is the former editor of the LA Daily News.
Times on the Times*
A new editor, Home Shopping Network host Annie Gilbar, has been hired to launch a reconstituted Los Angeles Times Magazine under the direction of the business-side of the paper, according to a story today in the New York Times:
The plan for the magazine was set in motion months ago. A new editor and others were hired, future issues were planned, and mock-up covers were made — all without the knowledge of anyone in the newsroom, including the top editor, Russ Stanton, the executives said. Mr. Stanton and other high-ranking editors learned of the plan last week, they said.*Updated: LA Observed has the memo from LA Times Editor Russ Stanton addressing the future of the magazine.But the executives who described the plan cautioned that it might have changed since last week, after editors raised objections.
-snip-
As recently as a week ago, top editors at the paper were not sure whether [Publisher David] Hiller would eliminate the magazine. But the executives who described the coming changes said the publisher decided months ago to keep it alive with a new staff. Some earlier versions of the plan called for some degree of newsroom oversight, they said, but not the most recent one.They said that a new editor, art director and photo editor had been hired for the magazine without anyone in the newsroom being told.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Comings and goings
From LA Observed:
Newspaper defection of the day: Award-winning Press-Telegram reporter Wendy Thomas-Russell leaves Friday after ten years, I'm told. I'm losing count of how many staffers are ankling the LANG papers, but low pay, growing workload, declining readership, desperate bean-counters and a bleak future will do that to a place.
Meanwhile, the union at the Press-Telegram plans to rally tomorrow.
From LA Observed:
Newspaper defection of the day: Award-winning Press-Telegram reporter Wendy Thomas-Russell leaves Friday after ten years, I'm told. I'm losing count of how many staffers are ankling the LANG papers, but low pay, growing workload, declining readership, desperate bean-counters and a bleak future will do that to a place.
Meanwhile, the union at the Press-Telegram plans to rally tomorrow.
Fowler power
Should Mayhill Fowler have identified herself as a journalist before reporting Barack Obama's "cling" to guns and religion comment and Bill Clinton's "scumbag" rant?
No, according to Marc Cooper, Fowler's editor at Huffington Post. He commends her ethics to a skeptical Joel Bellman, ethics chair for the LA chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
My two cents: Journalists identify themselves when asking tough question not out of some duty to be polite or show deference, but to ensure that when someone gets got, the story is airtight and above board. It's a rule designed to protect the integrity of the story, not the feelings of the story's subject. You don't want someone saying they were tricked or fooled or quoted out of context when they give up a doozy. You don't want your reporters and editors getting bogged down in explanations and defenses; you want the story to stand on its own.
That's why I see Fowler as a good source, rather than as a journalist. To properly report on what Obama and Clinton said, the reporter must include background and context on how the quotes were obtained and by whom. In other words, Fowler, her politics and her methods, become a part of the story. A reporter who had identified herself first and then recorded Obama's speech or asked Clinton about the Vanity Fair piece could then remove herself from the action and let the words speak for themselves.
Should Mayhill Fowler have identified herself as a journalist before reporting Barack Obama's "cling" to guns and religion comment and Bill Clinton's "scumbag" rant?
No, according to Marc Cooper, Fowler's editor at Huffington Post. He commends her ethics to a skeptical Joel Bellman, ethics chair for the LA chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
My two cents: Journalists identify themselves when asking tough question not out of some duty to be polite or show deference, but to ensure that when someone gets got, the story is airtight and above board. It's a rule designed to protect the integrity of the story, not the feelings of the story's subject. You don't want someone saying they were tricked or fooled or quoted out of context when they give up a doozy. You don't want your reporters and editors getting bogged down in explanations and defenses; you want the story to stand on its own.
That's why I see Fowler as a good source, rather than as a journalist. To properly report on what Obama and Clinton said, the reporter must include background and context on how the quotes were obtained and by whom. In other words, Fowler, her politics and her methods, become a part of the story. A reporter who had identified herself first and then recorded Obama's speech or asked Clinton about the Vanity Fair piece could then remove herself from the action and let the words speak for themselves.
This IS a business, II
Remember that forthcoming New York Times story LA Observed mentioned about how Los Angeles Times Magazine got taken over by the business department without top editors knowing about it? Although nothing ran in the New York Times over the weekend, I'd keep an eye on tomorrow's edition.
But first, make sure to read Richard Perez-Pena's piece in today's New York Times dissecting Tribune Co.'s retrenchment plan:
But first, make sure to read Richard Perez-Pena's piece in today's New York Times dissecting Tribune Co.'s retrenchment plan:
As newspapers suffer through steep losses in circulation and advertising, [independent newspaper analyst John] Morton says many of them have accelerated the process by offering readers less, trying to cut costs and preserve unrealistic profit margins. “It’s a strategy, basically, of gradually closing down,” he said.
-snip-
As newspapers struggle to preserve circulation while cutting costs, the paradox is that in print and online, more people are reading them than ever before. But that audience generates less revenue as print newspapers lose ad sales to the Internet, where advertising is much cheaper.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
No crown for Big Brown
Big Brown, a heavy favorite to take the Triple Crown honors, comes up short in the Belmont Stakes; 38-1 longshot Da' Tara won the race.
According to this article in the Atlantic, BB's loss will be celebrated.
Big Brown, a heavy favorite to take the Triple Crown honors, comes up short in the Belmont Stakes; 38-1 longshot Da' Tara won the race.
According to this article in the Atlantic, BB's loss will be celebrated.
Terminated
T.M. Shine, once a columnist at the Tribune-owned City Link magazine in Florida before layoffs swept him out, writes about the travails of unemployment, and the indulgence of HBO:
The HR woman hands me the last form to initial, smiles politely, and that is that. I briskly grab the folder as if it's an annoying car-detailing flier left under my windshield wiper at a strip mall and head toward the door. The boss lays a not-so-subtle maneuver on me in case I want to try and pull off a wave, but he's oblivious to the fact that there is no one left to wave goodbye to. When I reach the foyer, I hear an urgent, "Hey, Terry!"
T.M. Shine, once a columnist at the Tribune-owned City Link magazine in Florida before layoffs swept him out, writes about the travails of unemployment, and the indulgence of HBO:
The HR woman hands me the last form to initial, smiles politely, and that is that. I briskly grab the folder as if it's an annoying car-detailing flier left under my windshield wiper at a strip mall and head toward the door. The boss lays a not-so-subtle maneuver on me in case I want to try and pull off a wave, but he's oblivious to the fact that there is no one left to wave goodbye to. When I reach the foyer, I hear an urgent, "Hey, Terry!"
Okay, I get it. Here it comes. The boss was only waiting to get out of earshot of HR to show his true appreciation. Here it comes, here it comes . . . "What's your code?"
Friday, June 06, 2008
Hyperlocal dreams
I'd planned to write about the failings of the Washington Post's hyperlocal experiment called LoudounExtra.com. But I was too lazy and now I see Dan Kennedy at Media Nation has done it for me. Basically, the Post poured resources and talent (including Web guru Rob Curley, now at the Las Vegas Sun) into the endeavor only to see it flop.
I'd planned to write about the failings of the Washington Post's hyperlocal experiment called LoudounExtra.com. But I was too lazy and now I see Dan Kennedy at Media Nation has done it for me. Basically, the Post poured resources and talent (including Web guru Rob Curley, now at the Las Vegas Sun) into the endeavor only to see it flop.
This IS a business*
According to LA Observed, the New York Times will have a story tomorrow detailing a strange coup inside the Los Angeles Times. Apparently, the paper's monthly magazine has been taken out of the hands of editorial and turned over to the business department, all without the knowledge of the paper's top editors.
This is mind boggling.
Remember when the LA Times/Staples Center profit-sharing arrangement was considered a scandal?
*Update: I didn't see anything in the Saturday NYT on this. Maybe I looked in the wrong place, maybe the story will run later, maybe it's not going to run at all.
According to LA Observed, the New York Times will have a story tomorrow detailing a strange coup inside the Los Angeles Times. Apparently, the paper's monthly magazine has been taken out of the hands of editorial and turned over to the business department, all without the knowledge of the paper's top editors.
This is mind boggling.
Remember when the LA Times/Staples Center profit-sharing arrangement was considered a scandal?
*Update: I didn't see anything in the Saturday NYT on this. Maybe I looked in the wrong place, maybe the story will run later, maybe it's not going to run at all.
Cramming sessions
In the wake of the Zell-Michaels memo bomb, San Jose Mercury News Editor Dave Butler - formerly of the LA Daily News - delivers a memo of his own (via Romenesko). He has some helpful advice for the wordsmiths on his staff, given the rising price of newsprint:
It has never been more important than it is today for all reporters and editors to demonstrate their outstanding writing and reporting skills by cramming the same information – or what's essential for the story -- in less space.
As reporters go about the job of squeezing more information into less space, they can rest assured there will be no more layoffs, probably:
We are doing all that we can to limit any newsroom staff reductions to attrition. So far, so good, though I can make no promises.
In the wake of the Zell-Michaels memo bomb, San Jose Mercury News Editor Dave Butler - formerly of the LA Daily News - delivers a memo of his own (via Romenesko). He has some helpful advice for the wordsmiths on his staff, given the rising price of newsprint:
It has never been more important than it is today for all reporters and editors to demonstrate their outstanding writing and reporting skills by cramming the same information – or what's essential for the story -- in less space.
As reporters go about the job of squeezing more information into less space, they can rest assured there will be no more layoffs, probably:
We are doing all that we can to limit any newsroom staff reductions to attrition. So far, so good, though I can make no promises.
The source is the journalist
Had the MSM decided not to replay the recordings Mayhill Fowler made of inopportune comments, would they still stand as scoops?
Had the MSM decided not to replay the recordings Mayhill Fowler made of inopportune comments, would they still stand as scoops?
The governor's proposed budget and you
How will Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal affect the county you live in? The California Budget Project has the answer. Check it out here.
How will Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal affect the county you live in? The California Budget Project has the answer. Check it out here.
Dying in the Deseret
The Deseret News will cut 35 positions by mid-July. The paper's editor blames a steep decline in classified advertising. Circulation at the Latter Day Saints-owned paper has been relatively stable, down just two percent. The Singleton-owned Salt Lake Tribune, on the other hand, saw an 8-percent drop in circulation.
The Deseret News will cut 35 positions by mid-July. The paper's editor blames a steep decline in classified advertising. Circulation at the Latter Day Saints-owned paper has been relatively stable, down just two percent. The Singleton-owned Salt Lake Tribune, on the other hand, saw an 8-percent drop in circulation.
Where's Gino?The Wall Street Journal searches for the disco-dancing man Boston Celtics fans know only as "Gino" and discovers he might have roots in San Bernardino:
"I was like, 'Oh my God, it's Joe Massoni!'" says Ms. Izen, who says she is the redhead to the right of him in the video.
Ms. Izen, who is now 52 and is involved in theater, was a regular dancer on "American Bandstand" in the mid-1970s. She says didn't know Mr. Massoni very well but lent him the tight Gino Vannelli T-shirt. But she did remember stopping by his family's Italian restaurant in Rialto, Calif., between shootings one day.
So when she set out to find him, she began calling Rialto's Italian restaurants. No luck. She turned to the white pages of the phone book. On the second try, she reached a woman who said she was Mr. Massoni's brother's mother-in-law.
The news couldn't have been sadder. Mr. Massoni, the woman said, passed away 18 years ago from pneumonia... A spokeswoman for the San Bernardino, Calif., coroner's office confirmed that a man named Joseph R. Massoni passed away in 1990 at age 34 in Fontana, Calif.
On their pale horses
Sam Zell and Randy Michaels have plans for the dozen newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, that make up the Tribune Co. And the plan is to cut as much news out of them as possible, shovel in as many ads as possible, and eliminate as many jobs as possible.
And they're in hurry to get started:
Mr. Michaels said of the changes, “This is going to happen quickly.”
They said the company would aim for a 50-50 split between ads and news across all the news pages (excluding classified ads and advertising supplements). Mr. Michaels said this would mean eliminating 500 pages of news a week across all of the company’s 12 papers.
Eliminating 500 pages of news should free up many writers and editors from having to come into work anymore. But don't worry about them, they're arrogant people who just don't get it. Indeed, Zell and Michaels have determined there are too many writers and editors around already:
Mr. Michaels said that, after measuring journalists’ output, “when you get into the individuals, you find out that you can eliminate a fair number of people while eliminating not very much content.”
Aside from instituting a company wide byline count, the two visionaries have found another prescription to save on writers and editors: a liberal application of maps, graphics and charts.
In his note to employees, Mr. Zell wrote that Tribune papers would be redesigned, beginning with The Orlando Sentinel, on June 22. Surveys show readers want “maps, graphics, lists, ranking and stats,” he wrote. “We’re in the business of satisfying customers, and we will respond to what they say they want.”
So readers want half of their paper to be advertisements? Something - the $12.8 billion in debt, perhaps? - tells me Zell and Michaels are being responsive to someone other than the customer.
Sam Zell and Randy Michaels have plans for the dozen newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, that make up the Tribune Co. And the plan is to cut as much news out of them as possible, shovel in as many ads as possible, and eliminate as many jobs as possible.
And they're in hurry to get started:
Mr. Michaels said of the changes, “This is going to happen quickly.”
Mr. Zell said, “I promise you he’s underestimating the level of aggressiveness with which we are attacking this whole challenge.”
That's from a New York Times story today that follows on a Zell-Michaels doom memo from yesterday. Here's a little more from the story on the Zell-Michaels solution:They said the company would aim for a 50-50 split between ads and news across all the news pages (excluding classified ads and advertising supplements). Mr. Michaels said this would mean eliminating 500 pages of news a week across all of the company’s 12 papers.
Eliminating 500 pages of news should free up many writers and editors from having to come into work anymore. But don't worry about them, they're arrogant people who just don't get it. Indeed, Zell and Michaels have determined there are too many writers and editors around already:
Mr. Michaels said that, after measuring journalists’ output, “when you get into the individuals, you find out that you can eliminate a fair number of people while eliminating not very much content.”
Aside from instituting a company wide byline count, the two visionaries have found another prescription to save on writers and editors: a liberal application of maps, graphics and charts.
In his note to employees, Mr. Zell wrote that Tribune papers would be redesigned, beginning with The Orlando Sentinel, on June 22. Surveys show readers want “maps, graphics, lists, ranking and stats,” he wrote. “We’re in the business of satisfying customers, and we will respond to what they say they want.”
So readers want half of their paper to be advertisements? Something - the $12.8 billion in debt, perhaps? - tells me Zell and Michaels are being responsive to someone other than the customer.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
King of the road
Monterey Park Assemblyman Mike Eng, perhaps the shyest member of the Legislature, was tapped today to chair the Assembly Transportation Committee. The assignment gives the San Gabriel Valley a bit more influence in Sacramento, although at a time when there's no money to spend.
The promotion also provides a boost to the pro-710 Freeway movement, since Eng favors completing the freeway. Of course, he'll still face resistance from the La Canada Flintridge tag team: former Assemblywoman Carol Liu, who is destined to replace Sen. Jack Scott, and Assemblyman Anthony Portantino.
Monterey Park Assemblyman Mike Eng, perhaps the shyest member of the Legislature, was tapped today to chair the Assembly Transportation Committee. The assignment gives the San Gabriel Valley a bit more influence in Sacramento, although at a time when there's no money to spend.
The promotion also provides a boost to the pro-710 Freeway movement, since Eng favors completing the freeway. Of course, he'll still face resistance from the La Canada Flintridge tag team: former Assemblywoman Carol Liu, who is destined to replace Sen. Jack Scott, and Assemblyman Anthony Portantino.
Reverse psychologyDoes Hillary Clinton (aka, the Salutatorian) really want the VP slot? Well, the New York Times finds her strenuously signaling she'll twist no arms and make no unwanted advances:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today disavowed a campaign by some of her supporters to pressure Senator Barack Obama into choosing her as a running-mate, saying they were acting on their own and the decision on who to pick was "Senator Obama's and his alone."
No pressure, Obama. I'll be over here with my 18 million primary votes, my cabal of working -class whites and Denver-chanting women, waiting for you to make up your mind. On your own. Without my influence.
Shorties
Dean Singleton equates standards with arrogance
ProPublica buys more talent
Microsoft CEO Ballmer gives print 1o years to live
DC police try military-style checkpoints
Secret Service shushes free speech
Rural America buys terrorism insurance
Railroad derails high-speed rail
Dean Singleton equates standards with arrogance
ProPublica buys more talent
Microsoft CEO Ballmer gives print 1o years to live
DC police try military-style checkpoints
Secret Service shushes free speech
Rural America buys terrorism insurance
Railroad derails high-speed rail
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Comings and goings
I'm told Pat Maio, assistant city editor at the San Bernardino Sun, has given notice.
I'm told Pat Maio, assistant city editor at the San Bernardino Sun, has given notice.
The architecture of newspapers
I've been thinking for a long time about the structure of the newspaper, how the physical depth and the page layout - the careful placement of photos, headlines, graphics and stories - draw readers' eyes to information they weren't looking for, allowing for connections and discoveries to be made.
Cass Sunstein, a professor of law and political science at the University of Chicago, calls this the architecture of serendipity. Thus far, most blogs and Web sites fail to provide this dynamic interplay of ideas. Their convenience makes them less interactive. They are flat.
If the physical newspaper is to die, or diminish, I hope news organizations spend some money trying to recreate - even enhance - this alchemy online, rather than settle for the cheapest recipe and the easiest delivery system.
Cass Sunstein, a professor of law and political science at the University of Chicago, calls this the architecture of serendipity. Thus far, most blogs and Web sites fail to provide this dynamic interplay of ideas. Their convenience makes them less interactive. They are flat.
If the physical newspaper is to die, or diminish, I hope news organizations spend some money trying to recreate - even enhance - this alchemy online, rather than settle for the cheapest recipe and the easiest delivery system.
Let the citizens do it
LA Observed warned us and now LA Times editor Russ Stanton confirms in an interview with MediaBistro that more staff cuts are likely at his paper.
In the same piece, Stanton says he's "pretty intrigued by citizen journalism."
"I think that there might be a way for us to do it that doesn't give away the hallowed territory of 'who does the journalism.' I think there are ways we can address that. One of the things the site is going to be rolling out over the next couple of months are neighborhood pages that are zip code-centric, and that have crime, real estate, and school test-score data that you can sort and play around with for your local area. And as part of those sites we'll have news from that smaller community, and we'll let users help us fill out that part of the thing."
LA Observed warned us and now LA Times editor Russ Stanton confirms in an interview with MediaBistro that more staff cuts are likely at his paper.
In the same piece, Stanton says he's "pretty intrigued by citizen journalism."
"I think that there might be a way for us to do it that doesn't give away the hallowed territory of 'who does the journalism.' I think there are ways we can address that. One of the things the site is going to be rolling out over the next couple of months are neighborhood pages that are zip code-centric, and that have crime, real estate, and school test-score data that you can sort and play around with for your local area. And as part of those sites we'll have news from that smaller community, and we'll let users help us fill out that part of the thing."
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Game over
Obama wins the nomination, McCain finds his smile, Hillary bookends her non-concession speech with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "I Won't Back Down," and The Economist's Democracy in America gets the last word: At the risk of bolstering the reporters-mooning-at-Obama stereotype, if this evening's speeches were a video game, a wrinkled wizard would be hollering "Finish Him!" to Barack Obama while a dizzied John McCain wobbled. And Hillary Clinton would be frenetically mashing the buttons on an unplugged controller.
Obama wins the nomination, McCain finds his smile, Hillary bookends her non-concession speech with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "I Won't Back Down," and The Economist's Democracy in America gets the last word: At the risk of bolstering the reporters-mooning-at-Obama stereotype, if this evening's speeches were a video game, a wrinkled wizard would be hollering "Finish Him!" to Barack Obama while a dizzied John McCain wobbled. And Hillary Clinton would be frenetically mashing the buttons on an unplugged controller.
Things I missed...
There are too many to list, but here's one, via LA Observed: Jim Newton out as editorial pages editor at the Los Angeles Times.
There are too many to list, but here's one, via LA Observed: Jim Newton out as editorial pages editor at the Los Angeles Times.
Comings and goings*
After a series of departures from the Pasadena Star-News, there's finally an arrival to report.
Nate McIntire, a graduate of Pomona College and USC journalism school, will fill one of the open city-side slots at the paper. Until last week, McIntire worked as an assistant at the Los Angeles Times, covering prep sports. Prior to that he was a research assistant at West Magazine, which is no longer. McIntire interned at the Star-News in 2005, so will be on somewhat familiar ground.
With McIntire on staff, the Star-News will have four full-time reporters. An expected transfer of SGV Tribune reporter Dan Abendschein to Pasadena would bring the number to five.
*Update: I'm told Ben Baeder, a one-time city reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, will return on a 6-month contract to write for the group's business section.
After a series of departures from the Pasadena Star-News, there's finally an arrival to report.
Nate McIntire, a graduate of Pomona College and USC journalism school, will fill one of the open city-side slots at the paper. Until last week, McIntire worked as an assistant at the Los Angeles Times, covering prep sports. Prior to that he was a research assistant at West Magazine, which is no longer. McIntire interned at the Star-News in 2005, so will be on somewhat familiar ground.
With McIntire on staff, the Star-News will have four full-time reporters. An expected transfer of SGV Tribune reporter Dan Abendschein to Pasadena would bring the number to five.
*Update: I'm told Ben Baeder, a one-time city reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, will return on a 6-month contract to write for the group's business section.
Monday, June 02, 2008
The conversation
In the run-up to a June 13 union vote, Bay Area Newspaper Group Publisher John Armstrong has launched an internal Web site to answer questions about the merits of unionizing. In the "Questions for the Publisher" section an interesting conversation broke out. The subject: Dean Singleton, and whether Armstrong would stand up to him.
Warning: This is longer than eight inches, so you might want to grab a snack - I'd provide a link, but this comes from a password protected site.
First, the question:
Warning: This is longer than eight inches, so you might want to grab a snack - I'd provide a link, but this comes from a password protected site.
First, the question:
Friday, May 30, 2008Armstrong responds:To: John Armstrong
From: Singletonphobe
John,
A cynical person might reasonably infer that you failed to answer the questions I posed to you here, oh, about a week ago, because the answers don't quite fit the talking points you've been parroting the last few weeks.
Must be an oversight that you've cherrypicked the easy ones, overlooking the ones that raise questions about, oh, our new owner, William Dean Singleton, the future of the company, your willingness to stand up to Singleton. Stuff like that.
You did, after all, admonish us to approach the election as a journalistic enterprise, challenging both management and the union with the same tough questions you rightfully expect us to ask the powerful on behalf of our readers. It is, after all, our livelihoods at stake here.
You encouraged us to address tough questions to you on this website. If you were to intentionally ignore the tough questions, then you weren't being completely honest with us. If that's the case, this website is a farce. I am reposting the questions posed to you a week ago, and look forward to your response.
1) For those of us who are mistrustful of Singleton, can you assure us that if he acts in a way that's inconsistent with the values we know you to hold, you will spare no effort in standing up to him?
2) If Singleton's history is any indicator, he has little use for those at any level who've stood up to him. Publishers have been axed too. On a scale of 1 to 10, how certain are you that you could stand up to Singleton under the above-mentioned scenario, and remain our publisher?
3) Strip away the rhetoric on both sides, and this election really comes down to one thing and one thing only: William Dean Singleton. That's the face we're going to see on that ballot. Whether you're for or against unions in theory, it's an entirely different matter when you're dealing with Singleton if even half of what most of us believe about him is true.
In your view, what are the most significant misconceptions, or even misrepresentations about Singleton you think we should know?
Singletonphobe replies:Friday, May 30, 2008
From: John Armstrong
To: Singletonphobe
Wow. There's nothing like the "cloak of anonymity" to bring out the rudeness in some people. Whatever.
I've never dodged a single question from an employee and don't intend to start now. You asked about Dean Singleton. I always intended to respond but with other business responsibilities had not managed until now to carve out the time to frame my thoughts.
On the web site of the union organizers, and at several of the meetings Kevin and I held with newsroom employees last week, people have readily volunteered their opinions on our "owner."
The union loves to attack Singleton. He's an easy target, I guess, because few, if any, of the union organizers have ever met the man, much less had a meaningful conversation with him. The organizers feel they have to take a shot at somebody, and they seem hesitant to throw Kevin and me under the bus, given our track records separately at ANG and Contra Costa and then together in Bay Area News Group-East Bay. In fact, the organizers have gone out of their way to praise us.
I read all the clippings about Singleton, of course, and I know what his critics say about him. However, my perceptions of him, and my understanding of his vision of what we can accomplish in the East Bay, are formed by the many hours I've spent with him, discussing the challenges and opportunities we face as an industry and I face as the leader of BANG-East Bay.
To fully understand Singleton, you need to experience the man first-hand . . . and you need to apply a healthy dose of skepticism to what the union and other critics say about him. It's easy to attack someone you don't know. Heck, in these tough times, it's easy to attack any owner because it's a time of tough decisions, and not everyone is going to agree with every decision that an owner makes.
To fully understand Singleton, you need to understand the ownership structure of BANG-East Bay. Our company is part of the Bay Area News Group (the other large BANG entities being the San Jose Mercury News, Marin Independent Journal and Santa Cruz Sentinel), and BANG is owned by the California Newspapers Partnership.
Singleton is CEO of MediaNews Group, which is the managing partner of CNP. Other CNP partners are Gannett Co. and Stephens Media. Singleton serves as chairman of the CNP Board and as such has responsibilities for performance not just for the MediaNews share but also for the shares of Gannett and Stephens. The point being that we have three owners, not just one.
You also need to appreciate the special attention that Singleton gives to the East Bay. He often points out that when he acquired the Contra Costa Times, Mercury News and St. Paul Pioneer Press, he paid the most for Contra Costa. Which means he placed his biggest bet in the East Bay.
He did so because of his belief that the combination of the Contra Costa and ANG newspapers and web sites creates a powerful media presence that overshadows all competitors in the East Bay. While we've been dealt a tough economy in the early life of BANG-East Bay, the premise for placing so many chips on our future remains as valid today as when he made the bet in 2006.
In my many discussions with Singleton, he has been steadfast on basic principles:
• Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions to get through a tough economic period, but never cut expenses so deeply that you hurt your ability to come back strongly when the economy comes back.
• Do whatever you can to maintain or grow what he calls "feet on the street" – i.e., reporters and photographers, sales representatives and others who are out in our communities. (At a meeting less than a year ago, Singleton told the BANG management team it was cutting too deeply in some areas, including the newsrooms. He restored some spending and adjusted his profit expectation accordingly. Is that consistent with the rumors about Singleton? No. Did it happen? Yes.)
• You can't continually cut expenses to grow. The key to growth is growing revenue.
• The best way to grow revenue is to grow audience. In normal economic conditions, more audience translates directly into more advertising and circulation revenue. (The only time I've witnessed Singleton lose his temper is when he learned that one of his newspapers in Northern California cut circulation promotion expenses to achieve a profit target. He quickly apologized for his outburst, but his point had been made.)
To fully understand Singleton you have to ask yourself this: Is he doing anything that the owners of the other major newspaper-based companies are not doing now? Look what's happening at McClatchy, at Gannett, at the New York Times Co., at Tribune Co. Pick an owner of any newspaper-based company. They all are trying to cope with falling revenue due to the economic slump and the migration of audience and ad dollars to the Internet.
To fully understand Singleton, you have to hear him talk about newspapers. He loves newspapers. He still believes in newspapers. He gets roundly criticized for reducing the costs of newspapers but never gets credit for literally saving newspapers by doing so.
I for one take comfort that he believes in newspapers a lot more than did the big institutional shareholders of Knight Ridder and Tribune Co. who forced the break up of those once great newspaper institutions.
Am I ready to elevate our principal owner to sainthood? Hardly. But I do bristle when he's demonized. Believe me, no one wants to see us succeed in the East Bay more than Dean Singleton.
One of the ways he believes success can best be accomplished is to put his faith in and support behind the people on the ground; i.e., the publisher and senior executives who are in the market and running the operation on a daily basis.
This approach has been demonstrated time and again, most recently with his approval of a buyout program, recommended by our management team, that even the union organizers grudgingly concede was well done.
Singletonphobe raises a hypothetical question: Would I "stand up to Singleton" if what he might want to do at BANG-East Bay were against my core values. The answer is a resounding yes, and anyone who knows me would never ask such a question.
So allow me to fire a question back at Singletonphobe:
Does Singletonphobe think I would have more leverage with Singleton if the employees turned their backs on Kevin and me and voted in the union or if they expressed their trust in Kevin and me by voting to remain union-free?
John
Monday, June 2, 2008
From: Singletonphobe
To: John Armstrong
John,
Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your candor, and your class. It seemed like you were quick to answer some of the less controversial questions, and I just about blew a gasket when you brought up that Beck case again. But I was more than rude, and you were right to call me out.
You made several statements in your reply that I strongly disagree with. But the resounding yes to my hypothetical about standing up to Singleton for your core values is the most human thing I’ve heard said by either side. Frankly, it needed to be said. Hopefully, it can be a starting point to healing some wounds.
And no, I can’t say you’ve ever dodged a tough question.
You posed the question back to me of whether I think you’d have more or less leverage with Singleton if we turn our back on you and Kevin by ratifying the union.I don’t think anyone knows.
But what I don’t get why you’re taking this union vote personally. It’s absolutely not a referendum on your leadership. It’s a referendum on Singleton. In the MediaNews Gulag, nobody knows who’s here today and gone tomorrow. It’s a new world for many of us. We’ve already seen a parade of publishers and high-level executives’ necks land on the Singleton guillotine. Nobody really knows how long you’ll be in the company to honor a deal, or who’d replace you. What we do know is that Singleton is the constant. If we had more benevolent or at lest more stable ownership, we may or may not be clamoring for collective bargaining, but the dynamics would be different.
You know Singleton in a different context and obviously have a different take than anyone I know. Believe me, you’d have different take on the man if you talked to a single mom in her 20s like 10 years ago when she had to read Singleton’s gleeful diatribe about how he bullied union negotiators into a bunk contract with crappy health insurance. Nice work, Dean.
It’s not just the union or the media that hates Singleton. It’s almost everyone who’s ever worked for the man. How many coca roaches do you need to find in a plate of spaghetti before you toss the whole thing out?
You rightfully point out that Singleton isn’t alone in making merciless cuts. Our industry is in the throes of in a historic freefall, and everybody’s cutting. I’ll give you that. But nobody’s persona is more closely identified with cuts. ``More with less’’ has been the Singleton way since he ran that first Texas chain into the ground and wound up staring at the ceiling of psych ward.
Comparing Singleton to the New York Times is like comparing Barry Bonds to F.P. Santangelo. Yeah, they both juiced, but come on...
Thanks again for the reply.
Singletonphobe.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
The GOP has a Republican problem
A potentially devastating new poll suggests a level of self-delusion exists within the Republican ranks, one that almost certainly spells trouble for the party come November.
Conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, the survey finds voters generally prefer the Democratic message over the Republican message on the Big Issues of trade, taxes, Iraq and the economy. A more troubling finding for the GOP is that when the messages are delivered without party labels attached, not only does voter preference for the Democrat message increase but Republican voters prefer it to what their own party is selling.
Take tax policy, for example: When the party’s names are removed, Independents are almost evenly split, giving the Democrats’ message a small 5% advantage. However, Republican voters stampede away from the GOP message. Among Republicans, support for the GOP message on taxes drops by a gargantuan 53% when the party’s names are removed, leaving the Democrats with a 14% advantage. You read that right, on the nonpartisan test, Independents like the GOP message on taxes more than Republicans do and even Independents slightly favor the Democrats.
In other words, the RINOs outnumber the true believers. This helps explains why John McCain is the Republican nominee and why the main line of attack against Barack Obama is on patriotism and personal belief, rather than on policy.
Democrats now own the Big Tent. McCain could be torn apart by this ideological fissure, which can no longer be stitched together with a single-issue campaign on abortion or gay marriage.
This poll also suggests the short-sighted Republican politics of the 1990s - a radicalized version of the Reagan doctrine heavily salted with moral outrage at a cartoon version of 1970s liberalism - is coming to an end. Ideologically shallow and static, the values crusade left the party incapable of adapting to cultural and generational shifts. Southern Strategy, greed capitalism and country club demographics are starting to stink like a rest home.
A potentially devastating new poll suggests a level of self-delusion exists within the Republican ranks, one that almost certainly spells trouble for the party come November.
Conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, the survey finds voters generally prefer the Democratic message over the Republican message on the Big Issues of trade, taxes, Iraq and the economy. A more troubling finding for the GOP is that when the messages are delivered without party labels attached, not only does voter preference for the Democrat message increase but Republican voters prefer it to what their own party is selling.
Take tax policy, for example: When the party’s names are removed, Independents are almost evenly split, giving the Democrats’ message a small 5% advantage. However, Republican voters stampede away from the GOP message. Among Republicans, support for the GOP message on taxes drops by a gargantuan 53% when the party’s names are removed, leaving the Democrats with a 14% advantage. You read that right, on the nonpartisan test, Independents like the GOP message on taxes more than Republicans do and even Independents slightly favor the Democrats.
In other words, the RINOs outnumber the true believers. This helps explains why John McCain is the Republican nominee and why the main line of attack against Barack Obama is on patriotism and personal belief, rather than on policy.
Democrats now own the Big Tent. McCain could be torn apart by this ideological fissure, which can no longer be stitched together with a single-issue campaign on abortion or gay marriage.
This poll also suggests the short-sighted Republican politics of the 1990s - a radicalized version of the Reagan doctrine heavily salted with moral outrage at a cartoon version of 1970s liberalism - is coming to an end. Ideologically shallow and static, the values crusade left the party incapable of adapting to cultural and generational shifts. Southern Strategy, greed capitalism and country club demographics are starting to stink like a rest home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
