Tribune innovation guru Lee Abrams quits

Lee Abrams, chief innovation officer for the Tribune Co., quit today, two days after being suspended for sending out a companywide memo with a racy video parody attached.

The Chicago Tribune summarized his tenure at parent Tribune Co thusly:

Championing change at Tribune newspapers and broadcast outlets, Abrams repeatedly accused TV news of clinging to a late-20th century look, sound and feel. He wondered aloud whether readers knew that a newspaper dateline meant the reporter was actually writing from the location where the story occurred.

Abrams also advocated new and different styles of storytelling and conveying information. In Houston, where the Tribune TV station has virtually no viewers to lose, he was developing an anchorless newscast.

It's not known what will happen to Abrams' Tribune projects and initiatives with his departure.

 That's about as impartial as it gets.

Lee Abrams suspended, but not for the right reasons

Tribune Co. innovation officer Lee Abrams got suspended today for emailing around a memo with links to "inappropriate" videos, including a parody video from the Onion labeled "Sluts." It's likely he'll be fired.

However stupid this memo was, it's really not the reason Abrams should be suspended. How about all of the other memos Abrams sent out that simultaneously failed to innovate and succeeded at breaking every rule of effective communication? Indeed, is an Onion video really more harmful to the Tribune Co. than having its Chief Innovation Officer say this (blanket sic):

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.

Or write this:

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..

Or any of this:

Historically, TV kills newspapers in NOTICABILITY because it's while its BETTER CONTENT in print, it's usually not packaged very well and doesn't get the traction it deserves. A little of what CNN and FOX do ala "Historic Election 2008" with big logo, intro music and always at a reliable time are components we can all do better...or hopefully BEST ... or we'll be handing it over to other media...and that would be tragic.

Frankly, I'm more offended at his punctuation choices and his gratuitous use of the caps lock to MAKE HIS POINTS than his latest memo.

Having heard Abrams speak to the LA Press Club, I'd say he's a perfectly nice man who has had some interesting thoughts about broadcasting, especially radio. His rambling memos, however, show a contempt for the care and thought most reporters put into their writing, as well as a willful ignorance about what journalists actually do. They are mind purges that, even when they get right what newspapers do wrong turn, are not insightful or useful. He did more to help blogs like mine than he ever did for media outlets that were supposed to benefit. He should have been let go long before he hit send on the latest memo - his bosses owed him, and every other Tribune employee, that kind of good judgment.

(h/t LA Observed)

Turn that frown upside down

In his latest "think piece," Tribune Co. innovation guru Lee Abrams says journalists need to move past the "negative stuff," like fretting about the future of the news industry, and instead use their energy to break down some walls. Abrams writes:

April 30, 2009

THINK PIECE: WHINE OR WIN— REDEFINE THE INDUSTRY, YOU'RE EITHER IN OR NOT

Constantly hearing the doom and gloom...the cutbacks, the negative stuff. It's pretty real, but throughout our company there's a LOT of re-invention going on. In fact, when this economy improves, WE will be the ones with the upper hand because instead of dwelling on the pain, we're doing something about it. Economically of course, AND IN CONTENT/CREATIVE. As sad as the state of the economy is, it's equally sad to see people whining, complaining and feeling sorry for themselves and the industry, when that energy can go toward breaking down some walls.

The piece, if you can follow it, goes on to quote a few examples of winning thinking, all of which you can read here.

Breaking up isn't hard to do

A fed up Celeste Fremon of Witness LA kicks the Los Angeles Times off her curb:

I’ve subscribed faithfully to the LA Times for over 30 years and, with great regret, I just this minute cancelled my subscription.

-snip-

Unfortunately, the LA Times management seems to possess neither optimism—cautious or otherwise—nor a feel for anything resembling innovation (that awful Abrams man, most prominently included).

So I broke up with them.

Like most break-ups, it hurts.

But, while painful—as is always the case—finally doing the honest thing is a relief.

And now I can respect myself in the morning.

Abrams and the Times

Listening to Lee Abrams speak Thursday night about the future of newspapers and the Los Angeles Times, I couldn't help but think: He certainly seems to understand what's wrong with broadcast news.

Most of what he talked about - the difficult Times, information is new rock n' roll - he'd already put in his memos, often with the caps lock on. The one surprise came when Los Angeles Press Club vice president Ezra Palmer asked him about Tribune Co.'s TV news properties. The challenge with newspapers, he said, is they are all cerebral and integrity. TV news is "180 degrees" different. He wants to find a middle ground.

"Television news around the country is kind of goofy. Cliche," he said. "Let's get a little more heady with it ... let's try to bring some integrity to this."

Think about it.

At times rambling, Abrams, who shared the stage at the Steve Allen Theater with former Daily News editor Ron Kaye, showed his best and worst sides. He's at his best when cheerleading for an industry that needs to hear its money obsessed bosses still consider reporting to be an integral part of the business. "It's an exciting time to be reporting on, uh, all the shit that's going on in the world," Abrams said.

He's at his worst when he tries to talk about what makes good journalism or warns against getting "mired" in a tradition he so clearly doesn't understand.

Still swooning over the spike in newspaper sales that followed the Obama victory, Abrams said this proved papers are "really relevant" and restored some of that old "newspaper swagger."

The analysis seemed to fit with how things worked in radio, from whence Abrams hails. Deejays played the music, the kids got excited and rushed out to buy the albums. Wednesday, then, was the St. Pepper's of newspapering. Only it doesn't work that way. Online isn't radio and daily newspaper stories rarely get replayed.

Abrams (as Bill Boyarsky notes) showed his frustration with the Times when asked about the paper's recent redesign. In comparing the process here with what happened at the Chicago Tribune, Abrams said the Times continues to carry around "a lot of baggage," like a lingering belief that the paper should be a West Coast New York Times, that keeps it from getting with the program. The Tribune, he said, had broken through its "elitist" mindset, thanks to a few key staffing changes at the top, and had gotten everyone involved in the redesign.

Abrams did praise two recent Sunday editions of the Times; if only they could all be like that, he said, although he couldn't really remember what was in them. "I think they are at the acceptance stage now," he said of the Times staff, adding, "I think if you look a year from now it will be a really hot newspaper."

Neither Abrams nor Kaye spent much time talking about how the Internet had changed the newspaper business model, or how staff cuts affected coverage, or about Fourth Estate responsibilities. Abrams did say he had faith that Sam Zell would figure it all out because "he's a winner." Kaye said the fundamental problem is that newsprint and staff simply cost too much.

Tired of the "stilted speech" of newspapers, Kaye said journalism should be synonymous with storytelling and encouraged reporters to express a point of view. He said the greatest journalism being done right now is on public radio's "This American Life."

Kaye, who blogs at Ron Kaye L.A., described online journalism as being in its infancy; blogging is "amateurish" and newspapers "geriatric." He sees an opportunity online to wants to start a new kind of the Valley Green Sheet, which was the predecessor of the Daily News. The Daily News, he added, needs to cede Los Angeles to the Times and focus solely on the San Fernando Valley.

Kaye spent decades competing with the Times and did not waste the chance to give his diagnosis of where the paper went wrong: "The L.A. Times failed to make L.A. coherent."

(View video of discussion here.)

The future is now

As Lee Abrams prepares to address the Los Angeles Press Club tonight, his bosses at the Tribune Co. prepare another round of newsroom layoffs at the Baltimore Sun. (via Romenesko)

How do I change the channel on this newspaper?

Tribune Co's in-house brainstormer, Lee Abrams, who will be in L.A. Thursday to tell us about the future, wants to capitalize on the interest people have shown in the election of Barack Obama by doing some smart product placement - with the papers being the product placed in the context of the drama leading up to Inauguration Day.

Here's part of his latest memo (via the Daily Pulp):

Historically, TV kills newspapers in NOTICABILITY because it's while its BETTER CONTENT in print, it's usually not packaged very well and doesn't get the traction it deserves. A little of what CNN and FOX do ala "Historic Election 2008" with big logo, intro music and always at a reliable time are components we can all do better...or hopefully BEST ... or we'll be handing it over to other media...and that would be tragic.

As the Daily Pulp notes, Abrams has several ideas on how to memorialize the election, from features (African-American pioneers) to widgets (countdown to the presidency):

Can we let this simply glide past us? Is there an angle here to maximize the Obama historical fix that seems so hot by:

Marketing Three Month subscriptions with the hook being something along the lines: "Experience the march to inauguration".

Using this hot button to aggressively extend the post election day historical value of what we provide

Treat the next three months as a historical/collectible opportunity that papers provide best.

Instead of a ton of papers being sold this week and Inauguration day, build his election into a marketable newspaper event....where there's something new in the paper EVERY day surrounding his historic election?

-snip-

If "everyone" wants last Wednesday's paper...why not the next three months...to fully capture the history being made? This is our great strength...and a good time to pull out the competitive stops.

Think about it.

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.

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.