"We don't want it to look like there's an ad"

According to Oregon Media Central, the newest real estate reporter on Portland's KOIN-TV is a practicing real estate agent. Ron Pivo, the Realtor reporter, used to cover sports; now he makes balloon animal jokes and compares himself to Sanjay Gupta on CNN to downplay his conflict of interest. The station's news director assured viewers that Pivo's listings won't be featured in his reports.

Nothing says "trust us" like a disclaimer.

Apparently Realtors make great "hyperlocal" citizen journalists. In Seattle, Fisher Communications has launched a bunch of community blogs that will use real estate agents as news gatherers. Fisher's vice president of news had this to say:

We had the idea to work with Realtors because they drive around and they have cameras, and they do a lot of community work, obviously, with their jobs. The one rule that we have with them is that they can’t write about real estate. We don’t want it to look like there’s an ad. There’s been no money that has changed hands in this deal. When we were talking about what groups to reach out to for user-generated material, Realtors just struck us as a natural fit for that, because they are community-based.

Admittedly it is tough to find community-based people in a community who also drive around and have cameras, especially if you're looking for people with a vested interest in promoting themselves and local businesses and who also work for companies that buy lots of ad space.

The trouble with niche

Going "niche" is all the rage these days in news publishing. Sculpt your coverage into something that a small, special-interest audience cares intensely about and they'll act as your umbrella in the shitstorm besetting the newspaper world.

But small, special-interest audiences have small, special interests. That runs counter to the very idea of what a newspaper is supposed to be. Trade publications and industry newsletters often ignore information they and their audiences don't deem essential. As a result, they and their audiences are walled off from information that, although not "essential" on first blush, might prove useful, even vital, but just didn't fit the niche.

When it comes to news, "niche" is the gated community of publishing. Which is to say, they're fine for those who want them, but not something you can force on a community.

Witness what is happening at the Deseret News, which is being "transformed" into a niche Mormon publication. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that an editor and a reporter were recently demoted because they wanted to stop the paper from slanting stories to make them "acceptable" to LDS readers and killing the ones that weren't. The demoted reporter was replaced by someone who "gets the tone" publisher Joe Cannon wants, state government editor Josh Loftin told the Tribune.

"They can never tell us what the 'tone' is," Loftin says. "They say, 'You'll know it when you get it.' "

Had Cannot started a publication for LDS readers, who would care if he wanted to strike the right "tone"? The problem is he's doing this in reverse and destroying something important in the process.

(Salt Lake Tribune story via Romenesko)

Attitude adjustment

The Chicago Tribune, according to a memo obtained by Romenesko, has instituted new performance review standards for newsroom employees, including an alarmingly vague measure of "attitude."

From the memo:

Our attitudes influence our own behavior and performance, and also that of our colleagues'. We believe positive attitude is crucial to our changing culture and all that must be accomplished for our company to be successful.

Perhaps reporters could pin some flair next to their press badges? Of course, the real idea behind setting vague performance standards like this is to make it much easier to justify firing someone, and easier for managers to smooth over the rough edges of reality.

Another performance standard that should alarm journalists everywhere is "customer focus." I know it sounds cheery to say reporters should do more to interact with the people leaving racially tinged comments at the end of stories, and I'm not averse to asking reporters to be more engaged and engaging, but this talk is best suited for ice cream shops not serious newsrooms:

Innovation and customer focus. Embrace change by seeking out new and innovative ideas that serve key audiences and move the Chicago Tribune forward. Demonstrate a customer-first mentality in content creation, delivery, reader contact and service.

Rebuild this wall*

Why leave journalism for PR when you can do both?

According to the New York Times, Dan Abrams, chief legal correspondent for NBC, plans to breed the two professions together in hopes of creating a new and profitable species. The hybrid journalist/blogger/consultant would advise and conduct media training and investigations for corporate clients.

Despite the inherent conflicts of interest and ethical issues, Abrams says he will do his best to avoid conflicts and ethical issues:

Working on media strategies with businesses could raise ethical red flags for journalists who were required to be detached and objective about the subjects they covered. Mr. Abrams said the company would “bend over backwards to make sure that there are no conflicts or ethical issues that arise.”

*UPDATE: The publisher of the Longmont (CO) Times-Call has proposed a little cross-breeding program of his own: journalist-valets (via Romenesko).

From ME to PR

David Satterfield, managing editor of Singleton-owned San Jose Mercury News, has jumped ship and taken a job with the crisis PR firm Sitrick and Company. No replacement has been named.

Satterfield's departure raises questions about further cuts at the Bay Area paper. Last week, eight newsroom employees were targeted for termination at the Merc's sister papers, collectively known as the Bay Area News Group. Management agreed to a stay at the request of the guild.

Satterfield, 49, told his paper he made the move so he could keep his family in the area and "help grow a business." What does Sitrick do? From the firm's press release:

While best known for its communications work in sensitive situations, Sitrick And Company has extensive and successful practices in the more traditional areas of corporate, financial and transactional communications.

What does "sensitive situations" mean? The San Francisco Business Times helps clarify:

Sitrick specializes in crisis management among other areas. It represented former Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn [aka "The Boss Who Spied on Her Board"] in her fight over boardroom leaks, for example.

Someone has to spin the crazy for us.

Go West, young man... much, much farther West

Dean Singleton, speaking Monday to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, urged his belt-tightening brethren to consider "consolidating and outsourcing news operations" in these tough economic times. From USA Today:

MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton, who also serves as chairman of the board of The Associated Press, told the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association that papers should explore outsourcing in nearly every aspect of their operations.

-snip-

Singleton said sending copyediting and design jobs overseas may even be called for.

"One thing we're exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews ... maybe even offshore," he said during the speech.

Singleton added after the speech, "In today's world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn't matter."

From computer standpoint, a lot of things don't matter. Computers, for instance, don't care if you know how to do your job. They're also quite immune to concerns about quality, standards and good judgment.

But I digress.

James Macpherson, editor and publisher of pasadenanow.com, makes an appearance in the USA Today piece where he extols the virtues of hiring overseas reporters to cover local city council meetings - mainly, they're cheaper. Macpherson, who doesn't seem to think a lot of things matter either, says he's quite content if his noncorrespondents get the facts even if they don't know what those facts mean:

"You might miss the nuance of a sneer on a councilman's face but you know how he voted and what he said," he said. "That's factual and can be reported on from anywhere."

Indeed. Another place where what a councilman said and how he voted are reported without nuance is in the meeting minutes. Cost-cutting publishers can buy them from the city for a mere 10 cents a page.

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?

The Hulk vs. Ed Norton

Will the Hulk survive?