Cracking open the reporter's brain pan

One difference between a good reporter and a bad one is that a good reporter usually knows a great deal more about a story than he or she is able to squeeze into a single article. In the old days (BI: Before Internet), the workaround to this information choke was to give the reporter a series, or a niche beat, or even a book. When the institutional/insider knowledge built up to dangerous levels, a reporter might even get a column.

But all of those solutions cost money. Today, mostly the blog serves as the information release valve. The problem is, however, that blogs demand too much and too little at the same time. They need constant feeding, but only want snacks. But for readers to care, the reporter needs to craft the bite-size story into something akin to a funny joke. That's a talent in and of itself, which means many blogs are full of time-consuming flops, flabby and/or caustic criticism, or boring notebook detritus.

As a radio producer, my job is, in part, about giving reporters a chance to say all the things they couldn't fit into a story (after they recount what they did put in the story). Then we give the story a second life by getting people, often experts, to talk and debate. The key is the host - the interlocutor who directs the discussion and asks the questions.

There are news and commentary sites springing up that follow a similar model. Calbuzz, started by Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts, is one such outlet. On occasion, it allows good journalists to go deeper into the weeds on stories than most general interest newspapers, but they have an audience that will willingly follow. In this case, too, the two hosts - and their curiosity - drives the conversation.

A good example of this is today's special report from Gene Maddaus, political writer at the LA Weekly. Maddaus took exception to some overly generalized CW on Calbuzz and, in response to his message, the editors asked him to write what most good political writers wish they could cram into their campaign coverage - but don't.

This kind of interaction improves journalism without robbing anyone of their valuable time (Gene didn't have to post the piece if he didn't want to) and without mindless consolidation or content-farming other news outlets have embraced (cough, AOL, cough, MediaNews).

News-Press ordered to pay former editor

An arbitrator has dismissed a wacky $25 million claim made by Wendy McCaw, owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press, against the paper's former editor, Jerry Roberts. In the same opinion, the arbitrator ordered McCaw's Ampersand Publishing to pay about $750,000 in legal fees to Roberts, who is now co-editor of the California political site CalBuzz. A judge will still have to confirm the opinion.

From AP:

Roberts said he felt vindicated by the arbitrator's decision and said he was grateful to those who supported him through the lengthy legal battle.

"The award is a decisive victory for ethical journalism," Roberts said in a statement. "Ethics, not money, was always the issue for me."

(found via Romenesko)

Four in the morning

1. Dead horse beat: Local news in Los Angeles is often an extended commercial for the network's entertainment shows. Robert Rector

2. Cluttertweet: There is no mailbox that junk mail will not find (and eventually fill). Twitter ads appear to be the latest iteration. Austin American-Statesman

3. DocumentClouds forming: The Atlantic, New Yorker, Mother Jones, MSNBC, WNYC and Washington Post have joined the nonprofit DocumentCloud. NYO

4. Buzz generator: Cliff Barney is psyched about reporting experiments at UC Berkeley's j-school. Calbuzz

The meaning of rejection

Tuesday's statewide election results are significant - but significant how? What exactly did the California voters reject? Taxes? Spending? The system? Schwarzenegger? Legislation by ballot? All of the above?

The spin teams are out today trying to answer those questions for us, but it remains uncertain which arguments will win out. As Dan Schnur of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC told the Sacramento Bee: "These measures will end up being a $25 million Rorschach test ... Everybody will end up seeing in the results what they want to."

There's no shortage of interesting analysis - in between the predictable sniping from the right and the left. Michael Finnegan at the Los Angeles Times has a smart piece about the dysfunctional relationship between voters and Sacramento. Anthony York at Capitol Weekly thinks the election might mean an end to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's postpone-the-pain brand of governing. Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine argue that Californians must embrace institutional changes before they'll find fiscal stability. Joe Mathews of the New America Foundation proposes more elections to eliminate the need for these high-stakes gambles.

Four in the morning

1. Scribd is a new service that lets authors publish online - and set their own price - and lets readers peruse books a chapter or two at at time. LAT

2. What can California's political leaders learn from baseball - besides having a better lineup? Arbitration, the hardball way. Calbuzz

3. A judge has ordered the Alton Telegraph to reveal the identities of two people who posted anonymous comments about a murder investigation on the paper's website. St. Louis Post-Dispatch

4. The misconduct that led a trial judge to dismiss charges against Sen. Ted Stevens - namely, the prosecution's failure to turn over key pieces of evidence to the defense - is becoming more common in the American justice system. WaPo

Four in the morning

1. The inaugural edition of the Santa Clarita Valley Independent is out today. SCV Talk columnist Jeff Wilson takes note:

It’s been a long time since I felt excitement over a newspaper.

Matter of fact, I don’t remember the last time I felt that way about a newspaper, or more accurately, about the state of the newspaper industry. For years now we’ve gotten used to newspapers downsizing, laying off, even closing all around us, and it’s been downright depressing.

But not today. Today we got a brand new newspaper, and how many communities in America can say that?

(h/t LA Observed)

2. Census data show a huge decline in Mexican immigration into the United States. New York Times

3. Budgets woes are rattling cages across the state (SJMN). Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to lay off 5,000 workers from the state rolls (SacBee), LAUSD teachers protest over pink slips outside district headquarters (LA Times) and Calbuzz lines up buyers for the coming California state fire sale (Calbuzz).

4. Nieman Lab takes a look at newspaper advertising 2.0 at the New York Times. Neiman Lab