OJR: The Online Journalism Review
March 19, 2010
By Robert Hernandez
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The doomsday scenario has been on everyone's mind, including some at
SXSWi, since the revenue/circulation has dropped through the floor and the brilliant mind of
Clay Shirky articulated "
thinking the unthinkable."
The scenario, in short, is what will happen to a city when the last major newspaper dies?
Who covers our city? Who becomes our watchdog? What happens to our community? Who tells our story?
I would propose that this scenario, in many aspects, has already happened.
NOTE: I'm not saying this to offend or be rude or for shock value or to make anyone feel guilty… I just felt that someone should state what seems obvious.
Okay, here goes: If you are white, and probably a male, you may not have noticed that we've been living in this doomsday scenario for years, if not decades.
For African Americans, Native Americans, Asian, Latino… or gays… or under 25… or female… they know that their communities have been, and continue to be, routinely left out of their newspaper. They typically make the news for holidays, crime or food.
For many of them, newspapers aren't dying… they're already dead.
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More about: management, reporting, social media
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March 17, 2010
By Robert Niles
7 comments | Archive Link
Following my
talk in Singapore last month, I decided to delve deeper into the question about what newspaper publishers outside the United States can do to avoid the market meltdown that's already claimed a few papers in the U.S.... and endangers the survival of many more.
Last week, in part one, I urged managers at news publications to become eager consumers of online communication technology - "Management should use and consume technology like a starving man at a free buffet." I wrote that people in the business of producing communication in new media first must learn as consumers of that media. Too few managers actually use the platforms that they are employing people to develop for, leaving them clueless about that technology and unable to provide leadership in those media.
This week, it's time for....
Step 2: Management should use its experience with communication technology to build a social network that drives reporting and revenue at its publication
Jeff Jarvis urged attendees at the Singapore event to "think like a network." With that, he meant that rather than look to do everything in-house, with paid staff, news organizations should begin to look for opportunities that a network of readers, customers and partners could provide.
At this point, most news managers should be well familiar with asking readers to help "crowdsource" news reports. This is the Web 2.0 version of the old "tip line," but with far more sophisticated data management. Instead of some intern working the phone, writing down tips from readers, those tips can be incorporated into an online database in real time, creating emerging narratives of data for reporters and other readers to construct. And if you don't want to get that sophisticated, crowdsourced tips at least can fill a reporter's in box with plenty of eyewitness reports, helping strengthen and enliven a story.
But if all you are using your network for is crowdsourced story tips, and the occasional database, you're missing the full power of what a reader network can do for your news publication. Networks provide not just editorial power to a news organization, they could provide economic power, as well.
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More about: management, revenue, social media
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March 12, 2010
By Jason Stverak
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Jason Stverak is President of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a leading journalism non-profit organization. The Franklin Center is dedicated to providing reporters, citizens and non-profit organizations at the state and local level with training, expertise and technical support. For more information on the Franklin Center please visit www.FranklinCenterHQ.org.Gerry Storch quotes some people who miss the point in his Feb. 26 column, The pros and cons of newspapers partnering with 'citizen journalism' networks. Four sources who cited "The Negative" about citizen journalism do not understand what it truly is and does. Even the five professionals quoted for "The Positive" disparage the credibility and integrity of citizens who choose – as did those at the founding of our nation -- to make journalism their chosen field and passion.
The point all of them miss is traditional news media reporters and editors are being devastated by a financial crisis, not a journalism crisis. Somebody has to fill the void.
Those of us who work with citizen journalists in online news ventures know better than anyone what a tough, disciplined calling it is. That is why we hire professionals and rigorously train citizens.
We also know the future is online. And online news produced by citizen journalists can toss traditional media the lifeline they so desperately need.
Face facts: Traditional media have put journalism last for at least a decade, cutting thousands of jobs and wondering why readers, viewers and listeners flee. America lost a generation of professional journalists. That is a serious threat to self-government. How will we replace them?
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More about: grassroots journalism, social media
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March 10, 2010
By Robert Niles
8 comments | Archive Link
Following
my talk in Singapore last month, I'd like to delve deeper into the question about what newspaper publishers outside the United States can do to avoid the market meltdown that's already claimed a few papers in the U.S.... and endangers the survival of many more.
This advice applies not just to newspaper publishers outside the United States, but to all news publishers, including online start-ups and still-profitable U.S. papers, who haven't yet had to resort to crippling staff or feature cutbacks to remain in the black.
Of course, much of what I'm going to say today is reflex for OJR readers. Consider this, instead, a second source that you can quote to a boss (or print out to show), to, uh, persuade her or him to do what you've been urging her or him for months to try.
My advice will come in two parts, the first today and the second half next Wednesday. So, let's get started.
Step 1: Management should use and consume technology like a starving man at a free buffet
The leaders of any news business must be able to understand new communication technology - not simply as an executive, reading reports from an underling - but as a consumer.
Every success newspaper person I know started learning the business by reading the paper as a child. They all had a passion for the paper, and for news, and started reading their local papers, cover to cover, at an early age.
So when time came that they worked within the industry, the understood - from thousands of hours of reading its products - what a paper was and what the people working there should produce.
Just as every great writer and editor first learned by reading, every great tech developer I know learned by playing with, tinkering with, then hacking and rebuilding technology, from computer programs to entire systems. You learn to become a producer by being a consumer first.
So why should anyone be surprised when newspaper companies led by executives who communicate via printed memos and land-line telephone calls fail to produce digital products that resonate with their local audience?
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More about: management, social media, tools
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March 5, 2010
By Robert Hernandez
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For me, it began with a
snarky tweet: #journchat Bad name, good PR.
Apparently that tweet touched a nerve and prompted Web journalists to come out of the Twitterverse to express agreement.
Before I continue, let me define two things:
- #journchat is a Twitter chat that is “an ongoing conversation between journalists, bloggers and PR folks” held weekly on Twitter. Created by @PRsarahevans, the first Twitter chat was held Monday, November 24, 2008. While it has “journalism” in the name, it skews heavily toward public relations.
- A Twitter chat essentially is a regularly held chat, usually weekly, on a specific topic… tied together through a hashtag. A group of Twitterers gather and talk about whatever… blogging, book editing, etc.
Moments after that snarky tweet went out the hunger for Web journalists to network and learn from each other was apparent.
It makes sense.
We’re a community that is constantly evolving, struggling to find the “right” solution for our unique situations… from inside our newsrooms… often alone. Many of us have met at conferences or through social networking, but never regularly.
It was that passionate need mixed with the DIY-spirit of the web that got @lilgirlbigvoice, @killbutton, @kimbui and myself together to create #wjchat within five hours from meeting each other the first time.
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More about: social media, Twitter
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