Traditional journalism’s rise and fall

Add comment June 17th, 2009

Tech News published a series on “The Rise and Fall of Traditional Journalism.” It’s a long (four parts) and interesting read on what’s happened to the biz over the years. The writer says journalism reached its apex in the 1970s and began its decline then, too.

Are newspapers playing it safe?

Add comment May 26th, 2009

Check out this blog post on the Nieman Journalism Lab blog at Harvard University. Dan Froomkin, who writes White House Watch for the Washington Post, shares his prescription for the newspaper industry. He says “we’re hiding much of our newsrooms’ value behind a terribly anachronistic format: voiceless, incremental news stories that neither get much traffic nor make our sites compelling destinations.”

Here’s more:

If we were to start an online newspaper from scratch today, we’d recognize that toneless, small-bore news stories are not the way to build a large audience — not even with “interactive” bells and whistles cobbled on top. One option might be to imitate cable TV, and engage in a furious volume of he-said/she-said reporting, voyeurism, contrarianism, gossip, triviality and gotcha journalism. But that would come at the cost of our souls. The right way to reinvent ourselves online would be to do precisely what journalists were put on this green earth to do: Seek the truth, hold the powerful accountable, expose the B.S., explain how things really work, introduce people to each other, and tell compelling stories. And we should do all those things passionately and courageously — not hiding who we are, but rather engaging in a very public expression of our journalistic values. 

What do you think?

Future of journalism

Add comment May 8th, 2009

Interesting NPR segment with three aspiring journalists about the future of the biz they want to be a part of. Good discussion about old media versus new media. They all agree they have learned the fundamentals of journalism in college. They want to learn how to be their own publishers especially as we continue to expand our digital base.

Redefine journalism? No. ‘Redefine our work flow’

4 comments March 26th, 2009

My boss shared this with newsroom staffers last night.

Got me thinking. What if I were a reader and not a journalist? How would I consume news? Would I pick up a newspaper if I didn’t work here? Would I go to rrstar.com if I didn’t work here? Hmmm. I am pretty sure I would do the latter. It’s hard to take that journalist out of me, but I can try.

Just this morning, I told a non journalist that I expect us to have news on our Web site as close to immediately after it happens. I like to think that when something happens, the first place people will look for information is at rrstar.com or one of our sister sites. I realize there are many places to get information. I want our Web sites to be the go-to places for news as it happens.

So, the question is how do we redefine work flow to ensure we are the go-to place for info? It’s a good question. One that we are constantly asking.

I’ll share the following from the blog post below. Take a minute to read it and let me know what you think. Do you think journalism is still relevant?

“I’ve been paying attention how we absorb news and information. Newspapers do not control the flow of information anymore. By the time I get my newspaper I have learned about 90 percent of what’s in that paper someplace else. I’ve read it on the newspaper Web site, picked it up on the national news or I’ve picked it up on the street. I’ve been more aware of informal listening posts in the community, like doctor’s office or social groups, places where information is circulated.”

“I’d advise print leaders to take the best of our traditions - the critical thinking skills and news gathering skills and source building - and apply that to the Web and ditch all the other conventions of the craft,” she said. “Yes, the business model needs to be fixed, as does the general economy, but journalists (the real ones) are more important than ever.”

“We don’t need to redefine journalism in order to compete or survive. We need to redefine our work flow, not our values or news judgment. If it really is about delivering and interpreting information, then we must be platform agnostic mercenaries. Serve readers wherever they are. Period.”

We didn’t go into the biz to get a date

Add comment December 23rd, 2008

Light fare for a holiday week. No surprise: Journalists are not considered prime marriage material. Well, we work wild hours, and we certainly aren’t making doctors’ salaries.

Although honestly, we fall in love with a person, not his or her job. So surveys like this are just amusement.

Outsourcing news coverage

Add comment December 3rd, 2008

I’ve heard something like this before. Media companies outsourcing work to other countries. In Pasadena, Calif., an online newspaperless operation called Pasadena Now is using people in India to write things like Christmas tree lighting ceremonies in Pasadena. Boy, I just don’t dig that. Here’s what a New York Times columnist wrote about it. And one blogger’s perspective on this which has prompted lots of comments.

They’re old buds now. Rockfordian meets Ted Koppel

Add comment August 29th, 2008

Former RRSTAR intern Jackie Borchardt met Ted Koppel in Denver this week. The pair were at the Democratic National Convention. Jackie got to go with the University of Missouri, where she’s getting her master’s in journalism.

Read more about Jackie’s adventures in “Dem-ver.”

Jackie graduated from Rockford Lutheran High School and the University of Rochester in New York.

if you like movies about newspapers….

Add comment April 3rd, 2008

… like i do (“citizen kane,” “the paper,” “all the president’s men”….)

this week, the documentary “stop the presses: the american newspaper in peril” is debuting at the afi dallas international film festival. one of the guys behind it used to work for newspapers himself.

according to this dallas morning news article, the movie asks what might happen to newspapers and how might it affect democracy.

We’re just plain journalists

Add comment March 12th, 2008

There’s really no such thing as a newspaper journalist anymore. We’re journalists. Period. And the content we produce publishes on many platforms.

There’s the newspaper, of course. Still our core product. We’ve also got our Web sites (rrstar.com, BusinessRockford.com, go.rrstar.com and RockfordWoman.com), which are growing year over year. We publish magazines (Rockford Woman and goNOW, the young reader pub). We appear on WREX-13 newscasts and partner with the NBC affiliate on stories. We go on radio programs. Will Pfeifer — aka Movie Man — appears with Steve and Leigh on 97ZOK.

We are an integrated newsroom that is constantly evaluating how to improve what we do. Here’s a look at how one newsroom formed a hub to better integrate its operations.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/2yXT_1pvDv4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Learning from No. 4

Add comment March 7th, 2008

Geri Nikolai, a Register Star reporter and perhaps the biggest Packer fan in our newsroom, e-mailed a great column today on Poynter’s Web site. (Poynter is in St. Petersburg, Fla., and is a school for journalists.)

Jacqui Banaszynski shares how journalists could learn a thing or two from Brett Favre. She offers up a playbook for newsrooms to follow. I loved it (it’s no secret who I root for) and wanted to share with you.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tears roll down the face of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre as he cries during a press conference announcing that he was officially retiring from football on Thursday, March 6, 2008, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.