What if the newspaper closes?

6 comments October 30th, 2008

If the Register Star stopped publishing would rrstar.com cover the news as well? Yes, someday. Web news is in its infancy. It needs its mother around for a while to hold its hand until it can go it along. How long? At least 10 years; maybe 20.

The best way to ensure a vibrant, high-quality, credible Web-only news world for the future? Buy a newspaper subscription today.

There’s a good discussion going on something I posted yesterday.

If print dies, Web news a “cesspool”

3 comments October 29th, 2008

David Carr writes for the New York Times and nytimes.com. He knows news for print and news for online — and he “gets it”: If print news operations cannibalize their core operations (the staff that does news, information and advertising), there soon will be little or nothing of credible value on the Web.

It’s a conundrum and a potentially self-fulfilling prophecy: You like getting your news, information and advertising online. Untrue though it is, common wisdom says “newspapers are dead because everyone is going online.” So, doesn’t it make sense to stop printing newspapers and just do everything online?

Carr does a superb job of laying out the landscape in a print-and-Web column this week. (You might have to register to read it, but here’s the link.) To whet your appetite, here’s a quick excerpt:

“At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism — the trusted news sources readers have relied on — were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a “cesspool” of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings.

“But in this case, it wasn’t an old journalism hack lamenting his industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.”

Time to stop publishing “campaign” letters

Add comment October 29th, 2008

“I sent my candidate letter before the deadline, so why won’t you publish it?”

At least three people have asked me the question in the past week, so it’s time for some background and a broader explanation.

Until 15 years or so ago, the Rockford Register Star did not run campaign letters. Very few newspapers, and pretty much none our size or larger, run them. However, I believed that publishing campaign letters added a strong sense of community to our letters to the editor section, and so we began publishing them, and have ever since.

We have never promised publication of a campaign letter, and we have always run only a representative sampling. We use these guidelines as we select the ones for publication:

* As best as possible and based on the letters we actually receive, we attempt to run a representative sample of pro and con letters on each candidate or issue;

* We automatically reject obviously abusive letters, unsigned ones, ones to someone else and on which we are “copied;” ones that are too long; ones that simply do not make any sense; and, multiple letters from the same person;

* We actively watch for “organized letter campaign,” and believe me there are a lot of them and they are easy to spot. It’s usually pretty clear when a campaign or candidate has encouraged supporters to write letters. Our reason for publishing campaign letters in the first place is to let “regular folks” have a say in supporting (or not) a candidate or issue. Publishing letters is not supposed to be a handy way for organized campaigns to get free publicity. We may not spot them all, but over the years we have gotten pretty good at it.

* We cut off publication of letters on a particular candidate or issue when it appears that he/she/it has had plenty of published letters and they’re now taking away space from those who haven’t.

We’ve gotten a record number of campaign letters this season, and, frankly, far too many of them feel orchestrated. I suspect that will escalate in the Spring 2009 elections. It has crossed my mind that we ought to consider doing a special section just for letters — and charge each writer to have his or her letter published.

I am more and more inclined to go back to the old days when we refused to run them at all. We’ll see.

*

“The End is Not Here” — Jack and Suzy Welch in BusinessWeek

Add comment October 27th, 2008

I’m a long-time reader of BusinessWeek Magazine because it combines business, financial and economic coverage in the context of politics and people. I read it cover to cover, which is how I happened on this week’s column by the Welches of General Electric fame, fortune, misforture and notoriety. The two always have pointed insights; the Nov. 3 issue was no exception. I’ve posted the tearsheet on the bulletin board, and here are some worthy excerpts from their answers to this question: How does today’s financial crisis compare with the beginning of the Great Depression and the 1930s?:

“…the current crisis is dire and will certainly worsen … we don’t see a second Great Depression looming… To repeat: We know that real pain lies ahead. But we believe that when the pain eases, and it will, the global economy will be stronger and sounder than ever. We just have to get there — and we will — provided we stop fixating on, well, the exact question you pose … we appreciate the chance to counter some financial journalists and all-purpose pundits who, like weather forecasters in a hurricane, are becoming giddy as they describe the ’storm’ of their careers….”

“… (we) should stop looking back in search of the future. It’s counterproductive, if not dangerous. To get through this crisis, leaders need to talk about reasons for confidence … as daunting as the downturn is sure to be, it will also create vast opportunity ….”

“Look, we are not Pollyannas. It’s human to view your own difficulties as ‘the worst of times.’ But this painful but necessary correction will result in a healthier, deleveraged  society with a renewed focus on productivity, innovation and better governance. The end is not here. A new beginning awaits.”

Amen — and pretty much what editor Annette LaCross has been writing in her columns on Sunday and in BusinessRockford.com Magazine. Words to take heart from.

No. No. No. No rebate checks

2 comments October 21st, 2008

Memo to Congress and President Bush: Stop encouraging Americans to buy stuff. Profligate spending at our favorite stores got us part way into this economic morass. You should not have done those rebate checks earlier this year (lot of good that did), and you certainly ought not do it again.

That “send ‘em another check so they can spend it” philosophy is bad government, bad economics and just plain bad karma. President Bush said Monday he’s “open” to hearing about another round of rebate checks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some Congressional Democrats, along with others looking greedily at retail cash, are trying to figure out a way to send rebates to our pocketbooks. Estimates range from $150 billion to $300 billion. Egads, are they nuts?

I remain a supporter of the various economic recovery plans that fall loosely under the “big bailout” umbrella. I think they were the absolute only thing that could have been done on a very short time frame to soften the landing as the global economy catapults off the cliff.

But, we do not need more cash in our pockets to buy stuff. We need jobs. Jobs, you hear? Help our companies make our jobs safe. Make new jobs, including public works jobs. (How about a plan to fix our infrastructure?)

With a job, we stand a decent chance we can keep paying the rent, the mortgage, the doctor’s bills, the groceries and the utilities. If we can do that, we can scrape by for the next couple of years as the global economy rights itself. We might even have some of our own cash left over to spend. It won’t be pretty, and we probably won’t be buying another smart phone, but we’ll be OK. If there’s $300 billion lying around, make — and help companies protect — jobs.

This rebate thing is tantamount to “let them eat cake if they have no bread.” Jobs. Bread. Not one dime for cake.

If ur a news junkie, this site is 4 u

Add comment October 16th, 2008

The online wizards in the News Tower created a new feature a few days ago that is a news junkie’s delight. Called “My AP News,” the simple program gives you the tools to feed just about any news hunger you have — from a trusted and credible source, the Associated Press. A couple of clicks and you can set up constantly updated feeds for news from world to weird — and a couple dozen specialized feeds for sports, business and entertainment.

I customized mine for business to follow the news on stocks and bailouts, top headlines so I don’t miss stuff and politics because I’m a junkie this time of year. We’ll continue to add feeds from which you can choose.

My AP News means I can make one click (or bookmark the page) and the news I most want and need is right there. And, since it doesn’t pull from blogs and oddball — or partisan — sources, I get just what I want — news.

Click here to build your own page.

Hey, geezers: Click here

1 comment October 15th, 2008

The definition of “geezer” is fluid, depending on where one is in the birthday count, so cut me a break, and think about this: Everyone knows youngsters are Web savvy; everyone thinks geezers are not — and therefore newspapers can continue to do news on printed pages until the current crop of geezers-in-’60s-bell bottoms is replaced with geezers-with-tongue-studs.

I’ve believe that, for at least 15 years, we’ll be printing a daily “something” from the News Tower and delivering it to your door. I believe that today’s geezers (baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964) will read newspapers into their graves. My generation will remain a print-reading group — not exclusively print, but we’ll be far more likely than our children to include a steady diet of newsprint in our media menu.

We will turn to our newspaper for advertising content, news content — especially local — and general information right up to choosing our caskets. We will, however, make ourselves connect digitally. Not because it’s “us,” but because we have to, it’s efficient and we can get the dumpsters-full of information we crave. That’s very different from our children who connect digitally because, well, that’s the way they’ve always done it.

For boomers it will be print-plus-digital. For our kids and their kids, it will be digital with maybe some specialty print thrown in for good measure.

So, what’s the next newspaper going to look like? I do not believe the “print thingy” we’ll be delivering will look like today’s Register Star. As newspapers make the turn on the road to transformation, and as multiple platform access to information becomes the customer standard, the big format newspaper with multiple sections will give way to a smaller, perhaps single section, daily digest of the best of around-the-world news with an even stronger local news report.

We’ve been thinking about and prototyping something like that in the News Tower for a couple years. For now I call it the “stealth paper” because it’s totally concept. I just want to see what a different kind of print thingy might look like. When might you see it? You might see prototypes early next year. On your doorstep? Could be months, years, or never. But, what we’re seeing so far is pretty cool.

In the Rock River Valley, where the Rockford Register Star reached 78 percent of the adults this week, the traditional daily and Sunday newspaper rules the market.  That’s a giant footprint and it means no other medium — not television, not radio, not even my beloved rrstar.com — comes close. No matter how challenged the economy, no matter how chaotic the newspaper industry, the newspaper on your doorstep is going to be there for a while.

But, I am writing this first for the Web on Wednesday; a lot of you are reading it for the first time in Sunday’s paper. The Web — or some yet-to-come digital medium — is pushing hard and perhaps sooner than traditionalists would like, the Web dog will own the yard.

Here’s a link to a delightful blog post that asks and answers this question: How will geezers adapt to “web mobile for news.” Enjoy.

How IS the reporting in the conservative press?

1 comment October 13th, 2008

One of our Register Star readers posed this question in a recent e-mail: Why aren’t you covering the results of the presidential campaign polls done by the conservative media like Fox News?

The question is fascinating on two fronts: First, there was in the e-mail an assumption that the polls done by “conservative” media (Fox) would somehow have different results than polls done by  “liberal” media (supposedly the Associated Press and CNN). And, second, there was an underlying position that the actual reporting would then be different.

Horse race polls are pretty standard fare. Ask someone who will win. Ask for whom they will vote. While one can slant survey questions to get desired results,  there’s not much one can do when asking the question “are you voting for McCain or Obama”?

For instance, I pulled this from the Fox News Website just after lunch today: “New Marist Poll out today showing that Obama has a narrow lead in Ohio and is pulling away in PA with 9 percentage points among registered voters.” There’s not much one can do with the numbers, though one could write: McCain barely behind Obama in Ohio and is within nine percentage points in Pennsylvania.

There would be opportunities for a writer to take quotes, events and interviews and “spin” them to the tune of a political slant. So, I went looking this morning for how Fox News and The Washington Times are phrasing today’s campaign news.  Did the same for Associated Press, which is the primary supplier of national campaign content for the mainstream media (including the Washington Times), and for CNN, which conservatives say is the liberal media’s voice, just as Fox is supposedly the conservative media’s voice.

You can do the same comparisons just by clicking on Foxnews.com  and CNN.com

I took this straight off Fox News: “McCain appealed to voters about his electability during campaign stops Monday. A mix of polls out at the start of the week showed him down from Obama by anywhere from 4 to 11 points.

” ‘Let me give you the state of the race today, and some straight talk. We have 22 days to go. We’re 6 points down,” McCain said Monday. “The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and … concede defeat in Iraq.

” ‘But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them,” he said. The Obama campaign was quick to respond to McCain’s speech.

” ‘Less than twelve hours after his campaign announced that Senator McCain would finally have some new ideas on the economy, he decided that it was more important to give a new political speech about where he is in the polls,’ said Obama Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, who noted that Obama is talking Monday “about his new plan to provide immediate relief to struggling families and homeowners, jump start job creation in America and ease the credit crisis that’s hurting too many businesses.”

“In fact, Obama has proposed tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 and has called for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq.”

That was Fox News, folks. There’s plenty more where that came from. And, it all proves a simple point: When journalists – mainstream or otherwise — do their reporting and writing, there’s hardly a dime’s difference in how they approach the story. They stick with the facts, quote accurately and in context, and pretty much provide accurate, full, contextual coverage.

Reporters for the Washington Times (so-called right) and the Washington Post (so-called left) covering the same event and the same polls report the same ways.  That’s what they are trained and expected to do.

So, where’s all the famed conservative and liberal stuff coming from? Check the blogs and editorials and commentaries. Which is exactly what they are supposed to do.

My friends, I can see Russia from my house

1 comment October 8th, 2008

Well, I watched the debate last night, watched the commentary, took a look at those cute CNN meter readers  and headed for bed. Snuggled down and tried to sleep. No such luck, so I decided, what the heck, check my Facebook account (amazing what friends are up past midnight with nothing better to do) and post some notes on the blog.

It must have been the cuppa English tea I had during the debate — not to mention the nicotine patch. I ditched the cigarettes again on Oct. 1. We shall see how it goes. As I tell friends, I am simply “not smoking at the moment…”

OK, so back to the debate. I’ve tried; honestly, I have tried to think that McCain and Palin might make a good team. After the VP debate last week and tonight’s showing, I give up. She insults me and he bores me.

If Sarah Palin worked for me, we’d be having lessons in how NOT to conduct oneself in a professional setting. Winking is not an appropriate behavior. I keep waiting for her to smack her gum. McCain lost me tonight when he called upon Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan as his heroes. Looking backward is not where we need to be. Give me hope anytime — and, if I can’t have the Billary Clintons again, Obama it will be.

’nuff on politics. How ’bout those Cubs? Well, not the Cubs. How ’bout that stock market? My 401k still has some cash in it — not much, but some — which these days, I guess, is about as positive as it’s going to get.

We’ve been pulling pages from the Rockford Register Star from back in 1929. It’s a fascinating exercise to see “live” coverage of the stock market crash and what the world was like that October and the years just following. History books don’t tell the story as well as reading this town’s newspaper from the days in which it was actually happening.

One thing for sure: You learn real fast that nothing much has changed, that people respond, well, as people, and that “life goes on.” The papers are filled with weddings, obituaries, church news, city council and school board, and all the things that are the glue that is life. Indeed, it’s reassuring and a reminder that we have faced tough times before and that we will, once again, muddle through.

Though after reading the story about the almost half million dollars AIG spent on an executive retreat the same week they took the $85 billion loan from the feds, I’m pretty much ready to suggest the jail for those who attended — after they pay back the half million. What were they thinking? Obviously, greed has no bounds, and certainly no scruples.

Well, I’m yawning so maybe that means I can get to sleep. Think I’ll read a bit first just to make doubly sure. Here I am in the middle of the night writing — sounds just like my mother. And, that’s pretty good.