Archive for March, 2009
March 30th, 2009
….. newspapers are dying, ship them this set of quotes from John Sturm, Newspaper Association of America president and CEO:
“Anyone who thinks that newspapers have an ‘audience problem’ need only look at recent Nielsen Online numbers for the newspaper industry. In January, nearly 75 million unique visitors used newspaper Web sites — an all-time high and a 12 percent increase from January ’07. That means 44 percent of all active Internet users visited a newspaper site in January. Newspapers, in aggregate, delivered 80 percent more unique visitors than CNN’s digital network, 85 percent more than Yahoo! News and 442 percent more than Google News!
“In print, newspaper readership declined a modest 2.7 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to Scarborough Research. Meanwhile, our friends at the broadcast TV networks lost 7 percent of their total audience in the last 3 months of 2008 alone.
“More than 100 million adults read the newspaper on an average weekday, compared to 63 million that watched the World Series, 42 million that visited Amazon.com in the past month and 60 million that watch any reality TV show.
“And those elusive 18-34 year olds — 30 percent are still reading on an average weekday and nearly 60 percent over the course of a week. Hardly an indication of an industry in the throes of death. On the contrary, our audience — the true measurement of the health of a medium–is strong and getting stronger.”
March 26th, 2009
Suppose Congress created a law that said newspapers could operate as some sort of not-for-profit? Sort of if the Rockford Register Star became like National Public Radio.
There’s been a flurry of discussion in the industry this week over a bill proposed by U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-MD. The bill-in-search-of-another sponsor is called the Newspaper Revitalization Act. It would, according to this story by Reuters writer Thomas Ferraro, “allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.
“Under this arrangement,” Ferraro continues, “newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.”
Please, no. As much as my heart would grasp at anything that would “save” the newspaper industry, being controlled by Congressional fiat is just plain wrong.
The one thing that separates us from every other business — and from radio and television — is that First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law ……” Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know there are lots and lots of laws affecting newspapers, but somehow I get deeply concerned when I think of having to be beholden to the politicians for our survival.
What we do every day ticks off someone. There’s plenty of “you should have done this instead of this” to go around. There’s way more than enough advice on why newspapers are in the trouble we’re in (often from people who are wishing us ill, or from competitors who can hardly hide their glee, even if they’re in worse trouble). There is, too, a dizzying merry-go-round of ideas on how to remake ourselves.
If we can’t do what we are supposed to do — gather, sort, prioritize and deliver news, information and advertising — and if no one wants that, or we can’t figure out the ways to make them want that, then we’ve got to fail. Oh, that hurt to write….. But, we just can’t be a government pawn.
I believe in my head and heart that we are not talking about the death of newspaper-style journalism. What we are experiencing in real time is the transformation of the old model to the new models (yes, multiple models) of gathering, sorting, prioritizing and delivering news, information and advertising.
It’s yucky to watch, but so is any form of birth.
Too often these days, my friends, foes and family wonder aloud how I’m holding up inside the implosion of the newspaper industry. I sometimes wish for the “old days,” when most everyone was screaming at me for something I’d done in the newspaper or on the Web site that they didn’t like. Now, it’s like they’re forgiving me because I am dying.
Stop it. I am not dying. I need your help and support; but not your sympathy. I love you for caring and I am grateful that Sen. Cardin wants newspapers to survive, but stop it. We are tough, ol’ birds.
March 23rd, 2009
One of the side benefits of all this economic implosion stuff is that Americans are getting a whopping, though confused, education in the fine art of high finance, investing, return on investments and assorted other boons and ills of a complicated global economy.
Take the cases of 401ks and bonuses.
I dare say that a year ago most working people had no idea what was going on inside their 401ks. Amazing how many employees did not know that their companies were matching with company stock and not with cash. Who knew or understood what it meant when the company paperwork said “we match 50 cents on the dollar in company stock”? I know a lot of folks who thought that meant they were getting two quarters to rub together, not a share or two of the company.
Dare I say it? It’s our fault. Our failure to engage meant when the company’s stock went south of the equator these past six-nine months, so did the 401k take an awful tumble. It wasn’t the company’s fault we didn’t read the paperwork and ignored the fact we could have moved that company stock match with a couple of keystrokes online. Solution: Open the statements. Open and manage your 401k online. But, for heaven sakes, stop blaming the “company” for your (our) failure to pay attention.
Now, for the bonus is a cuss word thing. I am as appalled as the next girl at the shockingly, jaw-droppingly, holes-in-their-souls, arrogant greediness displayed by the multi-bazillion-dollar execs at these major corporations. The ones with access to corporate jets, or friends with corporate jets. The ones whose take-home pay is 100 times their employees’ take home. The ones whose bonuses for a year could wipe out the combined deficits of Winnebago and Boone counties, plus all the towns and cities within.
Those ones. They ought to have to live on $50,000 a year (we’ll be generous), drive a 15-year-old car, do their own laundry and groceries, and generally live like a school teacher or a journalist for the rest of their lives. Sending them to jail would just cost me and you money. Let’s make ‘em live like we do.
But, that doesn’t mean we should be turning the “bonus” word into a cuss word. A bonus has a long, proud — and effective — history. One can earn a bonus for performance above and beyond the expected. One can earn a bonus as a percentage of the financial success of the company. One can earn a bonus as a “thank you” for a job well done, a task completed exceptionally, or, sometimes, just because the body of work over a period of time makes one invaluable. There are lots of good reasons bonuses should be paid.
I’m of the mind that some of the folks who are getting the bonuses we’re writing about actually did, indeed, earn them. It’s unfortunate that the holes-in-the-souls have created a new culture in which a bonus, any bonus, is suspect.
I can tell you this: If I had the cash to give bonuses to some of my folks, I would do so in a heart beat. They’ve earned them. I want them to stay here. I need them to stick around and work their magic. They are doing exceptional work under challenging circumstances. And, I wouldn’t be making them feel guilty for accepting them.(Disclosure: I have gotten bonuses; no more.)
Lessons learned: Read the fine print. Pay attention. Know what your money is doing and what you want it to do. If it’s too good to be true, it is. And, let’s toss our pitchforks where they belong: at the holes-in-souls, not at the folks working their butts off.
March 20th, 2009
Depending on who is counting and how, we are either 121 or 154 today. There’s a story published in 1888 and reprinted in 1936 that says the Register Star was founded on March 20, 1888. Officially, the RRS says its birthday is March 20, 1855, which takes us all the way back to the beginnings of Rockford and a half dozen weeklies that combined — eventually — to become the RRS.
We use the March 20, 1855, date every single day on the front page, and, darned if we didn’t all forget — except for Jeniece Smith, an NIU student who has worked in our newsroom for many years. She reminded me this morning; thank you, Jeniece! I guess that’s what happens when one gets “darned old”; everyone forgets your birthday.
So, to the folks in the News Tower, happy birthday. We were here when this side of the river was little more than a wilderness. We were here before the Civil War. We were here during the Great Depression and World War II. We made it through the gas lines and polyester of the 1970s and the Vietnam War. We survived disco and the 1980s big hair. We held the community together during the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001 — and planted the trees out front against the tower so that we would never forget. We made the transition from hot type to cold type to no type. I am sure we’ll be the Rock River Valley’s leading source of news, information and advertising when we’re doing it in holograms.
March 17th, 2009
Jim Powers knows how to make friends. The instruction sheet is simple: To have friends, be one. It’s the doing that’s so darn hard.
Last night at Rockford city council meeting, aldermen honorarily renamed Huffman Boulevard for Jim: Col. Ret. Jim Powers Parkway. (Here’s our story just posted to rrstar.com by veteran reporter Chris Green.) Renaming the street is cool, but it’s little more than an asterisk on the back story — a story that started with a handful of Jim’s friends, including Mike Diventi and John Gile, wanting to do something to honor this “citizen servant” and spread to what has become a connecting of the dots among those Jim touches almost every day. He is a model for being a friend.
Jim Powers was one of my e-mail “pen pals.” For years before e-mail was the way to do business, Jim and I shared the occasional note. He has always been eager to befriend, to teach, to encourage. He is one of the few people who actually knows how to constructively criticize. It was Jim who sparked my interest in creating neighborhood networks via the Web. I still have Jim’s passionate business plan in a folder awaiting the time when technology will allow me and rrstar.com to accomplish what Jim dreamed about a decade ago.
As Mike and Jim’s closest friends planned this street renaming — in secret I should add — they included me in their e-mail strings. One thing came crystal clear as I sifted through the dozens of names on the e-mail strings: They read like a who’s who of titled people, elected people, little people, old people and young ones.
I suspect most of us on those strings know at least OF each other. What we probably did not know until now was that we all have Jim Powers in common. Those are pretty darn broad wings, Jim. Hugs!
March 17th, 2009
The NCAA brackets we ran Monday were incorrect. The ones we ran today were accurate — which makes my blog post of earlier inaccurate because I said today’s brackets were wrong, but they’re not.
Confused? Yep. I promised to explain, so here goes: Today’s brackets contain all the right teams in the right order and if you play them out, the brackets get you to the Final Four and the championship just fine.
However, they don’t look like the brackets you’ve used pretty much every year since forever. We created a different format to make it easier to read and fit on the page. Yeah, our brackets accomplished both of those things, but we also confused the heck out of some readers.
As I told our folks: It’s like reaching for the cold water faucet. It’s always on the right, so even if I can get cold water out of the left hand faucet, it’s confusing.
Our hearts were in the right place; our heads not so much this time. If it’s not broken, we didn’t need to fix it. We’ll use the old, tried-and-true brackets tomorrow.
March 17th, 2009
No, I do not know what happened. Yes, I will. And, yes, I will share. But, for now, know this: For the second day in a row, we screwed up the NCAA brackets.
It was bad enough that we published the wrong ones on Monday. Trust me when I tell you that it was not a nice day for several newsroom staffers. We don’t set out to make mistakes, but they can and do happen. We have to fix them and move on. That’s what we did. Or so we thought.
This morning when they were wrong AGAIN, all bets are off. I am embarrassed, and I apologize for our failure to get it right. We’ll have the corrected brackets online shortly.
March 16th, 2009
Old-time Rockfordians ask newcomer professionals two questions: Why (meaning, why in the name of Sam Hill would you ever want to come to a city like this one) do you want to come to Rockford; and then the follow-up: Do you play golf?
Rockford School District 205 superintendent finalist LaVonne Sheffield fields both questions with ease. Yes, she does play golf, so good news for the Park District and Forest Preseve courses. And, she does a fine job of explaining the “why Rockford” part. You can see and hear a 30-plus minute interview with her and the Rockford Register Star editorial board here.
This was the second time the editorial board used the “live chat” format on the Web site. It works exceptionally well for those who want to hear and see an interview unedited and unfiltered. It’s not as handy for discussions, or at least not yet.
Editorial boards are rarely “board members ask question, person responds.” They are far more likely to be lively (some would say frightening) discussions in which ideas clash and facts are questioned. Editorial boards are all about the give-and-take, the intellectual challenging and the pros and cons of a position. They simply are not polite “I ask, you answer” things. Editorial boards are not created for “debates” nor for sound bites.
As we continue to experiment with the live streaming video technology, we’re going to need to find a way to do “real” editorial boards and not this stilted back-and-forth.
We’re learning. Stay tuned.
March 13th, 2009
We Americans may be wallowing in the emptiest wallets we’ve seen in our lives, but we haven’t decided to let our poverty drive us to church on Sunday morning. Seems that some media (not this one, by the way) have been doing one of those ubiquitous trend stories that starts like this:
- “Well, I was at church Sunday and there sure were a lot of people there,” says one person.
- “Yeah,” says another, “seems like there were more there at my church, too. Bet it’s because people are fearful about the economy.”
Voila, a trend story is born: Is church attendance increasing because of the bad economy?
What can happens then is a reporter calls around and asks a bunch of religious leaders, they say, well, not sure, but maybe, reporter airs the story that says “could be,” some other reporter picks up on it, and pretty soon, the entire country is reading, watching or hearing that “well, church attendance appears to be up.” And, therefore, because attendance is up and the economy is bad, there must be a connection.
Not so. The Pew Forum ran the numbers. Here’s the fact: “A Pew Forum analysis of polls by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has shed over half its value since October 2007, there has been no increase in weekly worship service attendance during the same time period.”
Good lesson number 1: Just because you think it or feel it, doesn’t make it so.
Good lesson number 2: Be wary of connecting the dots.
Good lesson number 3: Numbers and reality are sometimes different things.
You can check out the site yourself here.
March 11th, 2009
It’s always best to be on the good side of cops and firefighters. Yeah, I know, they’re pros and they’ll do their jobs well even if they dislike you, but being buddies beats ticking them off. Hence my headline: Will you let my house burn down if I write this?
The city of Rockford is trying to close a budget gap headed toward $10 million. One of the ways to get part way there is to reduce the number of firefighters on a crew from four to three. Many other cities our size do that to no detrimental effects; the Rockford firefighters have been crying foul and promising bad things would occur.
So, instead of trimming back the crew, they now appear to be in cahoots with at least some aldermen to pay for the four-man crews by increasing ambulance fees from $375 to $775 for basic service. Add on a couple of life-saving services and the rate climbs to at least $925. (That’s if you’re a resident; if you’re not, expect the basic rate to go from $665 to $1,125.)
Not a problem, says fire union President E.J. Dilonardo: “My hope is that this doesn’t affect the people of Rockford too much above what a normal deductible might be.”
Egads. Either the aldermen backing this measure or Dilonardo himself must not have read the fine print on a health insurance policy recently. Sure, most policies cover some form of ambulance service, but not without Draconian restrictions.
Medicare estimates that at least 25 percent of its requests for reimbursement don’t qualify. Having paid for ambulance service out of my own pocket because the incident wasn’t “serious enough” makes me doubtful that Mr. Dilonardo’s “let the insurance companies foot the bill” optimism is founded in much research.
And, here’s the kicker: Even if the insurance companies and Medicare picked up the entire tab, what’s right about that? Sooner or later, those increased fees are going to end up as increased health insurance premiums for individuals and companies — and governments.
I’m willing to concede the city may need to raise ambulance rates — MAYBE — and only after doing a ton of research to compare our rates with other cities. But, if the rates must go up, let it be as part of the deficit reduction.
If City Council goes for this “stick it to the taxpayer” proposal, it should be ashamed.
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