Newspapers
Slimp on newspapers
Aug 6th
Knoxville’s Kevin Slimp—publishing guru and all-around good guy—on the strength of the newspaper industry:
It makes me angry when people refer to newspapers as dinosaurs and primitive. The last time I checked, most of us were doing pretty well. I’m contacted regularly by people wanting to buy newspapers and asking for my advice on good opportunities. My daily paper is delivered every day. My community paper is delivered every week.
My business is as good as it has ever been. Just yesterday, I received requests to train newspaper groups in Los Angeles, Toronto and New York. Newspapers are investing in new equipment and training.
Strange behavior for a dying industry.
Where is the line drawn between informing and influencing?
Aug 2nd
Election Day is Thursday in Tennessee, and many newspapers will be endorsing their chosen candidates between now and then.
I’ve never understood why newspapers (or other forms of news media) endorse political candidates. Most of my peers in this industry would disagree with me, because endorsing candidates is such a common practice.
Most journalists would agree—at least out loud—that newspapers have no business trying to sway public opinion. But what is an endorsement of political candidates if not an attempt to sway opinion?
I read a newspaper editorial last week that made me chuckle. In what was actually an excellent editorial, the writers encouraged voters to go to the polls but to take time to educate themselves before they do so, since 30-second radio and TV spots, yard signs and bumper stickers don’t define a candidate. Then the writers proceeded to give their “recommendations” on the various races. So ad spots, etc., shouldn’t be relied upon when deciding who to vote for but a newspaper endorsement should?
The function of a newspaper in society should be single-faceted: to inform. Opinions have their place; otherwise there would be no need for editorials and no need for an op-ed section. But the newspaper’s job should be to let its readers know who’s running, who they are, and what they stand for. Anything beyond that is a disservice to the folks who are running and, more importantly, the folks who are voting for them.
Mothers buy newspapers, too
Jul 26th
The Tennessee Press Association has announced the winners of this year’s state press contest, which is conducted jointly by TPA and the University of Tennessee.
Our newspaper won awards in a few categories, none of them first place…which is about what I expected. We placed in the categories I expected us to place in and I didn’t expect a first place finish in most of those categories (with one exception, and after looking at the winning entries I still believe ours was the best, but I’m obviously biased and that’s neither here nor there).
Last week, the judges’ critique sheets from our entries were returned. Each year, a newspaper association in another state judges the entries. The critique sheets are always interesting because they include evaluations of your work by your peers…something that is often of great value.
I got a little bit of a chuckle out of one of the critique sheets this year, however. On education reporting (a category we often place well in but this year did not, for understandable reasons), the person doing the judging wrote of our high school honors reporting (two stories out of many included in the entry): “Valedictorian coverage doesn’t do much in my estimation to inform the public. It’s more for scrapbooks and refrigerators.”
No one has ever accused newspapers of being out of touch (sarcasm intended). This note was probably written by someone who works at a daily newspaper and has little experience with community weeklies. The majority of our readers are mothers and grandmothers who take pride in seeing their child or grandchild’s name in the paper…and, yes, they often clip out those mentions and paste them on the refrigerator or in a scrapbook.
We run a handful of special sections each year (sports, Christmas and graduation-themed). And guess what the best seller is each year? The grad issue, which incorporates those same stories about the honors graduates at the local high schools.
I might understand her point better if she’s arguing that such stories shouldn’t be presented as “news,” but I would still disagree. In a small community, graduating as valedictorian of one’s senior class (or winning a university scholarship as an outstanding athlete, etc.) is news . . . and fairly big news at that. Newspapers often fall into a pattern of reporting only the blood and the scandals, leaving the “good” news coverage relegated to a page buried deep inside, where it isn’t news at all.
I’m not knocking daily newspapers at all; they play an important role in an informed public. But metro or suburban dailies are totally different from their community weekly counterparts. In most weekly newspapers, the news is more than who shot who or which government official called another lazy and fat. News in weeklies is who was born, who died (in fact, there’s no more widely read section of a weekly newspaper than the obituaries section), which businesses opened and closed, what time the band concert will be, who is in town for a reunion, who the new pastor at the First Baptist church will be…and, yes, the blood and the scandal, too. An assignment to cover the high school graduation might not be nearly as luxurious as an assignment to cover the trial of a public official charged with corruption, but to the mothers and grandmothers who comprise our readership, they’re just as important…if not moreso.
A wise man with a lot of experience in the newspaper business said it best: “The public is curious about how its friends are doing. The weekly newspaper should reflect that.”
Yeah, that’ll work
Jul 23rd
How to keep newspapers from failing? How about a flurry of lawsuits?
Steve Gibson has a plan to save the media world’s financial crisis — and it’s not the iPad.
Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission. And he says he’s making money.
In a world where attorneys openly invite victims of minor car accidents to turn their mild misfortune into a money-making venture (“turn your wreck into a check“), I suppose nothing should come as a surprise.
And I’m all for suing those leaches who are ripping off other folks’ content. (How hard is it to post a link and a short excerpt?)
But if this is truly a “business venture” designed to help flailing newspapers…well, the newspaper industry is worse off than I thought.
That dadgum liberal press!
Jun 25th
The headline on DrudgeReport this morning: Paper Had Story Two Years Ago; ‘Chose Not to Publish’.
The Portland Tribune’s decision not to publish the story in 2008 was explained in yesterday’s story:
Mark Garber, the Tribune’s editor-in-chief, said the woman was not willing to talk on the record or press charges and the paper considered the time lapse between the incident and when the paper received the police report. “In the end, we decided not to proceed with a story that we could not document,” Garber said.
So now we can spend the next few days talking incessantly about how the Tribune tried to kill the story because Gore is a Democrat.
But I agree with the editor’s decision, and would’ve done the same if I had been in his shoes.
The woman making these claims refused multiple interview requests by police shortly after the alleged October 2006 incident, telling them she didn’t want to press charges but wanted to pursue a civil case. Two years later, she decides to pursue criminal charges, saying she is “only interested in justice.” If she were truly interested in justice, she would’ve cooperated with investigators two years earlier. In the end, investigators determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge Gore.
So, at best, the woman let greed stand in the way of her pursuit for justice. At worst, she might’ve made it all up. I cringe every time I hear someone question the motives of an alleged victim. In the court of public opinion, the easiest path to acquittal for perpetrators—especially powerful and influential ones—is to commit character assassination of the victim.
But this woman’s course of action is suspect. Her allegations must be met with scrutiny. Newspapers have a responsibility to weigh things like this before going forward with a story. If Al Gore is guilty, he deserves whatever he has coming his way. If he’s innocent, he hardly deserves having his name dragged through the mud. The facts that the woman refused to cooperate with investigators for more than two years, the police decided not to charge based on a lack of evidence, and the newspaper didn’t learn of it until a couple of years after the fact makes the decision not to publish the correct decision in my book.
Incidentally, the man who owns the Tribune is a Republican.
Good luck with that
Feb 19th
The Sporting News is going to charge for online access.
If nothing else, I admire their courage. There are a few big names out there who are willing to test the waters. They will either blaze a trail or prove that online consumers aren’t ready for this sort of thing. This concept is constantly evolving and no one is sure where it’s going to end up. Perhaps in a couple of years even us community newspapers will be behind a pay wall as publishers universally continue to struggle with the balance of making content available online vs. the need to turn a profit.
But in the meantime, why should I pay to access the Sporting News’ content when I can already get much better news from ESPN.com for free?
Well now that’s objective
Dec 6th
Michael Silence brings our attention to this AP story about Copenhagen.
With “news” stories like that, is it any wonder the MSM needs bailing out?
Hyperbole
Nov 28th
Jackson Sun editorial page editor Tom Bohs is catching some minor cyberspace criticism for this piece in the Sun. In part:
This is where we begin to get into trouble with citizen journalism. It’s one thing to send in a photo of a fire, holdup or other criminal act. But when citizen journalists begin interpreting what they are reporting, or they report what they think happened, the citizen journalism pool they are swimming in gets a little cloudy. You can post such information, to be sure, but who is going to check it out? And who is responsible if the citizen journalist is wrong?
I can’t tell you how many blind alleys I have gone down in my years at The Jackson Sun based on tips from sources I trusted. It happens. The other thing I know is that if I write about something and it is wrong, I am responsible, held accountable and perhaps even liable; if it is seriously wrong, so is The Jackson Sun. Trust me, this is not somewhere you want to go.
Michael Silence opines:
I know a great many people who are involved in online discussions. I know of very, very few who have any desire to be a “citizen journalist.” What most do want, though, is to be part of the conversation. Most folks I know who are active online never did want to be citizen journalists. And many more recognized years ago even if they did, they couldn’t possibly devote the time and resources necessary to regularly produce news content. So get over the us vs. them myth. They are your neighbors.
First, what Silence said. Plus, citizen journalists are here to stay, like it or not. The blog and Twitter fads may pass, but citizen journalism is permanent. Before Al Gore creating the Internet, citizen journalism was limited to the guy with access to a Xerox machine and a convenience store willing to place a few of his papers on the counter. But isn’t cyberspace wonderful?
Second, while Bohs makes some worthy points, the bit highlighted above caught my eye. When citizen journalists begin to “interpret” what they’re reporting, they’ll be no different than their counterparts who are paid to call themselves journalists. The only difference between a citizen journalist and a journalist journalist is the “layers of editorial oversight” we so often hear about. (Stop snickering.) Someday I’ll tell a story about a citizen journalist I know.
And who will be responsible for the mistake for the citizen journalist when he gets it wrong? He will, of course; just as Bohs is responsible for when he gets something wrong. The guy posting in the comments section of his favorite newspaper website, a discussion forum, a blog, or wherever, is subject to the same libel penalties as the guy who has a byline in the newspaper.
Drawing a paycheck from a credentialed media outlet may give a journalist a little more credibility, but readers will ultimately decide for themselves whether a blog, commentor, etc. is credible, just as they decide which newspapers are credentialed newspapers and websites are credible and which aren’t. And that is exactly who will “check out” the facts the citizen journalist reports/interprets. If there are no readers who find him credible, he isn’t a citizen journalist for very long.
I hate to pile on a guy, but Bohs’s column seems to represent a bit of the elitist attitude that has become all too prominent among old media types.
Do what?
Nov 2nd
N.J. Paper Endorses Governor, But Admits He’s Not The Best Candidate
This is just another example of why newspapers shouldn’t be in the business of endorsing political candidates. That puts me in a minority in this business, but I firmly believe that newspapers should concern themselves with providing candidates’ views, stances and records for readers, and letting readers decide for themselves which candidate deserves their vote. There is little in this world as unimportant as a journalist’s opinion. (Who is going to be the first to ask, “Well, then, why do you have this blog?” It would be a good question to ask, you know.)
The bleeding slows
Sep 30th
Michael Silence points out this bit of good news for the newspaper industry. Adds Michael:
People are tired of all the noise out there, the online Opinions R Us. Instead, they want, as I’ve said before, “just the facts, ma’am”.
I remain unconvinced that newspapers are ready to present news with facts alone, but I am eternally hopeful.
