OJR front page archive for March 2010
How General Motors refused to change, and what newspapers can learn from that example
March 31, 2010
[Editor's note: Dave LaFontaine's been observing online news for years, and has spoken at our OJR conferences for news entrepreneurs in the past. He wrote this piece for his personal blog and it impressed me so much that I wanted to bring it to the OJR audience.]I strongly urge you to listen to this great piece from This American Life about the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont.
It's about how the U.S. auto industry could have saved itself by actually paying attention to the way its business was eroding, and listening to the people who came back from Japan and transformed the Fremont plant from a place that was "like a prison … with sex, drugs and alcohol freely indulged in during the working day … where the workers maliciously sabotaged cars, and the managers didn't care, as long as they got their bonuses for churning out pure numbers…"
…into a place where the workers actually looked forward to coming to work each day, and where the quality of the cars they turned out was so high, that even now, 22 years later, many of those cars are still on the road. NUMMI stands for "New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc." and there is an excellent Wikipedia entry about it, if you want to get a little more background.
The situation bears a strong resemblance to the newspaper industry, and the reason papers are in the same place as the auto industry. Let's take a look at the places where the news industry and the auto industry screwed up:
If you can't manage comments well, don't offer comments at all
March 26, 2010
I've long advocated that newspapers include comment sections on their online stories, to provide readers with the opportunity to discuss, extend or even correct those news articles. Independent news websites and bloggers have used comment functionality to build large and loyal audiences, who by their participation can help the publisher provide more, and more accurate, information to the larger, non-commenting community.Unfortunately, even after all these years, too many newspaper comment sections don't live up to that ideal. The unmoderated comment sections in many of the local newspapers I read remain cesspools where the most bigoted, selfish and crass individuals in a community find a welcoming platform to verbally assault readers.
So I'm taking this opportunity to change my advice: If, after all these years publishing online, you still can't manage the trolls in your comments, don't offer comments at all. Shut down that functionality. Leave online community to bloggers and other publishers in the community who can manage them responsibly.
To that end, here are Robert's Revised Rules for comments on online news story pages:
What's coming next in online news? A few clues from south by southwest
March 23, 2010
Twitter turned four years old this past Sunday, March 21. At a time when news sites, such as CNN.com and NYTimes.com, are experiencing a decline in the number of unique visitors, 50 million tweets are being sent out per day — that's almost 600 tweets every second.But this isn't to be a Twitter fan-fest. Instead, consider this an illustration, how the prediction made at Twitter's introduction as a new start-up at SxSWi that it would soon sweep the world came to fruition.
So what is next in the south by southwest crystal ball?
The predictions made this year at SxSWi suggested that news stations would soon compete with 40,000 other channels for an audience. (Oh, yeah, and you'll be able to watch them *all* on your cell phone.) Other predictions focused on the notion that the U.S. average broadband speed will continue to double annually. So, if you don't feel like watching TV, you'll be able to download "Avatar in 3D", and it won't take long.
As technology develops and media converges, SxSWi continues to provide evidence that the communication landscape is changing... and will continue to change. Media will converge. We'll see audio, video and print combine on the mobile Web.
And journalists will be forced to keep up.
For many, the local newspaper isn't dying - it's already dead
March 19, 2010
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.
How to avoid what's happened to American newspapers: Part two
March 17, 2010
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.
The pros and pros of 'citizen journalism'
March 12, 2010
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?
How to avoid what's happened to American newspapers: Part one
March 10, 2010
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?
DIY and passion give birth to a new journalists' weekly on Twitter
March 5, 2010
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.
Creation or aggregation: What is the real added value of today’s journalism?
March 2, 2010
The following is an edited transcript of remarks I delivered last week at the WAN-IFRA Future of News Media and Journalism Conference in Singapore.Generating original content, or aggregating someone else's? If you're running (or starting up) a news website, which model should you choose?
Actually, this is a trick question... because they're the same thing. In journalism, our "original" content always has been the product of aggregation.
Let's take a look at the newspapers where I've worked over my career, from a small daily in Bloomington, Indiana to the Los Angeles Times. Each paper has published reports from wire services, from feature syndicates, from freelancers... even letters and op-ed articles from readers. That's aggregation. Even the supposedly "original" stories ultimately were works of aggregation. We aggregate interviews from sources; we aggregate documents that we ask find or ask for; we aggregate our observations of people, places and events.
If we weren't publishing aggregation, if we truly were creating original content, we'd be writing fiction, spun from the creativity of our own imaginations. As journalists, we try not to do that.
This is a false choice: creation versus aggregation. The newspaper industry long ago optimized the use of aggregation for its medium. So the choice really becomes: Shall we use aggregation the way that the newspaper industry has always done it, or aggregation the way that it's being employed by a new generation of online start-ups?