OJR front page archive for April 2010
An online journalist's home gets raided; so why aren't we more angry?
April 29, 2010
Let's gets this out of the way. There are a lot of unknowns here and probably lots of potential shady things yet to come out. This story, no doubt, has legs… and lots of them.But, I have to say, I'm starting to feel really disappointed in the lack of outrage journalists are having to the Gizmodo raid. Maybe I've completely missed it, but we should be up in arms here!
And by "we," I don't just mean Webby nerds, tech geeks or digital dorks. By "we," I mean journalists in every newsroom cross platform, across the country.
Where is the statement by the Society of Professional Journalists? The American Society of News Editors? The Online News Association, for heaven's sake!?!?
If you missed it, Gizmodo posted a recap from their point of view, but here's my understanding: (Note: You could easily do a search-and-replace here and change "lost" or "found" to "stolen" … or can you? Too soon to say.)
Is the future of digital news collaborative?
April 27, 2010
We all know the problems inherent in creating digital news packages: reporting from disparate geographic locations not only bloats budgets but hampers the ability to make timely decisions; slow uploads and incompatible file conversions often lead to breakdown in communication and impede the flow of critical information; the absence of a centrally shared space further aggravates an already frustrating approval process.Yet even in the face of the recent rapid democratization of media, coupled with the lowering price threshold on prosumer technology, a truly collaborative platform for news aggregation, collaboration and distribution has alluded us.
That just may have changed last Wednesday when USC Annenberg announced they would be the first major journalism program in the country to adopt Stroome, a robust collaborative online editing community developed by myself and award-winning journalist and documentarian, Nonny de la Peña.
Undoubtedly, my connection to Stroome as co-founder renders me biased. But there is no doubt that Stroome addresses a real pain in the marketplace.
Mark Cooper, director, Annenberg Digital News, put it this way: "Stroome fills a current, yawning gap and constitute[s] a powerful collaborative tool for university journalism learning labs and publications, for student media, for citizen journalism, for pro-am projects and, naturally, for legacy media moving into more networked new media."
The Entryway Project: old prejudices, new media
April 23, 2010
A strange project is underway and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.The Entryway is the online journal of two white young women who have moved in with an immigrant family in MacArthur Park. The first eight entries posted on the website seem to be the journal of Devin Browne, a reporter who has produced stories about the MacArthur Park area for local outlets like the LA Weekly. Little is learned about the Mexican family the two girls are living with, other than in the form of short, somewhat poetic outbursts that seem sporadic and disconnected from a bigger picture.
Browne, the diarist, and Kara Mears, who acts as the photographer for the project, are voyeurs. On the front page of the website, although they clearly describe themselves as "reporters," they also point out that the project itself is "not journalism." It's a "personal narrative."
A couple of weeks ago, former LA Weekly reporter Daniel Hernandez wrote a scathing review of the project's concept, titling his post "Safari in Los Angeles, in a home in MacArthur Park." Hernandez claimed that "the authors are wasting an incredible journalistic opportunity, in the service of their own vanity."
The project is, at best, self-indulgent and full of "self-satisfied gloating", according to Hernandez and some of his colleagues. Riled up commenters likened the project to a reality TV show, and even called it "straight up racist."
I consumed the entire Entryway Project site twice before I could come to my own conclusion. The first time, I was immediately struck by the beauty and flow of the layout. The pictures are crisp and the structure changes frequently enough to evoke an urge to see more. I was dazzled, in all honesty, just as I had been the first time I visited Media Storm. I immediately posted it on my Facebook page and noted that it was "pretty amazing" and "an interesting concept." I was referring, however, to the style — not the content. It seemed closer to creative non-fiction, which is something I have always been fascinated with, especially when it comes to translating that feeling online.
But teacher and South LA Report contributor Jose Lara inspired me to take a second look, this time screening for substance.
Student journalists need to learn SEO more than they need AP style
April 21, 2010
Last week, journalists reacting to the Associated Press's announcement that it would replace "Web site" with "website" in the AP Stylebook pushed the phrase "AP Stylebook" onto Twitter's trending topics list. (FWIW, OJR's style for the past several years has been to use "website.")Most journalists approved of the news, though a few skeptics, such as the University of Florida's Mindy McAdams, demurred. Though I disagree with her on this, I loved the snark of her Twitter response: "Everyone but me is cheering AP style change to website. I think it resembles parasite."
I jumped in with this: "If you're publishing online, Google style (i.e. SEO) always trumps AP style."
And... "Really, j-schools need to ditch AP style and start teaching their students SEO instead. More valuable to their careers."
As much as I enjoy provoking folks from time to time, I am serious about this. The newspaper industry developed a common style, maintained by the Associated Press, to meet the communication needs of a print-based industry trying to most effectively communicate with a broad audience.
Today's online publishers, editors and reporters need a new style that most effectively allows their words to reach their intended audiences. Unfortunately for them, the print-inspired AP style is not that. Today's (and tomorrow's) journalists need to learn search engine optimization [SEO] techniques as much as, if not more than their predecessors who worked the print industry needed to learn AP.
Moving Beyond Traditional Display Advertising: It's All About ME
April 16, 2010
To date, nobody has found the holy grail of advertising models to support thriving hyperlocal sites. Traditional display ads, even with rich media, are only a start.For the most part, these are still simply online facsimiles of offline ad types. Isn't a banner ad nothing more than a print display ad brought online with a few bells and whistles? We need ad types that take advantage of the unique attributes of today's digital media—whether it's the social nature or immediacy of the web.
There are some emerging models that excite me, because they truly take advantage of the medium even if they are borrowing concepts from the past. I believe local sites should begin moving beyond traditional display ads by deploying three of these new formats: coupons, group buys and deals of the day.
All help overcome the issue online ad sellers frequently face. Sites may have done a terrific job of delivering traditional ads, but too many advertisers still say "Gee, I'm not sure if that ad worked or not."
What these three examples provide are models that are easily understood by small business owners. In a world where the revenue per customer is relatively low, a local publisher can ill afford to spend a lot of time convincing an advertiser that he or she got a great deal.
Investigations and explanations - two journalism tasks where nonprofits can thrive
April 13, 2010
The newspaper industry is struggling. According to a March 2010 report from the Pew Research Center's annual Project for Excellence in Journalism, the American newspaper industry has lost $1.6 billion in annual reporting and editing capacity since 2000. In the last three years, the newspaper industry has cut thousands of full-time reporting and editing jobs.The rapid decay of traditional for-profit news media is not because the public is less hungry for news. Indeed, the Pew study shows that Americans are avidly interested in news. What has changed is that Americans for the most part aren't willing to pay for news, mostly because they believe they can get all the news they want without paying for it.
So how will America fill the growing void in journalism as traditional for-profit media models fail?
The answer is in nonprofit journalism organizations dedicated to producing quality journalism for all news consumers.
But what is nonprofit journalism? What purpose does it serve?
As most people would agree, journalism is gathering, verifying and conveying news, descriptive material and opinion -- increasingly in the 21stcentury through a widening spectrum of media. A nonprofit organization operates to serve the public good without the shackle of debt and dividends.
Combining non and profit, two simple words, can create massive confusion.
The obvious answer is that nonprofit journalism is freed from the crippling constraints of business, but that definition is far too simple. Nonprofit journalism, which has grown exponentially over the last few years, has truly become the answer for an ailing news industry.
What does Apple's new mobile iAd format mean for news publishers?
April 9, 2010
Is Apple's new iAd system a game-changer for the business of mobile application development?With Steve Jobs' announcement at yesterday's press preview of the new iPhone OS 4.0, Apple's now in the ad network business. Like Google before it, Apple is opening the advertising market to a new group that didn't have easy, direct access to it before - in this case, mobile application developers.
Sure, many current apps are ad-supported: Just cruise through the iPhone app store and look at how many apps come in two versions - a paid one and an ad-supported "free" or "lite" version. But by integrating an ad service system with the iPhone's operating system, which will now support multi-tasking, Apple's new iAds have the potential for offering a far superior user experience than current "click-away" ads.
We'll have to see iAds in a live environment before the publishing industry will learn if the iAd's improved functionality leads to better click-through rates among iPhone application users. Thanks to a generation of lousy ads for lousy products, many consumers have been conditioned to hate ads, and either to ignore them or ignore applications or publications that place them too obtrusively within their content.
Functionality is nice. The ability to stay within the application while viewing an expanded ad is helpful both to readers and to publishers. But, ultimately, that functionality doesn't matter to someone who never clicks or selects an ad.
Apple will need to find a way, working with its app developer partners, to improve click-through rates on ad-supported apps, if app publishers are to see any significant increase in revenue from iAds.
Online publishers can't afford to remain politically neutral
April 6, 2010
Once you make the transition from newsroom reporting to website publisher, you've added a long list of responsibilities to your daily work. There's the technology of publishing a website and managing a readership database. There's metrics - tracking who is reading the site, from where and for how long. There's money, both on the expense side and earning income. You might be selling ads, invoicing advertisers, tracking campaigns, or soliciting grants, completing reports and managing a non-profit board.With all of those extra responsibilities, do not forget about one other - one that directly conflicts with what you were taught as a reporter, but is nevertheless a responsibility that's vital if you are to remain in business successfully.
You've got to get active, politically.
Decisions made by elected officials determine what information you can access, as well as who can access your publication, and how. They determine how much you pay in taxes, what infrastructure supports your business, as well as the same for your competition.
That's why the news industry, for generations, has actively lobbied lawmakers to ensure that their decisions either help or at least minimize the harm to its companies.
But as an independent news publisher, you cannot rely on news industry lobbyists and established industry voices to represent your interests. Remember, those newspapers and broadcast and cable stations are your competition now. One characteristic of the environment that they are attempting to have government create (or maintain) is one in which it is difficult, if not impossible, to launch and grow successful competition to their businesses.
What is your strategy for delivering news via Video on Demand?
April 2, 2010
Sure, go ahead and develop apps for Apple' new iPad, if you want. Sure, I earlier warned that the iPad wouldn't save journalism, but application development practice never hurt anyone. And the more experience you can get with developing in HTML 5 (the iPad's substitute for Flash), the better.But if you really want to get ahead of the tech curve in online publishing, here's what you need to be playing with right now:
Video on demand.
Last week, Netflix sent me a disk that allows my family to watch its instant streaming movies and TV shows via our Wii video game console. I'd been watching a few shows online via my MacBook Pro, but watching on the family flat screen provides an infinitely more enjoyable experience. (Netflix also offers streaming via several other devices, including XBox and several brands of Blu-Ray players and HDTVs, not to mention TiVo digital video recorders.)
If I were running a news business producing a substantial amount of video news stories, I'd want to cut a deal with Netflix, or another player in the VOD game, to start streaming my news content via these platforms.