Posts filed under “Mainstream Media”
Innovation is a bumpy road but journalism needs it
Lost in the whole Rob Curley/LoudounExtra “flop” flap is that innovation is never easy. Heck, six out of 10 start-ups fail within the first four years of operation (let alone individual ideas and products at a start-up). And for some reason people are using the performance of LoudounExtra.com (it’s still going by the way) to [...]
LoudounExtra, a hyperlocal failure for the Washington Post?
It’s depressing. It feels like my girlfriend broke up with me and took my dog with her. Yes, I’m talking about The Wall Street Journal’s assessment of the failure of LoudounExtra.com. Maybe failure is a little harsh, but according to Rob Curley, his sites in Lawrence, Kan. got better traffic than LoudounExtra.com. For those keeping [...]
News organizations need to rethink staff resources in order to promote innovation
It’s a simple question: What should news organizations stop doing, today, immediately, to make more time for innovation? And it’s a simple answer: News organizations should stop pretending like it’s the pre-Internet days. Most news organizations are still legacy-first. Newspapers still care more about the print edition than the Web edition. Beats are still centered [...]
Interview with an enthusiastic adopter, Paula Froke
Paula Froke has jumped headfirst into the world of online and multimedia journalism with her upstart blog, Paula’s Adventures in Multimedia. While she may not have been born a digital native, she has quickly become an enthusiastic adopter. And as the Deputy National Editor for the AP, she is a manager, not a content producer. [...]
More thoughts on newspaper management
This post is adapted from a comment I left responding to a comment by Andy Dickinson on my last post: First, I didn’t say that there aren’t talented old, white guys. The world is filled with them. I’m arguing that at least some management should not fit into that demographic. To be sure, the core [...]
Management should reflect demographics (AKA management can’t be just a bunch of old white guys)
If newspapers don’t have young people in management positions, they need to get some. Or at least consult them on decisions. This shockingly does not happen at many newspapers, where management is usually determined by time served, not talent or ideas. Let’s face reality here: The average newspaper reader is like 100 billion years old. [...]
I do watch video online, just not newspaper video
Don’t assume that my post from yesterday means that I rarely watch video on the Web. I watch a lot of video online, with sites like Hulu.com and YouTube.com geting the vast majority of my time. I also enjoy niche sites like SouthParkStudios.com. Outside of CNN.com, I almost never watch journalism-related video on the Web. [...]
Written content is still my favorite online
These are going to be some dangerous confessions from a new media guy. While we should try to make cool, new features, we should always keep an eye on what is useful. Written content is immensely useful. It can be viewed in a variety of formats, even mobile, and when written well, it delivers a [...]
My advice for would-be journalists
A reader recently e-mailed me asking advice about his sister because she wants to get a graduate degree in journalism from a prestigious university. She has an English degree, hasn’t done journalism before but loves to write. He was concerned, however, that now is not a great time to be entering the journalism field, and [...]
Journalism students need to know marketing
Maybe you’ve heard the news by now about how traditional journalism — especially the print side — is having a tough time. This is not the time to despair. This is the time to create new ventures and take journalism to a new — better — level. (This post is a follow-up to Journalism students [...]