Posts filed under “State of journalism”
Not offending people is not an option for newspapers
“Not offending people is not a business model. You have to have something to say” – Dan Froomkin, PDF 2009. Inoffensive, “objective” journalism isn’t good journalism, it’s good business. At least it was before the Web. In a world where printing presses — and by extension, competition — are scarce, it’s good business to try [...]
Transparency comes before objectivity
This is a comment I left on today’s Poynter Chat on teaching social media: The notion of “objectivity” has been a big part of the downfall of traditional journalism. It turned into passionless, he said-she said nonsense. And people are smart enough to know that no one is truly objective. That’s why transparency trumps all. [...]
On reinvesting profits
Microsoft gets a lot of grief for many of the things that it does, but we should at least give Microsoft credit for being willing to reinvest profits into research and development. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he is willing to invest up to $11 billion in search over the next five years. I have [...]
Beware of that crazy Internet (and bad advice from professors)
“When I was in college, a professor said, ‘Beware of the Internet.’ Everyone and anyone is a ‘journalist’ or ‘writer’ because of it. Six years later, I owe the Internet a big hug, because before my memoir Rattled! there was Storked! on glamour.com. But I do consider myself a real writer, and my stories are [...]
Thoughts on charging for news (and succeeding)
A group of newspaper execs met this week to discuss the best ways to collude; I mean “support and preserve the traditions of newsgathering that will serve the American public.” Rather than comment on these legally-challenged meetings, I’m here to offer some suggestions for charging for news. Let’s assume that newspaper leaders have committed to charging for [...]
Job application for CEO of Tribune
Dear Sam Zell, I recently noticed that your company has filled for bankruptcy protection. I think I can help. Can I turn things around? No, but I think I can run things less poorly. You and your management team managed to sink Tribune into bankruptcy in less than two years. Those are skills far beyond [...]
News orgs have forgotten that people really love photos
15 billion photos have now been uploaded to Facebook: The latest numbers the company has shared with us include 15 billion photos uploaded in total, an average of 220 million new pictures posted each week, and at its busiest, 550,000 images being loaded each second. Somehow news organizations lost sight of the fact that people [...]
This is how it’s done (executive bonus style)
“Bankrupt newspaper companies are following the lead of AIG and Lehman Brothers and rewarding executives with large bonuses. The Tribune Co. is trying to pay out $13 million in bonuses, the Journal Registers Co. is trying to pay $2 million, and Philadelphia Newspapers has already given hundreds of thousands in bonuses to its corporate officers.” [...]
Are newspapers just guessing on what to do?
Kent Fischer told me that about a year ago newsroom managers at The Dallas Morning News approached reporters looking for volunteers to learn to shoot video. The managers sold these reporters on the idea of learning video by telling them that it would increase job security. You know, video is the future and all of [...]
It’s time to reinvent the newspaper industry
The Internet didn’t bring the newspaper industry down. Debt didn’t bring the newspaper industry down. Declining advertising rates didn’t bring the newspaper industry down. Complacency did. When an industry goes from so high to so slow, so fast, it’s ultimately because its leaders became complacent. They never thought that the monster profit margins would end. [...]