Posts filed under “State of journalism”
Using Web analytics to improve content
For years individual content producers in news organizations didn’t have an easy way to figure out how popular or useful their content was with people. But with today’s advanced site analytics, content producers have unprecedented data about users and their surfing habits. I wrote a long post about this subject over at BeatBlogging.Org. Consider this [...]
Blah, blah, blah. Worst column ever.
Debra J. Sanders of the dieing San Francisco Chronicle recently wrote an inane column about why the death of newspapers will be the death of us all. And I quote: Blah, blah, blah. You need us (newspaper people, who only write for print) to keep democracy going. Blah, blah, blah we made the mistake of [...]
Lock up all your curmudgeons and children!
Because TwentySomethingJournalist.com just launched. You know what the worst kind of journalist is? A twenty-something journalist. You know what kind of journalist doesn’t respect the newspaperman myth? A twenty-something journalist. You know what kind of journalist doesn’t respect the Paper God? A twenty-something journalist. You know what kind of journalist is ruining journalism? A twenty-something [...]
A tale from a disgruntled journalist
I received an e-mail today from a reader who had a story to share about being stifled by corporate and management. The good news for journalism is that this person isn’t down on journalism itself, just some journalism companies. Unfortunately, this is not a unique story in today’s journalism world: I’m beginning to liken my [...]
Journalists leaving newspapers because of culture and corporate
More and more talented journalists (often young) are leaving journalism for other industries. Not because they fear being laid off or fired, but because the culture at newspapers (especially newspaper corporations) doesn’t allow for the kind of innovation necessary to save newspapers. Case in point: Braden Nicholson left the Indianapolis Star because corporate knew how [...]
If you have the skills, people will call
Yes, it is a tough time for journalism graduates — or anyone looking for a journalism job — but there are jobs available for people with desirable skills. Recent journalism graduate Kyle Hansen just accepted a job at the Las Vegas Sun. More noteworthy, is that in this terrible time for journalism companies and the [...]
Layoffs are not a business model
Timothy Kennedy, the publisher of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., announced 35-40 layoffs yesterday at the 110,000-circulation newspaper. But that’s not the real lede for me. In the middle of his memo he writes, “More than ever our financial results reflect the broken business model of the past.” I agree with him that the [...]
On missed opportunities
I want to relate a story from two years ago about a missed opportunity at a 25,000-circulation daily newspaper. I was talking with the top editors at this newspaper about my Web experience and some of my thoughts on what newspapers needed to do to make themselves more competitive on the Web. The question of [...]
We can. We will. We must.
I am strongly disappointed by the out-right negativity permeating through journalism right now. The anger, the negativity, the we-can’t attitude hit a flash point on an intern’s post about job cuts and a newsroom reorganization. Yes, grown-up journalists were using an intern as a punching bag. If you don’t believe journalism can be turned around, [...]
Today’s Thought: Institutional memory and inertia
Are institutional memory and inertia killing the newspaper industry? After reading the comments on a myriad of posts from journalists stuck in the past, I can’t help but think that there is no future for newspapers as long as the majority of their staffs (editorial and business) — and their collective institutional memories — are [...]