Media Watch

The gap between young and old

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:03:00 +0000

I attended the "Chicago Journalism Town Hall" today at Hotel Allegro downtown.

An esteemed panel of professionals from outlets such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Chi-Town Daily News, Huffington Post, Gaper's Block, CLTV, WTTW, and NBC were there, as well as professors and experts in digital media.

The crowd of 400+ (expected attendance about 50-100 originally according to organizer/moderator Ken Davis) included journalists, students, bloggers, publishers, advertisers, and public relations professionals. It was a great meeting of the minds to discuss the shift from traditional journalism to online and how to save local journalism.

A topic such as this, in the current economic climate, can be highly sensitive. It was. Emotions got the best of people at times, and conversation really heated up in the third and final hour of the discussion. Some people said things they later regretted and some people went really over the top.

One thing was more apparent than anything else. One thing. It was glaringly obvious.

The gap between the young and the old. The new media, Web-savvy folks and the old-school journalist folks.

This is not meant to be an insult to the professionals there I classify "old-school" and traditionalists, many of them understand the Web well enough to get by, but they simply don't "get" it. And the young people did.

Andrew Huff of Gaper's Block, Ben Goldenberg of Huffington Post, Geoff Dougherty of Chi-Town Daily News -- they all get it. They see where the industry is going. They see where the opportunities are. They've all plugged in those holes with innovative ideas which will likely be a major part of the future of this industry.

Hearing some of the "old-school" folks talk about the need to fund this, or the need to fund that, I just shook my head. No one CARES about much of the content they were talking about! Start writing with young people in mind, the future of your organizations. Start channeling your content to areas most in need, write stories that people are most interested in reading - please.

And do your homework when it comes to the opportunities that online offers. Understand there are ways to monetize the Web. There are huge opportunities out there. And micro-payments, while a good idea in theory, may not be the best way to do it. What are some alternatives? One person at the event, Kiyoshi Martinez, put up this blog afterward on ideas he has to generate revenue on the Web. Some solid ideas.

The saddest part is how tight some of the old-school journalists were clinging on to the past. They showed no interest in even having a dialogue about change. They were so wrapped up in their own ways. Attitudes like that will get the industry nowhere.

It's time to be innovative, to pull out all the stops, to try new things. Because there's no question anymore where the future lies. And that's the Web.

Tribune Co. continues to cut back

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:31:00 +0000

It makes no sense to me. These major companies want to make more money, yet they are slashing what is vital to their product existing in the first place - personnel...and...the news! This may be a temporary fix but it's just compounding problems for down the road.

Here's what caused my latest rant on this final weekday of January.

The Los Angeles Times announced today they are laying off 300 jobs, including 70 in the newsroom, according to Bloomberg.

The explanation from corporate is that the cuts are necessary "to tackle record print advertising declines and $12.5 billion in debt."

But what really has people buzzing is the fact the Times announced today it is getting rid of its daily California Section (previously known as Metro), per LA Weekly. Content for the section will get moved to A Section, and inevitably it will be cut back.

Said Times reporter Howard Blume on the news: "I don't really know how this is going to work. The discussions have taken place well above my pay grade. There will still be a newspaper, and some of us will still be working here. And those folks will still do their darndest to put out a quality, relevant newspaper. And the rest of us will be looking for alternative employment. This is Journalism 2009."

College papers not immune to economic crunch

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:15:00 +0000

College newspapers are being hurt by the state of the economy, according to Bryan Murley in a PBS MediaShift article published today.

Some had assumed "college newspapers would weather the storms of the changing media environment better than their peers in the wider industry," according to Murley.

I've heard this assumption in the past as part of the campus newspaper staff at St. John Fisher College and now DePaul University. The thought is that college papers are so "niche" that they are more likely to succeed, and also that the young people running these newspapers are more likely to be plugged into social networks like Facebook to help promote their work.

The problem goes back to advertising. Like other print publications, college newspapers are now suffering from "a decline in advertising revenue" per the article. Free classifieds online and businesses' reluctance to transfer their print accounts to the Web are part of the problem.

General manager of the Daily Pennsylvanian Eric Jacobs said "the drop in national advertising was like falling off a cliff." He also expects declines in local advertising in the coming months.

Murley states that college papers are cutting back costs to deal with the advertising decline. For example, the Daily Orange at Syracuse University and Daily Californian at University of California at Berkeley both dropped a publication day last fall.

It will be interesting to monitor long-term affects of the economic crunch on college newspapers and how the conditions improve as the economy recovers.

Minneapolis Star Tribune files for bankruptcy

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:49:00 +0000

News of the Star Tribune's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy broke late this evening on the ST Web site.

The article says that "Minnesota's largest newspaper will try to use bankruptcy to restructure its debt and lower its labor costs."

Most interesting was Publisher Chris Harte's statement: "'We intend to use the Chapter 11 process to make this great Twin Cities institution stronger, leaner and more efficient so that it is well positioned to benefit when economic conditions begin to improve,' Harte said in a statement."

Leaner? We all know what that means.

This comes off news that my former employer Gannett is implementing a furlough program. Nearly all of its employees will lose a week's time without pay, according to the Editor & Publisher.

What will happen next?

Uncertainty in Seattle

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:58:00 +0000

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has served its community for 146 years, but right now the publication is on pins and needles.

Yesterday, a painful countdown began for Seattle P-I and its 170 staffers. Sixty days. Its parent company Hearst announced Friday that it is putting P-I up for sale, and if there is no buyer after 60 days, the publication will either go Web-only or it will cease to exist, according to the Associated Press.

P-I reporters Dan Richman and Andrea James wrote about the developments for the paper's Web site. They say that "[e]conomic reasons have forced the state's oldest morning newspaper into a sale," according to Steven Swartz, president of the Hearst Corp.'s newspaper division, and that the publication lost about $14 million in 2008.

Richman and James continued: "Today's dismal climate for newspapers means no buyer is likely to emerge, several sources said."

They painted a picture of the grim atmosphere: "P-I employees were silent as they listened to the announcement, which lasted about 10 minutes. Some shed tears. Others held up cell phones or voice recorders in news-conference fashion. Phones rang unanswered and the police scanner buzzed on."

The blog Newspaper Death Watch called the unfolding events the "Seattle Surprise," noting that rumors had been "floating around for months" that another paper, the Seattle Times would shut down. The Times apparently has been having its own trouble in recent years, and its future is also very uncertain.

I can't help but hope on this that somehow, someway, the Seattle situation turns out OK. While I'm well aware a buyer is unlikely to emerge, I'm a guy who loves to fight the odds until the absolute last second. Wouldn't it be great for an independent business owner to step up and save this critical piece of history in the Seattle community? If not, here's hoping P-I can at least restructure to have an on-line only product, so that it can at least survive in some form.

Some optimism for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:36:00 +0000

The new year is here and John Morton provided a new way of looking at the newspaper industry now that 2008 is behind us: "It Could Be Worse."

That was the name of his article in the Dec. 2008/Jan. 2009 American Journalism Review, fresh off the press and in my mailbox when I got back to Chicago just a few hours ago.

Morton writes that the print industry's numbers for 2008 "sparkle compared with the staggering losses reported by, say, the domestic automobile companies and the airline industry."

He adds that, "the newspaper industry as a whole remains profitable" and that the average operating profit margin "is still above what is typical for most non-media businesses."

Morton concludes, "the beleaguered newspaper industry's financial health has been weakened but remains healthy by most measures. In this environment, that is an achievement."

Perhaps it's not something to celebrate, but it's a much more optimistic way of looking at the media's recent woes, headlined by the fall 2008 wave of newspaper layoffs. What better way to start 2009 than with hope that this could be the year things will turn around?

Saving the newspaper industry

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:23:00 +0000

Just about everybody in newspapers readily admits that the current business model isn't working, but few seem to have solutions.

A few alternative models are gaining steam in recent months, such as not-for-profit and crowd-funding, but they're tough to get going with Big Boys like Gannett and the Tribune Co. still running the show.

Then, there was this: Just a few hours ago, Stanford University professor and former New York Times foreign correspondent Joel Brinkley offered up a way out of this mess, with the current corporate structure in place, that just might work. It's at least something that really makes you go "Hmmm" and there hasn't been enough of that yet.

He outlined a really compelling argument in a San Francisco Chronicle editorial yesterday. Yes, newspaper Web content to date has been overwhelmingly free. One reason publishers have been reluctant to charge for Web content, he says, is that such a move would likely just lose customers to other, competing papers.

But what if the newspaper industry as a whole went to the Justice Department "for an antitrust exemption that would allow publishers to collaborate on a decision to begin charging for their Web sites"? He says the price could be debated, and that's not really the issue. The point is getting enough people to the table, and consent from the government, to begin instituting sweeping changes across the board.

It might just work. The most intriguing scenario I've seen tossed out there yet. I hope Brinkley gets his column to the right people who can get the wheels in motion...to at least explore this very interesting idea.

Breaking News on the Web: Mats Sundin Timeline

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:06:00 +0000

As most know, I'm a huge hockey fan. Here's how news of the biggest hockey story of the year spread on the Web.

3:01 Pacific Time: NHL Director of Corporate Communications Michael DiLorenzo posts on Twitter: @umassdilo "sundin to canucks"

3:01 Pacific Time: Radio personality Buzz Bishop posts on Twitter: @buzzbishop "just got the press release. it's official SUNDIN IS A CANUCK"

3:06 Pacific Time: TSN posted a story saying Mats Sundin is a Vancouver Canuck

3:06 Pacific Time: Alanah McGinley of Kukla's Korner posts the news in the blog Canucks & Beyond

3:11 Pacific Time: Popular hockey site HockeyBuzz.com posts an update stating Sundin is a Canuck

3:12 Pacific Time: Vancouver online news site Straight.com reports the news

3:14 Pacific Time: Sportsnet.ca posts the story on its site

3:23 Pacific Time: ESPN.com posts the story on its site

The first official media outlet to break the news seems to be 95Crave in Vancouver. Buzz Bishop told me on Twitter that he announced the news on the station "seconds after presser was dropped, before twitter."

It would appear that the press release was officially sent out by the club at 3:00 Pacific Time (that is the time stamp for the story at Canucks.com as well). Just one minute later by Twitter, not bad. Certainly beat the big boys on the Web.

This is yet more evidence that Twitter is becoming a viable way to break news to a niche audience.

Déjà vu

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:30:00 +0000

Our friends north of the border are now experiencing what thousands of Gannett employees went through just a few weeks ago.

Sun Media, Canada's largest newspaper publisher with operations in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and elsewhere, announced Tuesday that it is cutting 10 percent of its workforce as a result of "harsh economic conditions," per the Canadian Press.

That amounts to some 600 layoffs, proving that the newspaper industry's troubles are not just limited to the United States.

The CP quoted Sun Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau as saying in a release: "The news industry is being revolutionized and we have to adapt if we want to remain an industry leader."

Similar to the independent Gannett Blog, which chronicled the Gannett cuts, the Toronto Sun Family blog is telling the story of these latest media layoffs.

According to the Toronto blog, President of the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild Brad Honywill said of the layoffs: "I don't think Toronto's, or, for that matter, North America's, media landscape will look the same after this recession. We're going through a fundamental shift that will result in fewer sources of news and less and less depth."

Honywill continued, "Increasingly, stories will be shared across chains, diminishing local voices [...] So these cutbacks represent a real loss to the community and to our democracy."

It's so sad to see the newspaper industry come to all of this, and I feel deeply for all Canadians affected by these cuts. I have a particularly close eye on all things Canada with my paternal grandfather's family being from there, and having many cousins in the country still. This hurts.

Once again, we can blame the economy in terms of how rapid this media collapse has been. However, this was bound to happen eventually - the economy is just speeding up the process. It's a new world out there with the Internet, and so much free content available to consumers online. The need for a new business model is more urgent now than ever before. Now is the time for the news industry to act.

Newsstand price rising for two papers

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:22:00 +0000

If you haven't heard, a copy of Gannett's USA Today now costs $1 daily and the Washington Post is jacking its paper up to 75 cents a pop. Both price increases amount to a quarter more than they were previously.

The USA Today price increase was announced Friday, Oct. 10, but it didn't officially take effect until Monday, Dec. 8. The Washington Post change will happen on Monday, Dec. 15.

Harry Jaffe of the Washingtonian brilliantly coined this lede to describe the latter change: "The Washington Post is going to ask readers to pay more for less." Literally. He says "The Post also has told staffers that it will shrink the size of the paper and use a thinner paper stock to help with rising paper costs."

While newspapers scramble for revenue, this curious change won't go unnoticed. In an economic recession, when everyone - everyone - is affected in some way and pinching pennies more than normal, that quarter could make all the difference in the world.

At a time newspapers should be trying to draw a higher readership, this seems to be pushing people away. People aren't stupid. Your papers are shrinking, your staff is being slashed, and everyone is looking for bargains these days - yet you raise the price. It just doesn't make any sense.

NPR announces layoffs

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Add National Public Radio to an ever-growing list of American companies cutting back expenses and laying off workers due to the current economic crisis.

The recession has left no business, including NPR, "exempt" from being affected, NPR interim president and CEO Dennis Haarsager said today in a statement.

Two NPR programs, Day to Day and News and Notes, will go off the air in the next few months as a result of the cuts.

A total of 64 employees will be laid off. Twenty-one positions currently vacant will not be filled.

The company will still have "more than 800 employees on staff, including about 300 journalists," according to the NPR release.

Motown Mystery

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:45:00 +0000

While there's been plenty of chatter about the Gannett layoffs this week, everywhere from the blogosphere to many of the affected newspapers' Web sites, it's been eeriely quiet in Detroit.

Gannett's Detroit Free Press never reported any layoffs on its Web site, even though it was among the papers expected to make cuts. Corporate's deadline of Thursday, Dec. 4 for action to occur came and went, and still, no official word out of Detroit.

The Free Press has had no shortage of economic issues to report on, just a few hours ago reporting that General Motors will lay off 2,000 employees at three factories, including one in Michigan, but it's been mum on itself.

Rumors are swirling. According to an anonymous comment at the independent Gannett Blog, 14 Detroit Media Partnership workers were laid off today, and the Free Press specifically will be making cuts in the next few days. Another anonymous user at the same blog notes that the DMP (Free Press and News ownership) may begin publishing primarily online.

While most Gannett papers are profitable (apparently not enough for corporate but that's another story), there's been plenty of speculation that Detroit is largely in the red. Things aren't getting any easier with the auto industry woes and other economic problems in Motown.

While I don't have any inside knowledge on this situation, something's definitely up, in my opinion. And it's not good. It will be interesting to see what decisions are made by Gannett when it comes to Detroit. It may rely heavily on Motown's hopes that the government passes an auto industry bailout. Something to keep an eye on.

Something positive amidst the negative

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:22:00 +0000

Yesterday was a brutal day for Gannett newspapers, as the majority of the estimated 3,000 job cuts this week were carried out. The official account of layoffs/buyouts, as official as one can get anyway, per the independent Gannett Blog, is now 1,770. The number continues to climb, as that only accounts for 57 of the 85 community dailies owned by Gannett.

Scott Pitoniak - one of my first journalism mentors, a former professor of mine, and someone I have the utmost admiration for - was among those laid off. I've written about him before in this blog. He did a phenomenal job covering the Beijing Olympics this past summer, and he's easily one of the best sportswriters in the country. It was an untimely, and unjust, end for him at the Democrat and Chronicle. I wish him all the best. Sadly, he wasn't the only one affected who I knew. Copy editor Ted Rosen and assistant sports editor Jim Castor are among the departed, who I both worked with in the Sports Dept.; I wish them both the best as well. Great people, with more than 90 years of Rochester, N.Y. sports journalism experience COMBINED. So sad.

But here's something positive. Even though Gannett is headed in the wrong direction of serving the American people and carrying out the First Amendment, the journalism profession itself is not dead. Other media companies are growing without laying off their workers; and undoubtedly, more news organizations will be born in the coming years (perhaps smaller ones, more independently-owned and non-profits). And there's tremendous room for growth too, tremendous opportunity, as big media companies continue to fail the American people, cutting back personnel and seeking higher profits.

One journalist, Chrys Wu, provided a wonderful list tonight of places for unemployed journalists to find work. They include ACES Job Board, Copy Editor Job Board, and IRE Job Center, but there's more. The full list is here.

Doomsday on the horizon

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:51:00 +0000

Gannett will carry out the majority of its 3,000 lay offs tomorrow. With the exception of a few, it appears (reading the accounts at the independent Gannett Blog) most of the affected employees still have no idea at this hour whether they'll survive the latest round of cuts.

This was my company. I worked with the Sports Dept. at the Gannett's Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. from Oct. 2006 to April 2008. I loved it there. I loved serving the people of Rochester. I loved the newsroom environment. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to everyone at the D&C on this night. Everyone at Gannett for that matter.

Former Gannett employee Paul Oberjuerge nails the situation in his blog tonight:
"At some point, Gannett should have remembered it was a media company, a newspaper company, with all the First Amendment privileges and responsibilities that brings. It could have and should have spent more on its newspaper products and tried to scrape by on, oh, 20-25 percent profit."

God be with everyone at this time. Gannett is making a big mistake here. Laying off employees is not the answer, especially after how many it's laid off already. Morale is as low as ever at its newspapers, I know people at several of them. The greedy leaders of this company will pay for this in the long run. Justice will be served.

And journalism won't die. Gannett's place as a leader in American journalism is quickly fading. Quicker than I can even type.

How journalists should use Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:45:00 +0000

This convenient list was posted at The Earley Edition, a blog by Australian journalist Dave Earley.

"Journalists should use Twitter:

* to find contacts
* to maintain and communicate with contacts and their audience
* to monitor keywords relevant to their round (their beat, for my American friends)
* to monitor updates around a specific geographic location."

Earley works for the Courier Mail, a large daily doing some cutting edge work online. I first ran across him and his Twitter feed during the recent severe thunderstorms in Brisbane, Australia, and the Courier Mail's use of Twitter at the time.

Economy adds to newspaper woes

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:01:00 +0000

New statistics released today revealed more bad news for newspapers.

Newspapers lost nearly $2 billion in the third quarter, a record 18.1 percent decline from the second, according to Advertising Age, citing a study by the Newspaper Association of America.

Even worse - online ad revenue for newspapers declined for the second straight quarter. It went down 3 percent in the fall quarter after a decline of 2.4 percent in the quarter before.

The Advertising Age predicts more trouble to come: "This fall's financial collapse affected only some part of the latest results. However, the rest of the year is likely to look even worse."

Not the type of report the newspaper industry needed to hear on the day the U.S. economy was officially declared in a recession.

Lehrer to journalists: Calm down

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:48:00 +0000

Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, had some choice words for the growing "woe-is-me" journalist population out there.

"Calm down," he said at a recent talk at the University of Oklahoma.

Lehrer said that the rise of independent blogs, podcasts, cable television/radio shouting matches, and the like only makes traditional journalism - real, sound reporting - and the role of the editorial gatekeeper MORE important, and he predicts the industry will make a big comeback, according to the Huffington Post.

Again per the HuffPost: "People are busy, they want some professional, unbiased, un-agenda assistance in sorting through it all to help determine what is important before they go off to the editorial page or the commentators, or to be shouted at or entertained about it."

You know, in a lot of ways he's right. But the problem remains on how the news business can make money, especially as ink costs go up, advertisers pull back, and circulation continues to decline. Perhaps a non-profit/trust or new type of business model will become the best way to go when all is said and done. Time will tell.

Twitter truly opens up new doors

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:48:00 +0000

I've been getting more and more intrigued with Twitter lately and the role it may play in the future of news.

Twitter is a largely public tool. And applications like TweetDeck document the most popular words being said at any given time. For example, in the last few minutes, the most popular words have been "Berlin" and "thunder." I looked through the "tweets" with these words and learned a fire had broken out at the airport in Berlin and there was a major thunderstorm going on in Brisbane, Australia - I even saw photos of the storm!

Here's some of the tweets on the Australia storm too:

KatJohnston : #bnestorm now hailing in newmarket.. hope it doesn't hurt the car.
Posted at 02:42

JonoH : 420 Queen ST is getting smashed!!! people can not walk.. Wind too strong!! #bnestorm
Posted at 02:42

WauloK : #bnestorm at Corinda sitting at the open front door watching the storm. Wild!
Posted at 02:39

JonoH : Currently 785 Strikes a minute for the lightning in SE QLD! incredible! #bnestorm
Posted at 02:38

So, in essence, it can be used as a news service. It chronicles news as it happens. It also documents buzzwords, the most popular talk at any given time.

So what role does it play in the future of newsgathering and news in general? I've been thinking about it...there has to be one.

In one sense, it's niche at its best because you can target specific audience and communicate with specific people who have the same interests as you. Newspaper personalities like ColonelTribune and WeatherBird utilize Twitter really well, getting their stories out while also interacting with their readers.

Editors can also toss words around on Twitter, do some interacting, and see what's hot and what's not. What's popular and what's lost into cyberspace. They can also do this by monitoring all the most recent tweets. And base stories on that. Really.

I think Twitter will continue to grow and be a big part of the future of the Web, and it'll be interesting to see what else comes of it. Other than that, who knows what form it'll take in the next few years. To be continued...

Update: I found this wonderful slideshow on the basics of Twitter and how it can be used for PR, journalism, live reporting, and more.

How Twitter can deliver news

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:52:00 +0000

You don't need to be a journalist to be a part of the news gathering and news dissemination process on Twitter.

In the past 30 minutes alone, the Web site Hashtags.org has recorded dozens of Twitter posts with "#lafire" on them. Basically, Hashtags.org chronicles the most popular topics being discussed on Twitter by analyzing these user-provided tags. #lafire took off in popularity as a tag within the last 24 hours. It of course refers to fires around Los Angeles.

In the last few minutes, here's what members of the LA community have been bouncing back and forth on Twitter:

"Want to help if you aren't close? Donate to Red Cross who assists fire victims with shelter, food, necessities. http://tiny.cc/cN2ho"
"RT: rachellechong: #LAFIRE Animals may be taken to Pierce College or Hansen Dam during fire emergency"
"Watching the fires break out all around L.A.. Mess. Major. Chaos. Sky is red. #LAFIRE if you're into disaster theater."
"on 91 freeway, people turning around and exiting on onramp to get off fwy. #lafire anaheim hills"
"Three major fires surround LA at this time #lafire Anaheim Hills, Sylmar, Yorba Linda"

They're almost like mini stories. And more are popping up every second. Both by people trying to get information out, public officials for instance, and everyday citizens just posting their thoughts, opinions, and observations.

Thus, Twitter becomes a powerful tool in times of crisis or major news. Users quickly catch on to the popular Hashtag being used, and they put it in their tweets to be part of the conversation.

While there is no gate-keeping and there's obvious issues with the potential for rumors or misinformation being distributed, it's still a powerful device if used correctly, and the journalism industry as a whole could learn a lot from monitoring the takeoff of one of these popular hashtags, such as the one that's growing in popularity as I write this: #lafire. Talk about a whole new meaning to "breaking news"...something like this keeps breaking and updating every few minutes - in some cases, like when the VP Debate between Palin and Biden took place, every few seconds.

National Press Club discusses journalism's future

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:41:00 +0000

Former broadcast anchor Dan Rather, Associated Press President/CEO Tom Curley, New York Times Managing Editor Jill Abramson, and NYU professor Jay Rosen were all present for the event in New York City, and it can be seen here at the C-Span Web site.

Some interesting thoughts:

Rather said that he thinks doomsday talk for TV, radio, magazines and newspapers is premature. He says two things are lacking right now: "optimism" for what's to come - and he added he's an optimist "by nature and experience" - and "idealism," striving to provide the best coverage possible and lessen the bleeding of "entertainment values overrunning news values." Rather added, "the center of gravity is shifting to new media."

Curley: "Don't dismay. There's a tremendous opportunity out there for covering the news, and it's never been better."

Rosen: "The tools of media production ... have now been distributed to the people out there. That is a social fact. People have blogs, they have cameras, they have video, they can edit, they can create their own report, they can upload it and they can distribute it to the world."

When those who were formerly the media's audience take up the craft, that is "citizen journalism," Rosen says.

But that same context amounts to exciting opportunities ahead for young journalists and students of journalism, who stay optimistic and push forward, he says. "The tribe of professional journalists are in a situation of forced migration, meaning they can't live anymore on the land they colonized and developed so successfully for the last 100 years. The land gave out." "If they're going to have a future for their people, for their tribe, they're going to have to migrate across the digital divide and rebuild."

"The AP is making the journey over, the New York Times has made the journey over, and what they're discovering is there is a new land there and we can thrive there."

"It's like a frontier, it's like the Wild West, that hasn't been colonized yet, it hasn't been civilized yet. It's still wild in a lot of ways. That's what's fun about it, that's what's cool about it, that's what makes me optimistic."

CSM continues to lead

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Christian Science Monitor continues to take the lead in the future of journalism, particularly on the Web. It held a live webcast this evening, appropriately entitled, "The Future of Journalism."

I wasn't able to attend the webcast, I was at class, but thanks to Twitter, I was able to learn some things that were said.

Particularly interesting "tweets" from social media expert Doug Haslam, who was broadcasting bits and pieces from the CSM webcast:

Mark Jurkowitz: new media models rushing to fill the void left by shrinking print reporting staff
Can anyone but NYT& WaPo afford to break the big stories? Jurkowitz
Ellen Hume of MIT: New journalism means the old media aren't the only ones w/ reporting power.
Hume: if journalist is popular there's something wrong.
Douglas K. Smith: median age of ABC News is 61. Enterprise model still works but shrinking.
Jurkowitz: broadcast tv still has a significant role. it's changing but still big
Q: will newspapers go away? Jurkowitz: print will change become more niche. remeber gulf war 1 as end of paper 1st
Ellen Hume is big on participatory journalism.
Ellen Hume: face to face is irreplaceable. use tech but continue to be a journalist
Jurkowitz: dangers of people sticking with news that fits their world view

Election Day musings

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:03:00 +0000

I was part of the action on Nov. 4, as I went around polling places in Chicago to interview voters for the Associated Press. A bit of my reporting was actually picked up by media outlets. Quotes from Miranda Young, an 18-year-old St. Louis native who left a local hospital to cast a ballot for Barack Obama, appeared in the Boston Herald, Gainesville Sun, and WBBM 780 in Chicago. Quotes from Julius Taylor, a 37-year-old Chicago truckdriver, were in the Rockford Register Star. Very cool.

Then I attended the rally at Grant Park. Put together a video of highlights from my vantage point at the rally, including when CNN announced Obama had won the presidency, and uploaded it on YouTube...can be found here. That's already received more than 1,700 views now; the power of the Internet to reach people and connect with others is simply amazing. In fact, a search of "Obama rally Grant Park" on YouTube turns up my video second! Have had overwhelming feedback on that and many comments. It was fun little enterprise and I'm glad people have enjoyed it. I believe that night was so historic and one we should all share in.

I also have to give a shoutout here to my old campus newspaper, the Cardinal Courier. They posted updates THROUGH ELECTION NIGHT and did some great original reporting on the fly! They had a special Election Edition come out today and word on the street is it's amazing looking. Can't wait to see for myself. Props to the Courier.

Just three types of journalistic projects, all of which utilizing the Internet, that went on Tuesday, among the MANY, MANY more. Looks like online and journalism are a good marriage after all.

That didn't take long

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Ironic timing, considering my last blog entry, but the next Capital Times has in fact arrived.

The highly-respected, 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor announced today that it will stop printing its daily edition, in favor of going Web only and printing just once a week.

This is the first national U.S. newspaper to abandon daily print operations for the Web. The Capital Times of Madison, Wisc., was one of the first metro dailies to go Web only six months ago.

Said Editor John Yemma: "It's a tough road, but we basically feel that the Web is where the growth is."

Here's the official story from Christian Science Monitor itself.

Now that CSM has taken the lead on a national scale, will others follow? We'll see.

Are more Capital Times on the way?

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:45:00 +0000

Six months ago, The Capital Times based in Madison, Wisc., became one of the first daily newspapers in the country to make the switch to online-only.

According to the history page of the publication's parent company, Capital Newspapers: "The company's most recent change - and one of its most important - took place on April 26, 2008, when The Capital Times published its last daily print edition and became one of the first American daily newspapers to go primarily online. The Capital Times now consists of three separate, interrelated products."

What are those three main products? While, there's the "main" one - the newspaper's Web site, captimes.com. There's "a new magazine-style print edition, The Cap Times" published every Wednesday. And there's a new "arts, entertainment and culture publication" published every Thursday.

How has the transition gone? Well, if looking at the company's Web site today is any indication, it seems fine. The content is current, it's fresh, and the site looks good.

2009 is just beyond the horizon. The State of the News Media reports at Journalism.org paint a grim picture for the future. There were many layoffs and cutbacks at newspapers this past year. No one should be surprised to see more experiments like the one at The Capital Times, especially as online journalism continues to develop.

Here's a good feature on The Capital Times' switch to Web-only back in February for those interested.

The resiliency of journalists

noreply@blogger.com (Craig Kanalley) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:11:00 +0000

Wendy Parker, who recently parted ways with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after 19 years of service, posted this interesting tidbit in the "Wired Journalists" social networking community:

"Here's an update from a journalist at the San Diego Union-Tribune on the new lives, and work, of some former colleagues: FBI agent, political aides, graduate student, law firm investigator, hospital professional, communications manager, minister and, in another setting, investigative reporter. Says one of the (journalistically) departed:

'I miss the people, and there have been occasions where I miss being in a newsroom. It's a stimulating experience...But seeing the direction of the business, I don't have any regrets.'"

Parker ends her rant with this valuable insight: "We all know that journalists are an eclectic bunch, and their second acts reflect that. It's the institution that's homogeneous."

Right on. And journalists will survive because of it.

Sooner or later, the institution will have to change. It'll have to budge and find a new way of doing business, or it won't be doing business anymore. At least not the right way. Good journalism is at stake here, and I believe it's an essential part of our society.