The best thing about being a journalist

When it's all said and done and I look back on my career, they'll be a few big stories I remember and lots of people. It's the associations that will stand out most, and particularly the successes of people I've worked with.

One of those people is a  young man who landed a job this week at USA Today. He wrote me a note a few weeks ago saying he was applying for a post and wanted to talk with me about it. I immediately called a top editor at the paper and told him this guy is the real deal.

Well, he go the job--a terrific one. I told him that I will use him as an example of what can happen to  a skilled, smart, ambitious young person. I will also use him as an antidote with my editor friends who sometimes forget how much good they're doing. Most of them have similar stories about helping people find new job and climb the ladder, many times over.

All the news that fit to print and then some

A move by the New York Times to more aggressively link its online readers to other news sites is the kind of step that will make the Times even more valuable to its readers.

The move recognizes that Times editors and reporters do pick up information from other news outlets that leads to stories in their own publications and also that other organizations have information that will help their readers access angles and insights that Times itself isn't providing.

Newspapers have been generally loathe to "move" their readers to other sites, afraid of losing the clicks that come from keeping readers going deeper into their own sites. But I'd argue that providing what my former editor used to describe as "guide and direct" resources in fact makes the newspaper's print and web editions more valuable.

It makes newspapers more true "information centers," offering ways for the readers to be better informed, which is truly a public service.

 

 

   

Don't try this while texting

Several us sitting around a breakfast table for a Unity convention event got a chuckle this morning when one of the editors on hand talked about how her paper had enlisted readers to participate in a new real-time traffic feature for their website. The idea is to have readers text message the paper when they see an accident or a traffic jam. That prompted yours truly to say "I hope their car is stopped when their filing."

A few hours later waiting for my plane back to Kansas City, I opened the Wall Street Journal and to my surprise was a front page story about how people have gotten hurt while texting, bumping into lamp posts, falling off of curbs and in one case, walking into a bride while texting. 

Doctors are reporting that people are showing up in emergency rooms with injuries from accidents sustained while they were texting and obviously not watching where they were going. One driver/texter even killed someone.

So, if you're in a position to ask readers to help you with coverage, tell them to stand still or sit still while messaging. Or they may be the subject of your next story.

The booths are buzzing at Unity

The Unity convention in Chicago is the perfect place to recharge your batteries if you're a veteran journalist like me worried about the state of the news industry. It's hard to feel down when you're among the 5,000 mostly bright-faced attendees of the minority journalism conference which is running this week at the McCormick Place convention center.

Many in attendance are young and looking for their first or second jobs, which I take as a very positive sign. They filled the job fair Thursday afternoon and made the CNN and USA today booths buzz with activity. And even the one or two chairs in front of many of the metro newspaper recruiting booths were occupied with eager candidates.

I talked to one young woman who was graduated a year ago from Santa Clara University who has been freelancing as a writer for an NBC affiliate in San Francisco. She was a very poised, web-savvy print major who has learned to write broadcast copy. She would welcome a fulltime job in any good news organization, print, web and/or broadcast and from what I saw of her resume, which she shared with me, she'd be catch.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed she gets a job soon so "we" don't lose her. She's exactly what mainstream journalism organizations need in this multi platform era.

Good for you Katie, and good for us

Katie Couric isn't on my top 10 list of journalists I most admire but I was happy to see that she plans to continue anchoring the CBS evening news. I think she's gotten a bit of what Hillary Clinton got: more scrutiny (read nitpicking) than she deserved. 

But that's something Couric can't control. What she can control is her reaction to it and to a large degree the kind of journalism she wants to be known for. 

With her evening anchor role and with meaty contributions to "60 Minutes," Couric has a great chance to gain her bones and a bigger audience over time. If she hang in there for a few years, I have no doubt she''ll become a beloved and respected figure. 

 

Women still aren't given the opportunities men are given when it comes to top flight news positions. So when some like Couric is given such an opportunity, my hope is that she doesn't step down too soon unless she absolutely has to.

Negative? Turn your energy into a proposal

Someone smart I live with said to me some years ago something to the effect "Rather than be a contrarian, make a proposal." It's a good practice whether you're talking with your honey about which restaurant to choose or to a newspaper editor about what's wrong with his or her paper.

I had the opportunity today to meet with someone concerned about an aspect of preps sports coverage in a local newspaper. By the time we met, he had heard from the paper's editors, very courteously, that staffing and newshole constraints contributed to why the paper couldn't give the subject more coverage.

The editors have agreed to meet with him so he came to me for advice. Here's what I told him. "Pick two or three things that you and the people you're working can provide the paper each week. It may be a calendar highlighting the best five upcoming matches plus one game summary."

 The point is to figure out how to help expand the coverage without causing more work for the editor and his staff. The point is that making a proposal is a way to take a positive approach to problem-solving and starting the discussion in an affirmative direction. It's easier and more productive than digging out of a hole.

 

"Newspaper war" has whole new meaning

It would not be surprising to anyone who knows her that Bobbi Bowman, ASNE's diversity director, would liken the turbulent period the newspaper business is in to World War II. The great war is her great passion, a hobby that has taken her to the shores of Normandy as well as to many museums and historical sites around the country.  She calls it the war that "saved Democracy." 

So in a conference call with would-be panelists for the upcoming Unity minority journalists convention Bobbi tried to provide an inspirational moment by saying this period in newspaper history reminds her of 1943, the first year of the war.

 "There were lots of casualties and the allies were losing ground. Everyone was very afraid and it was tough," she told us. To which one of the callers replied, "That certainly makes me feel a lot better."

   

Cable companies are in for a fight

Chalk one up for the little guy or at least anyone who doesn't want the big cable companies to limit what its customers can do online.

 The New York Times reported Saturday that the FCC is against efforts by Comcast and others to slow down the internet connections of customers who are moving large amounts of data at busy times. The feds say they're inclined to start regulating what the companies can do in this regard.

Efforts to control the flow of information is also one of the big concerns of free speech advocates and others who view the internet as a vital mechanism of free speech and access to information. But the cable companies say their networks have limited capacity, making it necessary to control usage.

This is one of those issues that going to engender a huge debate, lawsuits and a general public backlash. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes at least a minor issue in the presidential campaign. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak, and making it harder for people to share information when they want to is not going to be acceptable.  

  

 

You gotta love this reader

John Drescher, executive editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, sounded annoyed and defensive with the reader who filed suit against his paper for cutbacks in coverage. If I were Drescher, I'd privately be singing the guy's praises.

Most editors I know would love to be able to say publicly that cutbacks are hurting their ability to cover their communities. Of course, they can't say anything without putting their jobs on the line.

I can't remember ever rooting for a plaintiff in a lawsuit against a paper and I probably won't start with this case. I don't know enough about the particulars, and generally, I don't want the courts deciding how papers should be run. 

Still, you gotta love a reader who cares enough to make such a stink. Hopefully, the case will create community conversation and embolden other readers to weigh in on how the N&O can serve them better.

Using your workplace as a lab

An experiment by a CBS affiliate in St Pete to give 20 citizens video cameras and pay them $20 for submissions reminds me of some excellent advice I received a few years ago when I was still managing editor of the Indianapolis Star.

The advice was to use the workplace as a laboratory to try new things. That will feed your soul, the advice giver said, as well as create energy in the newsroom and build the capacity of your staff. From then on, I  had at least one major, far-reaching initiative going at any given time that was not on anyone else's formal agenda.

Some things worked and some didn't. But like the CBS citizens video project, I found there's often a lot to gain and little to lose in trying something bold. And for me, it made work more interesting and fun.

  

The Times is truly a public trust

A new acquaintance of mine is so convinced that Michael Bloomberg is going to buy the New York Times that she recently bought $10,000 worth of stock in the company.

I don't have anything against Bloomberg but I'd hate for the Times to change hands. Despite Jayson Blair, the flawed coverage of Wen Ho Lee and Judith Miller's too cozy relationship with Bush White House officials, I think the paper's editors do a great job pointing their pens at what needs to be covered and try to do it fairly. I worry that in any other hands, especially those of a rich politician like Bloomberg, the paper will not be as good.

I'm hoping my friend's $10,000 turns out not to be as good an investment as she hoped, or that the Times stock goes up because it makes a smart business move other than selling.

Taking some solace in latest newsroom census

One of the hats I wear is as diversity chair for the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Here are the email answers I gave in an online interview with a reporter for Diverse magazine which she decribed as a kind of Chronicle of Higher Education for blacks.


-Do you think that diversity is "the sacrificial lamb" during this turbulent time in the industry?

ASNEs annual census, released in April, found the percentage of journalists of color in newspaper newsrooms was slightly higher year over year. While editors I know wish the numbers were higher, given the loss of jobs in newsrooms, the ones I spoke with seemed to find solace in the report.

-What type of responses did ASNE receive after releasing the study results and how has the committee responded to the numbers?

The diversity committee plans to meet at Unity in July and discuss our projects for the year ahead. There is an idea being floated by another journalism organization we might partner with that would help with retention and promotion. Were also committed to helping editors increase coverage of minority communities, particularly using the web. ASNE is devoted to several other important programs to help increase the number of minority journalists including an extensive high school journalism initiative. The organization also provides annual training seminars for current professionals to build their expertise and confidence which helps keep them in the business and growing. For example, we just hosted a well-received seminar in Denver on immigration issues for reporters and editors. As one might expect, there was a heavy emphasis on the impact on Latino communities.


--Do you have additional comments?

Local newspapers are a great place to work if you want to make a difference in terms of community building, including giving voice to people who are marginalized or neglected as well as those with the wherewithal to make good things happen. We need journalists from all backgrounds to ensure we;re fulfilling our public service role and to accurately reflect whats going on in peoples lives. Our increasing use of the web gives us a tremendous opportunity to reach and reflect even more people and to help them connect with each other.



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What Kool-aid has Zell been drinking?

Wow, all of a sudden Sam Zell is playing Mr. Nice Guy. The Tribune Company owner is all sugar in his latest memo to employees.

It's refreshing to see Zell praise his newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the LA Times. Newspapering is hard enough without being gratuitously slammed by your owner which Zell did in earlier comments to and about his papers. Whether Zell came to the realization on his own or took some good advice, it's nice to see his positive comments .

Next step would for him and his leadership team to make a real effort to include publishers and editors as part of his brain trust, actively soliciting and employing some of their ideas. He talked loud and hard about giving his news properties more local autonomy when he bought Tribune last year but the jury's still out on how comfortable he'll be letting local executives call the shots.

NYT, make me an offer!

One of may favorite acts of the day for the past decade has been to walk outside my front door and retrieve my New York Times, in its bright blue bag, from the front yard.  So it was a huge blow to find out the paper doesn't provide daily home delivery in Lawrence, KS.

For me, not having the Times when I roll out of bed , is much, much worse than not having coffee which is a pretty miserable beverage to live without. I'm just not as smart or interesting if I haven't read the Times before heading to the office. I feel less civilized and certainly less entertained. 

What puzzles me is that the paper is delivered to several newspaper boxes around town. What would it cost the delivery person to bring one to my home? Why wouldn't the paper or the independent contractor involved see if they could make a deal with me that would make it worth their while? 

This is after all a college town and given that the newspaper boxes seem to be empty by 10 a.m., I suspect I'm not the only one who would be willing to pay considerably more if asked.

 

Would netflix model for newspapers?

As an avid hold-in-your-hands newspaper reader, I'd welcome the kind of tiered pricing system for newspapers that Time Warner has unveiled for magazines. http://www.foliomag.com/2008/maghound-com-set-debut-september

Mirroring the Netflix model, magazine readers will be able to purchase a set number of titles for a set fee. Want three titles a month? Pay $3.95. Five? It'll cost you 7.95. And so on with eight or more costing a buck a title . The beauty is that you can change which magazines you order each month, choosing from more than 300 titles in their "network." 

What if newspapers did a version of the same? I know several people like me who get two newspapers delivered each day, and some three. They'd love to pay a flat fee to one company and have the option of every once in a while getting a paper for their hometown or the place they plan to visit.

It's probably not a practical idea but in a world where people want more choice, the limits to such seem glaring.

 

 

Denying the Problem Won't Solve It

Howard Weaver, McClatchy's vice president of news, says in his own blog (http://editor.blogspot.com/2008/06/time-is-fire-in-which-we-burn.html) the problem with his company's newspapers is not with journalism, it's with revenues. He said the audience for McClatchy newspapers and digital sites has gone up. It's cash flow that's gone down.

I like Weaver's optimism and the strength of his conviction that McClatchy can reinvent itself to be a handsomely profitable newspaper company. I hope he's right (I still own stock from my ME days in Minneapolis which at the time McClatchy owned.) But I don't agree there isn't a problem with journalism at his and other newspapers, right now. You simply can't remove dozens of staff members from a newsroom and do the same level of work. Ask any editor.

That's why sites like MinnPost, the Chitown Daily News and dozens of others journalism sites are taking root and gaining eyeballs. They're filling gaps, offering local news and analysis the local daily newspaper isn't. That's good news if citizens are served, especially while newspapers figure out what businesses their in.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that in the end, when it comes to public service coverage, newspapers are at least as fervently in the game as they've been in the past. But understand that there has been an erosion and that unless we get that, the problem with journalism will grow even bigger.

Sports on the front page? Naturally

My friend and former colleague Tim Wheatley, sports editor at the Baltimore Sun, is at APSE's annual convention in Minneapolis this week. He asked me for some tips for sport editors on how to develop stories for the front page. Here's my advice:

--Capitalize on the fact that sports provide social connectedness and community identity which make them natural fodder for front page stories. This is especially true at big moments involving both teams and individual athletes when even fair weather fans are paying attention. In general use those big moments to capitalize on your readers’ interest in the big game, signing, ruling, announcement. Use the news peg to tell them something they don’t already know and can’t find (at least as well) elsewhere.

--People seem to prefer personality stories over issue stories. So write about people even when you’re writing about an issue. In indiana, Bobby Knight is a perennial front page possibility. So are Peyton Manning and Danica Patrick. It’s probably an easy bet that the average American knows more about Tiger Woods than the chief justice of the United States. So when you can, combine the draw of personality with the importance of an issue. Big Brown’s failed quest for the triple crown made us care about whether steroids should be banned in horse racing. Greg Oden offered the opportunity to write about the value of a college degree versus big money in the NBA. Hank Aaron called up the lingering question of racism in America...Use the stars at all levels of sport to evoke a meaningful discussion.

--Find more stories at the intersection of beats. There’s Sports and Business and Sports and Entertainment, of course. But what about sports and education, sports and fashion, sports and philanthropy, sports and religion? Surely if you put reporters from these beats in the same room, they’d come up with at least one front page story idea. The trick is to get the sports beat reporter to ask the non sports reporter to lunch with the mission of coming up with one good story idea and a plan for getting it done.

--Use blogs and other social networks to find out what people are talking about beyond the mainstream media. What if your preps reporter created a list serve with 20 high school coaches so the coaches could talk to each other about things they’re interested in. Your reporter could monitor the site for ideas and also use the coaches as a sounding board. Beyond your own site, are there Sports blogs in your community you should be aware of, linking to, making use of?

--Important, interesting, original, unusual, agonizing, unfair, in-depth, humorous, touching...Home in on what you think would make the story special to the widest number of readers and make sure it’s well-reported and written with an active voice, with description, good quotes, context and perspective. And don’t let anyone tell you or your reporters that doing so is not as hard as rocket science.

When genes aren't enough

When Jay Leno asks people on the street simple questions about history or famous figures, it seems funny that citizens can't name the chief justice of the Supreme Court or even the first president of the United States. But it's that sick-to-the-stomach-funny, the kind you get when you feel things are essentially going to pot.
But such ignorance doesn't have to be the norm. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor hit the nail on the head in a speech this month when she said the "unintended effect" of the No Child Left Behind Act is that it has squeezed out civic education. She's supporting a program called Our Courts, an interactive educational game for students that focuses on freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
"Knowledge about our government is not handed down through the gene pool. Every generation has to learn it and we have work to do," she said.
The news media --old and new--can play a huge role in supporting civic education by building into promotional literature the value of a free press. What if every time you turned on the TV, saw a newspaper mast head or a political blog site , there was a slogan that said: "Democracy and a free press go hand in hand."
When, as O'Connor said, more people know the names of the judges on American Idol than on the Supreme Court, it's time to starting singing more loudly about the First Amendment.

You'll hear from me, in the morning

As someone who's learned by trial and lots of error, I was happy to read recently that web developers are working on more advanced content systems to help us sort and manage email. Eventually, smart systems will be able to tell who the sender is and automatically code or route email to particular files.
Today, some reporters and editors I know mark their incoming emails by color to be able to scan and determine who they want to read or respond to first.
Those systems are helpful but if you don't want emails to overtake your day, here's the best tip I ever received on handling email: spend the first hour of your workday day on "comunications." That includes responding to messages, writing letters or other missives. Do it religiously and let people know that's your system. That way they know you'll respond but not immediately. And they'll know if reaching you is realy important to call you, or in the case of co-workers, come to your office or desk. Of course, you may want to react differently if it's your boss who sent you the message.

How many bytes to make a bronze?

How many gigabytes do you use? That's what customers of Sunflower Broadband in Lawrence, KS are asked when signing up for high-speed cable.

Gold customers use the internet the most, bronze the least. So-called average users like my partner and me are apparently "silver," meaning we don't use more than 12 gigabytes of bandwidth a month. If we do use more, we'll have to pony up $2 more per gigabyte. This week, Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner said they're all considering such tiered pricing.

Now really, do you know how many gigabytes you use? 4, 12, 100? To me this is like knowing how many liters of Diet Coke I drink a month. Heck, I'm still getting used to the idea that I yak on the phone 700 minutes a month.

If phone and cable companies can charge by usage level, why can't newspapers? If the studies are right, the average newspaper reader spends 20-30 minutes a day with their paper. Let's call them "silver" readers. Bronze would then be 0-20 minutes and gold would be 30 to 50 minutes. Read over the allotted minimum and you pay extra. Ala your cable modem, the newspaper will even let you rent your reading lamp.

I'm sure there's a sound economic model in this, perhaps even the solution the newspaper industry is looking for. But sorry, I can't work the numbers. i'm running out of bandwidth.

twitter posses and other tools

The power of “we” is what the civic media movement is all about, I learned this week. It’s about empowering citizens to share news and information, much of it in an unmediated fashion.
The idea is that the more information people have access to the more they will have the capacity to act on their own behalf. That ,in turn, can help strengthen community bonds and ideally further Democracy.

Here are three of my takeaways from this week’s Future of Civic Media conference at MIT that I’ll be talking about with my students when I begin teaching at KU in August.

• “Technology was what was invented after you were born.” That line by an MIT professor drew a good laugh and reinforced how valuable it is to take the time to learn about tools and websites that can help you in your work. In three days at MIT, I learned about dozens of new websites such as manyeyes.org, icu.com and selectricty.org and about changes in computers and mobile devices that are making it easier to record and transmit sounds and images.

• Twitter Posses and other social networks can be great for getting feedback. How good is your story idea? Bounce it off your own network of sources, friends, other students to see if they like your idea and can help make it better. Share a first draft for their reaction. Ask them to help you find other people to interview. One fellow conferee called this "digital rolodex" 3.0.

• In this age of Do It Yourself publishing, when the tools allow almost anyone to create content, professional journalists who have the experience and skills to investigate deeply and report thoroughly are vital. We need less crap and more news and information of consequence. Learn what it takes to know the difference between good journalism and all the other stuff. The other stuff can be fine and fun to have but the journalism is the protein the country needs to thrive.

One percent can make a difference

NYU Media professor Jay Rosen, speaking on a panel at “The Future of Civic Media “ conference at MIT this week, said his big learning from a recent project he spearheaded is that just one percent of citizens are willing to serve as citizen journalists obtaining and pouring through documents, reporting on meetings, interviewing sources and/or asking questions and then sharing what they find.
Rosen, well known as a big thinker and citizen journalism advocate, said with shrinking newsrooms, and for the good of Democracy, the need for amateur journalists is closer to 10 percent, portending a huge challenge for the news industry to organize and cultivate citizen journalists who work like professionals.
But even the one percent figure sounds good to me right now. At many newspapers, beats and areas of town that used to be covered are going dark, not because they’re not considered important but because editors just can't fund them.
So what if a newspaper in a community of 100,000 people organized and provided basic journalism training to one percent of citizens in its market? That would mean a hundred more people with the desire and at least some ability to provide information to the rest of the community.
So why isn’t that happening?
I suspect there are several answers, from just plain old time and money issues to concerns that the information just won’t be up to standards, requiring heavy editing and involvement from already harried front-line editors. Plus in my experience as a newsroom leader, it would need to be someone's full-time job to recruit the citizens, get them trained and then manage their efforts.
Still, it seems like an idea worth trying even on a small scale, perhaps in one county served by a zoned edition of a metro newspaper or at a small daily, with active websites.

Don't eat the M&Ms

Here's one I can't help passing along. It's both funny and painful and the kind of thing that can happen to anyone on a story.
It comes to me from an editor at the Indianapolis Star:

Reporter Bobby King was interviewing the wife of a U.S. soldier in Iraq at the couple's home in Indianapolis. Sometime during the interview, the wife left Bobby alone in the living room where two champagne flutes filled with M&Ms were on the coffee table. Bobby, assuming the candies were there for the taking, popped two of them in his mouth. The woman came back into the room where they talked a little longer. Then she tells him when her husband deployed, she filled both champagne flutes with the exact number of M&Ms for each day he'll be gone and that she eats two per day. When the candies are gone, her husband will be home.