Category Archives: media

E & P: Top 30 Newspaper Sites for March

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From Editor & Publisher:

NYTimes.com — 18,869 –30%
USATODAY.com — 10,709 — (-2%)
washingtonpost.com — 8,929 — 13%
Wall Street Journal Online — 6,850 — 99%
LA Times — 5,729 — 22%

New York Post — 4,677 — 31%
Boston.com — 4,184 — (-1%)
Chicago Tribune — 3,825 — 31%
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle — 3,793 — (-10%)
Daily News Online Edition — 3,314 — 54%

Newsday — 3,240 — 44%
Village Voice Media — 2,814 — 139%
DallasNews.com – The Dallas Morning News — 2,727 — 96%
The Houston Chronicle — 2,690 — (-26%)
International Herald Tribune — 2,587 — 33%

Atlanta Journal-Constitution — 2,384 — 28%
Chicago Sun-Times — 2,206 — 8%
The Politico — 2,095 — 58%
Azcentral.com — 2,016 — (-4%)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer — 1,967 — (-8%)

tampabay.com — 1,908 — 6%
Star Tribune — 1,763 — 18%
MercuryNews.com — 1,662 — 36%
Orlando Sentinel — 1,642 — (-31%)
Philly.com — 1,554 — (-12%)

Sun-Sentinel — 1,524 — (-9%)
Detroit Free Press — 1,484 — 38%
Cleveland.com — 1,460 — 89%
MiamiHerald.com — 1,451 — (-17%)
The San Diego Union-Tribune — 1,432 — (-19%)

W00t!

‘Post’ Staffer Fired After profane-laden postings

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In a story pseudo-related to what I was talking about earlier, a staffer from the Washington Post was fired after some profanity-laced statements he made on sports blog. The problem, however, wasn’t so much what the staffer, identified as Michael Tunison, said, but that he associated himself with the ‘Post’ when he did it.

Michael Tunison, who blogged under the name “Christmas Ape” at the “Kissing Suzy Kolber” site, wrote on Wednesday that he had been fired for “bringing discredit to the paper.”

Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. confirmed that Tunison no longer worked at the paper and had left his job on Wednesday, but would not specify if he resigned or was fired. “We don’t discuss personnel matters, but we have standards for people’s outside work,” Downie told E&P. “You need to clear it with your editors here before and it should not be a conflict of interest.”

I am inclined to side with the Washington Post on this incident. Even though Tunison was only an editorial aide, any postings he made while associating himself with the paper hurts the integrity of the paper as a whole.

Does this mean that journalists shouldn’t be able to blog in their off time? Certainly not, but there is some personal responsibility you have to take when it comes to what you post on the Internet. I go with the Golden Rule when it comes to posting.

If you put it on the Internet, it will be seen. If you don’t want someone to see it, don’t hit ‘publish.’ In addition, if you are going to post something possibly inflammatory or negative about your employer, don’t identify yourself as an employee of said place. If you do, you are just asking for it.

I also, on this blog and those I have had in the past, always include a personal disclaimer that states that what I post here is my opinion and mine alone and in no way reflects the opinions or thoughts of my employer.

So to use the tired, and albeit edited cliché, blogger beware.

Online Feature round up: Virginia Tech Edition

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One year ago Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Today news outlets are remembering the fallen students and presenting features related to the massacre and what can be done to perhaps prevent something like this from happening again. Here’s a quick round up of some of the online features that I saw and that stood out.

  • One Year Later (Roanoke Times) – Though I commend them for making good use of a simple blog format, the inconsistency of the embedded video players and some other elements make it seem a little disjointed. I do like the navigation tabs, however when I tried to click on the ‘Interactives‘ tab, I got a Drupal error. It works now, but there are only two items promoted with only text links. Their memorials map is great looking: large, easy to navigate and contains pictures. Why not play it up more with a large thumbnail? Likewise with the video portraits feature. For the time spent on those they are criminally under-promoted.
  • Remembering Virgina Tech (CNN) – CNN basically pulled together all of their stories and video regarding the incident into one story gallery. Since CNN has the resources naturally they have more multimedia than you can shake a stick at. I do, however, really like the gun legislation Flash map. I do think that news organizations need to stop being reluctant to promote outbound links to local media sites. I’m sure local media in each of those states had a story or two about the legislation or about guns CNN could have linked to in order to add some context. Why not do it?
  • Virginia Tech, Still Healing (Washington Post) – Similar to the CNN feature, though I think they have a lot more content. The problem, it’s a bit buried. If you go to the story linked on the front page, it takes you to today’s story. If you weren’t curious enough, or paying attention, you might miss their entire package. You have to click the ‘Full Coverage’ link to get to the interactive features, victim profiles and multimedia. They should have made their main package link a little more obvious. Bonus to WaPo for including some UGC content. Oh, and WaPo still hides behind a registration wall, use BugMeNot to get by.
  • Virginia Tech Shootings (Richmond Times-Dispatch) – A good example of how not to do an online feature. First, they have no overall title or headline, just ‘Virginia Tech Shootings.’ This doesn’t instill confidence in me that they put a lot of effort into it. Second, they constrained themselves to the size limits of their ad space. They limited themselves to the 665px content block in the middle. Not only that, they contained story links in a confusing and floating scrolling box next to the video. The entire thing looks very rushed. Moving down the page there is a block of links that, due to their design, look like Google ads. Their interactive memorial is nice, but is so small and under promoted that some readers might miss it.
  • Virginia Tech Multimedia Gallery (Virginia-Pilot) – Again, more of a multimedia gallery than a full feature. The vertical navigation, going from slideshows to audio to video and then finally the interactive feature, is a bad idea. Like the whole ‘above the fold’ thing, people get bored scrolling. I know they want their newest content up top, but they could have done two columns or something. The interactive map should be a lot higher. The Pilot also linked to the Associated Press’ ‘Virginia Tech: One Year Later‘ feature. Of course the AP made a good showing. Audio slideshow, timeline and victim stories, all housed in a single, self-contained interactive feature. Most impressive.
  • Va. Tech more secure a year after massacre (USA Today) – The McPaper also didn’t package everything together into one feature, but linked to their coverage on today’s story. This is fine, my only problem with this, however, is that the links to their photos, videos and interactive features are more than halfway down the page. Also, their ‘Remembering and moving forward’ video feature is a big, about 300px box, but the link is actually just the tiny, 20×20 ‘GO’ button. People might miss it and mistake it for a mere memorial ad or something, which would be a shame because the video feature is good.

Naturally, those aren’t all of the V-Tech features out there today. These are just the ones I saw. See any others that stand out? Send a link.

Entry-level cameras for the online journalist or mojo

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DSLR-cameras

Gizmodo has an excellent review of four, entry-level DSLR cameras that are hitting the market soon. The four models are from Sony, Canon, Nikon and Olympus, the current digital camera heavyweights. Having at least a modicum of camera skills is essential for an online journalist, so these sub-$1000 cameras are a great addition to any arsenal.

I currently use a Canon Digital Rebel-XT, which is about as entry level as it gets, though I do need to upgrade my lens. If I ever get to the point where I need go bigger I’ll probably go with one of the upper-level Canon EOS cameras or one in the Nikon D-series. Regardless, none of that matters if you don’t know what you’re doing looking through the viewfinder.

Also recommended, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 for quick, high-quality video. They recently started issuing these to the reporters at the Orlando Sentinel and it has worked out well. The cameras are easy to use, have a long battery life, start up very quickly and shoot very good quality video.

I used one recently to shoot a post-game press conference at UCF. The only problem is MPEG4-only format and the $700 price tag. If, however, you want to be the next Kevin Sites (one of my personal idols), having something like this is also an essential.

What’s in your bag?

Quote of the Day: Christopher Hitchens

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In response to the Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit the United States:

If Ratzinger is not asked at every stop he makes, and in level yet firm tones, why he and the Vatican continue to shelter Cardinal Law, our profession will have shamed and disgraced itself. We already know that the Pope is a Roman Catholic. What we need to hear is his reason for giving sinecure and asylum to the man who organized and excused the rape and torture of tens of thousands of American children. And then, when he has given his first answer, we need to hear how he answers all the supplementary questions.

This is from the Washington Post’s ongoing “interactive” feature about the state Catholicism, On Faith. Personally, I think they should have gone with a jazzier title, ‘Catholicism WOW!’ (tip: Dogma), or perhaps something more politically oriented, ‘Pope Watch 2008′.

The reason I put the word interactive in quotes is because, though touted as such, there isn’t much interaction beyond a normal story gallery. Right now it is mostly just print stories dressed up with graphics and a powder blue color scheme and a single video. I assume they are going to add more during the Pope’s visit, but they should have started it off with a bang. Perhaps an audio slideshow of Benedict’s history or even of Catholicism.

The Washington Post has the resources to do a lot more (and win Pulitzer’s). We’ll have to see how they play this out.

Rupert Murdoch and Sam Zell named to AP Board

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Everything I just said, I take it back. We’re all doomed.*

Other reads for today:

“Ensuring that the essential values of journalism are carried forward into the unsettling but enormously promising new world of media is a challenge that all of us in the craft, the journalism academy and the concerned public share. USC Annenberg is blessed with extraordinary resources, from its setting in Los Angeles, to its exceptional faculty and students, to the innovative leadership of Dean Wilson. I can’t wait to begin.”

*I’m only half joking, half.

NPAA Best of Photojournalism 2008 Web winners

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The National Press Photographers Association has announced its winners for the Best of Photojournalism contest. The winners in the online categories were quite impressive this year. Steve Myers over at Poynter weighs in on some of the notables and trends.

Here are some that I liked a lot:

I really liked the video on this last one so I included it. It’s short and simple, but it easily gets the point across. Along with a story, talking about the video system, cost, etc., this makes a nice complete little feature package. As an aside, that system would not go over well at the University of Central Florida. Cars would be getting towed left and right.

Check out all of the winners at the NPAA site.

Sam Zell might sell LA Times to Geffen

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According to LA Observed:

Just passing along what I was told this morning from a possibly good source — no confirmation, no independent reporting, no warranty implied. But my contact travels in the right circles to have picked up the scent and reports hearing from “three excellent sources (all with first hand information)” that David Geffen is in talks with Sam Zell to buy the Los Angeles Times from Tribune. The talks are serious enough, my source hears, that the moguls may have been close to a deal last week. For what it’s worth.

Hmm, with this and the feds not standing in the way of selling Newsday to Rupert Murdoch, Zell may be able to get rid of some of that debt he had to assume in acquiring Tribune. Selling your two hottest properties, however, doesn’t seem like the best way to go. What do I know though, I’m still in the pupal stages of being a journalist.

A boner of an error in the NY Times

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You’ve probably already seen this, but since I had a copy I figured I would share this amusing mistake from the NY Times a few weeks ago.



D’oh!

If anyone has a copy of the correction that probably ran the following Monday, please share.

I know, I know, this sort of thing happens even to the best of us. The copy editor probably got used to seeing the words and just slipped up, but it is still a hilarious error that I am sure the scientists got a good guffaw about.

By the way, if you don’t know what the Large Hadron Collider is, go and check it out. It could be the end of us all.

50 greatest comedy sketches of all time

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One of the few movie critics whose opinion I trust, Nich Schager, points us to IFC’s collection of the ’50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time.’ Below is number eighteen:



This isn’t particularly journalism related, but I point this out for two reasons.

One, it’s damn hilarious and worth some time and a walk down memory lane. The collection includes genius bits spanning over 50 years of sketch comedy with gems like Monty Python’s ‘Spanish Inquisition’ to SNL’s 1978 ‘Olympia Restaurant’ sketch which had John Belushi spouting, “Cheezborger! Cheezborger!”

The second reason I point this out is that it is a fine example of a sort of Journalism 2.0. Granted, it’s movie news but it is still a relevant point. Not only can you read the snippets about each clip, written by various critics and movie buffs culled from all points of the cinematic spectrum, but you can watch each and every clip thanks to the advent of YouTube and embedded movie players. This adds such a rich layer to what IFC, and in the future other journalists, will be able to do with the advances in Web techology.

The article may have worked in print, but the way they presented here just makes sense. Think about all of the times you’ve read these types of ’50 greatest of all time…’ articles but couldn’t for the life you remember what clip, movie or song the article was talking about.

Yeah, those times are over. Stuff like this is just the tip of the iceberg, to use the cliché. Web 2.0 rules!

Oh and of course #1, with a bullet, is Monty Python’s ‘Dead Parrot. ‘ If you’ve never seen it, here it is for you. Swallow any food you are chewing, don’t drink anything and watch.

Morning reads, both journalism and non

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Sam Zell

  • Sam Zell: A Tough Guy in a Mean Business – I’ve had mixed feelings about Zell since he became my current pseudo-boss. On the one hand he is willing to take risks and branch out in new directions (so he says). On the other hand he is only willing to do that if it increases the bottom line, not if makes for better journalism. That’s the nature of the news business though, there’s no way around it. (p.s. I love the picture above, courtesy of the New York Times.)
  • Tribune Turns to Radio to Revive Empire - Another article about Zell/Tribune-deal. For some reason this whole thing fascinates me. I’d always read about the other deals big deals (McClatchy buying Knight Ridder, Tribune buying LA Times, Gannett deals), but have never had the privilege of watching one evolve from the inside out. Hopefully deals like this won’t completely destroy the business I love so much.
  • Inside Word at Pulitzer Announcement: Entries Down, But Online Up - The day a Pulitzer Prize is given to a story that is an Internet-only package is the day online journalism will have truly arrived (if that hasn’t already happened).
  • In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop – If ‘Death by Blogging’ ever becomes a common thing, our world will have truly gone off the deep end. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind blogging for a living if the subject were something I was really into (i.e. journalism, technology, news, politics). Then again, being forced to post can hinder the quality of the writing I am sure.
  • Commentary: It’s time for the newspaper industry to die - Not what you think. A commentary from Online Journalism Review contributor Robert Niles.
  • ‘Washington Post’ Captures 6 Pulitzers, ‘NYT’ Takes 2 – Go WaPo! Special mention to the Chicago Tribune staff, for winning the ‘Investigative Reporting’ prize for stories on faulty government regulation of toys, cribs, car seats.

Now it is time for to go and play journalist for a bit. Interviews, notes, transcribing and more interviews. I love this game.

NBC Drops Imus Simulcast.

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So NBC has decided to drop the Don Imus show from its MSNBC simulcast due to the reaction from his “racist” comments regarding the female Rutgers basketball players. I’ve been reluctant to comment on this because frankly, I think it is ridiculous.

Look, I hold know love or sympathy for Don Imus. I think his show is lame and on par with Rush Limbaugh. However, I don’t think what he said was as destructive as all of the black leaders and pundits are making it out to be. What people aren’t listening to is how he is saying his stupid comment. He’s trying to be ‘cool’ and ‘hip.’ He emulated, albeit foolishly, a phrase he’d heard most likely on a rap video or movie or whatever. Listen to it, you can tell he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.

It’s like when parents try to start using the vernacular of their children to bond with them but not realizing that those words are now lame and the kids have moved on. Yes he made a mistake. Yes it was stupid. But was it the evil, calculated jab at both women and blacks, said with gross arrogance to show how powerful and white he is?

No.

Besides, NBC didn’t consider taking Imus off the air until advertisers started to pull their ads. They didn’t do it out of great and overruling moral obligation or ethical decision, they did it because of the all-mighty dollar. We know what and who rules the mainstream media and their masters, and its not ethics.

Regarding Al Sharpton jumping on this as he doesn’t any slightly racial issue, get off it. Not every issue that is race-related is necessarily a race issue. This is an issue of guy that is guilty of being lame and white, nothing more. All Sharpton wants to do is get some attention. You know what I said when I found out Imus was going on Al Sharpton’s radio show to publicly apologize: “What, Al Sharpton still has a show?” He’s in it for the ratings, nothing more.

Armstrong “Opinion for Sale” Williams just called this decision:“…a huge step forward for America.”

Really Williams? Really?

There’s a war on, there are crooks in the White House, millions are without jobs and health care and thousands of people are dying around the world. I really think there are other ‘steps forward’ we need to be making.

Media for Sale, Who’s Buying?

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Billionaire real estate mogul Stephen Zell has offered to buy the Tribune Company in order to take the company private and take it in a new direction. Sounds like a good thing right? Wrong. Here’s why:

Mr. Zell, 65, has said that he would get into the media business not because he has any special affection for newspapers or wants to wield editorial control, but because he wants to make money. He called himself “an opportunist” last week in an interview with The Associated Press, adding, “I probably am not as pessimistic about the future of the newspaper business as others might be.”

This is a very dangerous road to travel on and the reason newspapers are declining in quality. Business-minded people like Mr. Zell only see the raw numbers in the news business, which is typically a 15-20% return, a huge profit margin in the business world. They want to draw some milk out of this cash cow and fast.

However when the business owners profess no love for the news or the quality of it, how can they possibly contribute anything to the industry? There sole purpose is to make money, which should never be the goal of the news business. When people like Zell buy a newspaper company (or newspaper itself) they expect to be making that huge profit margin, if it dips they react by cutting costs, letting staff go, and consolidating properties; all of which lead to a decline in news quality. Eventually they’ll sell off the paper (or company) and still walk away with a huge chunk of money, their stated goal in the first place. In the end the news business and journalism as a whole are no better for it.

The allure of the company going “private” may blind people to the dangers of guys like Zell buying up media properties, especially newspapers. Until media owners are willing to take a profit margin cut, down to a normal 5-6% and focus on news over the bottom-line, the news business will continue a downward spiral toward infotainment.

DailyKos Blogger v. George Allen Staffers

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You’ve probably heard about it already, but here is some video of the Mike Stark/George Allen incident. Now I don’t know about this. Sure the George Allen staffers went a little overboard in “taking down” Mr. Stark, but his question and the way he went about it was a little overboard as well.

I by no means support George Allen or his racist-laden campaign, but to characterize what Mike Start did as:

…a constituent trying to ask a question after a campaign event is automatically a “protester”.

That’s a little misleading if you ask me. Stark is almost charging toward Allen yelling, “Senator Allen, why did you spit on your first wife?” Now come on, how did he expect Allen and his staff to react?

“Well frankly she was lousy in the sack and she burnt my pancakes whitey!”

While it is wrong how the Allen staffers reacted, I don’t think that Mike Start is totally innocent in the matter. He instigated it with a blatantly ignorant question that served no other purpose than to illicit just such a reaction.

Come on Democrats, if you want the Republicans to be playing fair in the sandbox you can’t be pissing in the corner as well.