25 Jun 08 Buyouts 2.0

In an interesting twist, William M. Hartnett of the Palm Beach Post has been Twittering his buyout meeting.

Some highlights:

- No details yet on layoff severance package if buyouts don’t meet job cut goals. Just “less generous.” 9 minutes ago from web
- Guy in front row is staring at the ceiling. 7 minutes ago from web
- Separation pay taxed at normal rate, unless received as lump sum. 13 minutes ago from web
- They’ll be “exited” that day. Sounds menacing. 15 minutes ago from web
- Last day for buyout recipients: Tuesday, Aug. 12 16 minutes ago from web
- Max 52 weeks, for those here more than 26 years. 20 minutes ago from web
- Not quite enough for that yacht I was hoping to get. 22 minutes ago from web
- Two weeks of pay and benefits for every year of service. 23 minutes ago from web

What’s funny about this, and what so many others are doing right now, is that for once everyone has no fear about what they are putting online. The general consensus seems to be, “What are you going to do, fire me?”

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Tags: buyouts, news business, twitter

24 Jun 08 More Lee Abrams goodies*

Abrams interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic:

JG: Why were you surprised to find out that your company has reporters based in Iraq?
LA: I was in Los Angeles, sitting in this casual little meeting waiting for someone to show up, and there was this lady who had just got back from four years in Iraq, I forgot her name, I met 300 people in two days, and she was telling me about security problems, bullets in the background and all that, and it really struck me that there should be pictures of her with Iraqi children in the newspaper to show she was there. Whereas in the newspaper, it just says, “Times Staff Reporter.” I really never thought about it, that there was really a person over there going through hell to get this.

Er, no actually. Because then you get the Geraldo Rivera’s and those like him who decide that they themselves want to be the focus of the story. The story is what we should focus on, not the hardships of the reporter who is there. After all, the reporter needs to save something for the tell-all book later. Unless you are doing some sort of Gonzo project, the trials and tribulations of the reporter should be invisible compared to the actual story, especially with Iraq War coverage.

Going to dangerous places to get a story, to inform the people and get the truth; that’s the reporter’s job. When we watch a movie, we don’t expect the actor to stop, turn to the camera and tell us how hard it was to shoot this shot or get this scene. They save that for ‘behind-the-scenes’ specials and E! News pieces, but doing so in the middle of the film would distract from…say it together kids…THE STORY.

Continuing…

JG: It didn’t strike you that there were employees of the newspaper over there doing this work?
LA: It was just ink to me, just reading. Oh yeah, here’s what’s happening in Iraq, but then I didn’t feel the human side.
JG: So more first-person in the papers, then?
LA: I would have loved to see diaries, because what she was telling me was fascinating, living in these special secured floors of the Baghdad Hotel. It was like theater of the mind.

The human side? The Iraqis dying, the American soldiers in Iraq and the numerous other American contractors in the Middle East and you can’t see the human side? Yeah, the harrowing tale of the reporter having to take THE STAIRS to the roof of the hotel to get a signal on their satellite modem in order to file their story ON DEADLINE, that’s the real human side. The horror…the horror.

I will say this about Mr. Abrams, he is incredibly ENTHUSIASTIC!

*Note: I wouldn’t normally say critical stuff of my employer but seeing that I am leaving soon, what’s the harm (knock on wood).

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Tags: news business, people, Tribune

21 Jun 08 Newsrooms may be cutting staff, but online jobs seem to be everywhere

A few days ago my superior/colleague (though not for long) Danny Sanchez posted about some open job positions in the journalism world. With all of the talk about newsroom cutbacks and staff layoffs it is refreshing, and I imagine comforting to those just coming out of j-school, to see that there are in fact still jobs out there for the talented, intrepid and somewhat lucky job seekers.

So, I figured I’d follow his lead and post a list of jobs that are squarely focused in the online world. The market seems to be more welcoming right now to the Web journalists and I think it would behoove people to know what is out there.

Oh, a note to the non-believers and/or purists out there. Not all journalism jobs need be for newspapers (Slate, ProPublica, Yahoo!, etc.)

• Web editor, Media Matters for America
• Web producer, National Public Radio
• Online producer, Seattle Times
• Content Producer, Yahoo!
• Online news producer, Yahoo!
• Online editor, Bonnier Corp (local)
• Associate producer, New Jersey Star-Ledger
• Web content producer, The Independent Tribune
• Online producer, Wilmington Star-News
• Online multimedia producer, al.com (Birmingham News)
• Online producer, sports, al.com (Birmingham News)
• Hyperlocal producer, San Francisco Chronicle
• Social media producer, San Francisco Chronicle
• Producer (bars & clubs), Chicago Tribune
• Online content producer, KTVA Channel 11 (Anchorage, Alaska)
• Online content producer, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Online news producer, WashingtonPost.com
• Online entertainment reporter, Des Moines Register

See, there are plenty of jobs out there and this isn’t even all of them. Keep on looking people and never stop polishing those skills.

Other suggestions:

• Go to recruiting conventions or journalism job fairs. Don’t bother with the non-industry specific job fair cattle calls, they’re probably a waste of time.
• Tighten up that resume and hone those interviewing skills (job interviewing skills, not the journalism ones). Let your resume give the person hiring just enough so that they want to sit down and talk with you.
• When applying, write a cover letter catered to that specific job and/or organization. Nothing says lazy like a form cover letter.
• Seminars are a great place to meet people and get your face and work known. You never know when you might be sitting down in front of them and interviewing.
• Network, network, network!

Good night, and good luck.

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Tags: journalism jobs

19 Jun 08 So it begins: OC Register to outsource copy editing to India

From Doug Fisher and Media Bistro, apparently the Orange County Register is going to start a pilot program where they will outsource their copy-editing duties to India.

To me this is simply a tragedy. There are those that feel copy editing is the most mechanical of all of the journalism duties in the newsroom, fixing grammar and running spell check on stories. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Copy editors have to know almost more than the reporters so that they not only know when something is wrong, logically and semantically as well as grammatically, so that they know when to ask questions. AP Style, grammar and spelling can be taught sure, but not pop culture references, idioms or other forms of expression that are uniquely American.

From a writing perspective, a copy editor’s job is to make the writer look better. When someone reads a story they don’t look at it and lavish praise or criticism on the copy editor, the name on the byline is the sole person responsible in their mind. When that editor becomes someone that is totally disconnected from the writer, both culturally and by proximity, that disconnection will show itself in the stories. They too will be mechanical and stale.

Outsourcing copy-editing duties may save the paper money, but at what cost? Thomas L. Friedman, I blame you and your ‘The World is Flat’ thinking. Globalization is not necessarily a good thing.

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Tags: journalism, news business

15 Jun 08 Biased or not biased, that is the question

The current issue of the American Journalism Review has an excellent article by Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi analyzing the charges of media bias in our current political campaign and in general. I urge you to read the full article, but one portion stood out to me:

The public doesn’t really understand how the news is made.

That might sound elitist, except that much of the daily suspicion cast on reporters’ work seems to stem from naïveté and reflexive public cynicism. Ask journalists about a recent accusation of bias and watch their eyes begin to roll. Julie Mason, the Houston Chronicle’s White House reporter, remembers one reader who took her to task for being “obsessed” with John Kerry during the 2004 campaign. Obsessed? She was covering his campaign. “It was my job to be with him every day,” she laughs.

Another reader spotted bias in the placement of quotes in one of Mason’s stories. “I’m biased,” she says, “because I put the quote in after the jump, which to them means I’m trying to bury it. They don’t believe you when you say you don’t control where a story jumped.”

| FULL ARTICLE |

I think that this notion is an essential truth right now and a reason why so many people feel that media is biased. The public seem to have this grim notion that all of the reporters, editors and the rest of the people that make the news sit around and conjure up evil machinations on how they can destroy, exploit and make money.

One of the more interesting charges comes when people accuse the media of using a particular, sensationalist article to increase circulation and readership, and thus, increasing salaries. As if there is a direct correlation between a reporter’s pay and how much attention one article receives. It’s not the stock market, it’s a newsroom.

These charges and the current misunderstanding of how the news is made reinforces the need to create a more transparent newsroom, something the Internet can handle far better than ‘Letters to the Editor’ or an ombudsman.

Increasingly newsrooms are doing Q & A sessions online with newsroom staff (i.e. NY Times, Dallas Morning News) and projects like the above-mentioned newsroom.

There’s that tired adage about not wanting to know how the sausage is made, but in our industry, I think it’s high time we started letting people check out the ingredients. If not just for them, but also for us.

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Tags: journalism, journalism business

14 Jun 08 Cedar Rapids, Iowa

I think that front page says it all. Kudos to the Gazette for managing to still put out a good product both online and in print despite being directly affected by the flooding.

Good thing I’m moving closer to that area soon…*gulp*

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Tags: news, news business

12 Jun 08 The transparent newsroom

From Mastering Multimedia:

“The story of how a small newspaper opened its editorial decision making process to the public in order to gain credibility with great results. A case study produced by Innovation Media Consulting on American Newspaper about The Spokesman Review newspaper in the United States.”

Now this is the type of newsroom innovation that needs to take place. Not measuring journalists’ bylines, not cutting paper length and not plastering the news Web sites with every piece of technology and doodad that comes out.

If you earn the respect of your readers again, you will earn their money.

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Tags: innovation, journalism business

06 Jun 08 Tribune to Measure Journalists’ Productivity, May Cut Pages

From Editor & Publisher:

Tribune executives sketched out the future of its publishing division during a Q1 conference call with media and investors Thursday afternoon — including accelerated plans to “right-size” its newspapers.

One of the main strategies outlined by Tribune Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels involves measuring the productivity of journalists. “This is a new thing,” he said. “Nobody ever said, ‘How many column inches did someone produce?’”

Michaels knows, and then proceeded to tell listeners, that in Los Angeles the average journalist at the Los Angeles Times produces about 51 pages a year, while in Harford, Conn., the average is more like 300 pages a year.

Michaels acknowledged that different reporters, such as those dedicated to investigative stories, turn out various amount of copy depending on job descriptions. He did not mention if online contributions are included in the count.

“You find you eliminate a fair number of people while not eliminating very much content,” Michaels explained about the strategy. “I understand there are other factors. … If you work hard and are producing a lot for us, everything is great.”

| READ MORE |

Wow, this is really unprecedented. No mention of quality of content or quality of service to the public. Just pages and ads. Apparently the newspaper is just another widget to these folks.

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Tags: journalism business

23 Apr 08 Scarborough Newspaper Audience Ratings Report 2008

Consumer shopping research firm Scarborough Research, a Nielsen Media affiliate, has released its 2008 Newspaper Audience Ratings Report. The SNARR, besides just being a fun word to say, can be a useful and quick measure for newspapers, but it is not a perfect measure.

CLICK HERE to read the report. (PDF)

What does all of this mean?

The numbers are basically a measure of your organization’s market penetration, meaning what percentage of the audience in a specific ‘Designated Market Area’ you have. In this case, the DMA is a specific grouping of counties that is in the newspaper’s coverage area.

This is an OK measure, but I take issue with their methodology. This is how they describe how they came up with these numbers:

The Scarborough study is based on a random sample of adults (ages 18+). Scarborough Research employs a two-phase methodology to collect data: a randomly dialed telephone interview followed by a written, self-administered consumer questionnaire and television diary. The newspaper audience information and websites visited are captured during the telephone interview. A Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited media and marketing service, our newspaper data meets the highest data quality standards.

Now, knowing what I know about polling and human behavior, I think these numbers might be slightly inaccurate. Even if it is random and even if people are given anonymity, they will lie. People are afraid to admit they don’t read the paper so they fudge the results. This happens in politics with voter turnout surveys and the like. The numbers never measure up to the reality because people lie. They don’t want to appear to be Luddites or a philistine, even if no one is actually watching.

If anything, this study should have some margin of error but I could find none listed. Still, these numbers could serve to give the advertising department more leverage to bargain with advertisers and give an indication to the newsroom of where they may need to focus their attention.

What does this mean for online?

I also feel that this holds a little less weight for online. Despite the low percentage of market penetration for most news Web sites, I think that is indicative of global reach and more ‘World is Flat’ mentality of news Web sites.

Sure a lot of traffic comes from the local market but more often Web traffic comes from outside links and search engine results. These readers, drive-by surfers, have little brand loyalty. The questions is: How can newspaper Web sites take advantage of this and quantify it to advertisers and also appropriate the behavior to how they run their sites?

Paul Gillin of Newspaper Death Watch recently wrote about what he called the ‘Content-driven Reader‘ and how it is changing the landscape of journalism and online journalism. A good read. Be sure to also follow the links to both Jarvis’ post and Alan D. Mutter’s post on the same topic.

The key word here: Content.

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Tags: journalism, news business, numbers, ratings

22 Apr 08 Randi Rhodes resigns from Air America; the Internet strikes again!

Randi Rhodes, progressive radio talk show host for Air America, has resigned due to comments she made about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She apparently called Hillary a f**king whore and it was all caught on tape and put up on the great equalizer, YouTube (Warning! Some foul language).

Mark Green, president of Air America Media, told FOXNews.com that Rhodes terminated her contract Wednesday after she refused to apologize on air for her remarks.

“We sought an apology, because of what she had said…like Imus, like David Shuster,” Green said. “She refused and instead last night informed us she was terminating her contract with Air America, which she has the option to do.”

He said she was not forced out — “She exercised her option.”

The Internet takes down yet another radio personality. The reason this is somewhat justifiable is that the radio station was sponsoring the event, so Rhodes was held accountable for her comments. Again, though I am all about the First Amendment, we are representatives of our media organizations and must be conscious of our words.

This raises that questions though, when a radio station hires a polarizing figure for a public position, should they be punished for being offensive and/or polarizing? (i.e. Howard Stern, Will Kristol, Imus, Limbaugh).

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Tags: First Amendment, journalism, radio

17 Apr 08 ‘Toronto Star’ lays off entire Web staff

Hat tip: Danny Sanchez

In a huge purge Torstar Corp., owners of Canada’s largest-circulation newspaper, the Toronto Star, is laying off 160 people, including the entire 10-person Web team. This comes as a shock during a time where one would think the Web team might be the safest place to be (at least I’m hoping so, *gulp*).

Most of the job cuts, taken through severance packages, were already expected, but laying off the 10-person Internet staff came as a surprise, said Maureen Dawson, an official with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

“Their message to the world is that they’re all dedicated to the Internet, but then they lay off the whole department,” she told The Canadian Press.

“The Star has said they would tell us in the coming weeks where the (Internet) work would go. We have an idea where one or two of the positions would go - but not all of it.”

“I don’t think it’s clear where it’s going for them either.”

I’m not sure if Torstar Corp. knows it or not, but Google hasn’t created a Web product just yet that eliminates the need for a Web staff. They might want to keep around a person or two. You know, someone that at least knows HTML or something. More:

But some industry critics suggested that the newspaper would try to shuffle out its older workers, and hire younger and cheaper workers, rather than train all of the veteran staff on new technology like online video.

“We see this trend of seeking to get the older employees out and bringing in new employees,” said Lise Lareau, the national president of the Canadian Media Guild, which does not represent the Star.

“Training becomes an issue. There’s ways of addressing this other than by (voluntarily laying off) the older staff and bringing in newer staff.”

Wait a minute, so there’s openings in Toronto. Robin, to the Canadian consulate, passport at the ready!

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Tags: journalism, layoffs, news business

16 Apr 08 Buyouts galore, it’s a journalist blowout sale! Everything must go!

• ‘Modesto Bee’ Offers Buyouts to One-Fourth of its Employees
• ‘Tampa Tribune’ Offering Buyouts to Half of All Employees
• NY Times: ‘We expect layoffs’
• 200 Jobs to Go at ‘Seattle Times’
• CBS layoffs signal financial squeeze on TV stations
• Online Photo Gallery Depicts Sad Life In Post-Layoff ‘Mercury News’ - Link to photos is broken, CLICK HERE to see.

Yeah, so more bad news out of the newsrooms. Or is it?

Jack Schafer at Slate.com talks about the good news about the bad news coming out of newsrooms. In summary, newsrooms are getting rid of those that have sat in their cushy positions for far too long, cost the paper too much money in salary and are too far in their career to learn the new skills of the modern newsroom.

The “retirement” of the buyout brigade has the added benefit of loosening the ugly stranglehold the boomers have over the press. I may be risking self-extermination by advocating wholesale boomer expulsion, but there are just too many of us—especially the older variety—in top slots for journalism’s good. The sheer weight of our presence blocks the promotion of the next generation of talented journalists to the most desirable beats.

I’m in inclined to agree, almost wholeheartedly. Journalism is one of those jobs that, though difficult to break into, one can hang on to the position for decades. Once a journalist makes a name for themselves they become highly sought after by competitors, so in order for a paper to keep their “star” they must pay them more. That’s fine in the beginning, but eventually it spirals out of control.

Eventually those treasured giants who the paper is forced to pour vast resources into while being rewarded with limited output, must be purged. Buyouts are one way of doing that. This is not always the case however, and buyouts are not limited to those close to retirement age, but it is simply one way of looking at buyouts in a positive light. Not all is grim and gray as it may seem.

Though there’s no surefire solution to this problem now and no wants to be out of a job, but it’s one of the side effects of a market that can’t break out of it’s one-track, linear mindset. We need to learn to deal with it in order to move forward.

I’m going to talk about all of these things in the future, but the first priorities should be these:

• Fixing and modernizing the revenue model
• Standardize Web metrics for news sites
• Dismiss the “More with less” attitude
• Cross-platform training
• Understanding technology before integrating technology

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Tags: journalism, news business

12 Apr 08 Newseum opens in Washington D.C.

The LA Times has en excellent photo gallery of the Newseum opening in D.C. yesterday.

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Tags: journalism, news, news business

11 Apr 08 Sam Zell might sell LA Times to Geffen

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.

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Tags: journalism, news, news business