Blogger: Print's death to dam river of news

Peel away the specifics of sports in this writing to discover a fear articulated for many as formal media organizations give way to blogging.

There's also a challenge here for sports teams, governments, organizations, businesses - what mechanism will each set up to determine how information will be available.

Do all audience members now get a copy of the meeting packets distributed to reporters and board members? Should an organization's president talk to me because I share news and opinions via a blog or distribute a newsletter? Does the lack of a printed newspaper obligate governement bodies to publish their minutes faster?


The process of news

Maize n Brew Dave writes on college football, specifically University of Michigan football. But today, he focuses on the process of news.

"As much as we loathe the columnists that have colored our opinion of their employers, newspapers served a critical purpose. They facilitated the flow of information from people who had it to people who didn't."

Yes, it is possible for a sports blogger to get access to information because universities are increasing what they put online and through the blossoming of sports sites where coaches, players and fans input detailed statistics.


Three tiers of news

Maize n Brew Dave suggests that the current system is set up for three tiers (at least for college fooball):

1) The University (school, coaches and players) possess the information;

2) the credentialed press gets the first crack at it;

3) and the rest of us are left to sort through what reaches us.

The differences

The differences boil down to credentialed press not using cleaned up, message-on-target quotes from the official sources. Instead, tha press can give, as Maize n Brew Dave says:

"Perspective on what was said and how questions were answered. They asked tough questions on decisions and results. They could observe the reactions from coaches, gage responses first hand, and had the ability to ask the questions where we do not."

Some of the perspective that comes from access to the paper and electronic versions of stories published before. Some of the perspective that comes from ongoing observations of coaches and players, perspective grown from the luxury of paid-for time spent on the specific subject.

A blogger's role

Maize n Brew Dave reminds us to remember the source of content and the intent of the message. But much of his writing explores the notion of once counterculture bloggers now becoming the main source of news in many communities. He looks at the obligation and responsibility of bloggers to provide insights based on raw reporting rather then reactions to what others have gathered.

And then there's this:

"When people begin turning to your blog for new information, you can't let them down. If you do, you lose their trust and their readership. "

A blogger's burden

Wow. That alone is a huge burden as I learned when people began turning here for information about Advance Publications, or my take on AnnArbor.com and Advance Internet because of my interest in the corporation that is funding my pension (we hope).

It was almost too easy to slip back into workaholic hours, seeking pieces of information scattered in announcements and blogs, while knowing family beating cancer is my first priority. It is tempting to want to email or call people I've known to get the "real story" or at least more details to help my friends in the industry, while knowing how uncomfortable it can be learning that you confided in a media person, not a friend.

Just a kick

Jim Carty of Paper Tiger No More said in State of the Blog, after his coverage of the Ann Arbor Press shutting down and AnnArbor.com helped draw 12,000 unique visitors to his site over four days:

"But that's just sort of a kick. There's no point to it, no goal. Paper Tiger isn't ever going to be a commercial venture, it's not supposed to be, it's just me being me, for better or for worse."

Jim, who left sports reporting at the Ann Arbor News to go to law school, wrote:

"The constant updates were the product of an extraordinary situation that affected me, and many of my friends, very personally. It will be viewed as an aberration in the long run. For the most part, the day-to-day shtick around here much more resembles random snark on newspapers, politics and sports, some law school musings, and me promoting stuff written by my journalism cronies."

My fingers unveil thinking

Inside Out is a way for me continue thinking by writing, looking at change and changes and figuring out what I'm going to do today and tomorrow. How can journalism and community not be a part of it when I've been immersed in some form of it since at least 1966.

Inside Out is the place where I can write about posts like The Death of the Print Newspaper and the Birth of the New Blogsphere. as I decide which project gets my eyes next.

Thanks for visiting.

Can pay model work for 50k newspaper? Cable TV model?

The idea of paying for content online gets tossed around frequently online and at gatherings of newspaper people. But not many people take the time to put numbers in a spreadsheet. Media Cafe, with help from NAA (Newspaper Association of America), Borrell Associates, AdPerfect and Centro, does.

In this second go-around, Jeff Mignon and Nancy Wang run numbers for a newspaper with 50,000 print subscribers paying $17 a month and a web site getting 250,000 unique visitors eying 2.5 million pages. The nine scenarios include a mix of subscription prices, conversion rates of print subscribers to online and content options. There's an online spreadsheet or a downloadable one but these numbers show only three of the nine options making more revenue, one option that's close and five below current revenue.

The spreadsheet includes the cost of acquiring subscribers, but @jeffjarvis suggested on Twitter the need to calculate impact of lost Googlejuice and brand value in market.

Meanwhile, Martin Langeveld over on Nieman Journalism Lab also puts out some numbers and concludes the math doesn't add up. He suggests that forward-thinking newspapers explore weekly or twice weekly print products, an idea floated in November 2008.

I'm still leaning toward the impossibility of getting people to pay for online news even as I consider how the cable TV model might work:

"Online news services will look something like cable TV. A tiered offering...For $100 bucks a year you get access to 10 national news sites, 10 state, 10 local...for $50 you get ....5 of each...or something along that scale...."

Nothing is impossible if we all keep sharing these ideas.

Multimedia musings: A video on saving newspapers, a Copy Editor's Lament, and some weary journalists to entertain

Life is far too mysterious to be serious all the time, so thanks to Flint Expatriates and the Gannett Blog we can enjoy some outside-the-box revenue generating ideas in the Saving the Newspaper video.

That reminded me I never shared the Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song).

The video is an adaption of song #79 from Jonathan Mann, who set up a goal of a song a day.

"The music is the same, but I enlisted the lip-dub and acting chops of my friends down at the East Bay Express, the local alt-weekly here in the East Bay. Yay!"

Express editor Stephen Buell, who has collected and framed final editions of newspapers since 1982, shares more revenue ideas in New Practices and Revenues for a New Era in Journalism.

"We're not just whining about our finances like the Chronicle. We're doing something about them" says Buell.

The Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song) is from Christopher Ave, political editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He explained on his blog that copy editors struck him as having the most under-appreciated job in the newsroom.

Here are a few of the words:

'm a human safety net
I double-check the facts and vet
assertions before they are set in type.

I can provide punctuation
appropriate for publication
make the capitalization right.

I was there to fix your grammar
when you thought it wouldn't matter
cut all your extraneous blather down.

Listen to the MP3 for the rest. We'll wait.

Kurt Greenbaum shared a video from some colleagues tagged "Got rest ye weary journalists" back in December. It's seasonal, but I think as long as we're singing I'll share it.

May your day be merry and bright.

The Dearly Departed Daily: Detroit group to hold ‘wake’ for print journalism

Items like this keep my family from getting a meal on time some days.

A search for an update on citizens journalism at the Oakland Press uncovered the wake for "The Dearly Departed Daily" planned by a Detroit group. (The search was related to this post: Michigan media making news again)

Thanks to Elizabeth Voss, who wrote about the event on the Crain-powered Detroit Make It Here site, here's what I know now:

On April 23, one month after the announcement that Michigan would soon lose a major daily newspaper and three Booth Newspapers would trim the printing schedule to three days a week (and combine sections), the Women In Communications of Detroit group will host a wake.

Farewell Newsprint: Hello Digital Media
Women in Communications of Detroit will host Farewell Newsprint: Hello Digital Media at 6 p.m., April 23 at the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby, 525 W. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit. The cost is $30 for Women in Communications and Society of Professional Journalists members and $35 for nonmembers. Movie fare appetizers are included. A cash bar and specialty coffees are available. Valet parking is $8 or next door surface lot parking is $6. Register by April 20 by online or e-mail at info@womcomdetroit.org or by phone at (248) 652-1460.

Jack Lessenberry, Metro Times columnist, a senior news analyst for Michigan Radio and journalism lecturer at Wayne State University. will lead the wake. He is quoted in the online article, saying he is worried that "people accustomed to getting a print newspaper won’t adjust well to the shift to three-day a week home delivery."

“The real issue is not whether print will survive as a news medium. The real issue is whether journalism keeps going. Thomas Jefferson said how can you possibly have a healthy democracy without journalism?”

After the wake, the event moves into a more positive direction, with Debora Scola, community affairs director for the Detroit Media Partnership, talking to the women’s professional group about changes the Detroit newspapers are making to compete in a digital era. The Detroit Free Press and The News reduced home delivery to three days a week and increased its focusing resources on digital media on Monday.


This first appeared on my Wired Journalists blog.

Michigan media making news again

Just a quick roundup of things I've posted here, there and everywhere or read about Michigan media today.

Livingston County Press cuts staff
My stepmother may have to change her media plans. She was counting on the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus to become her main source for news instead of reading the Detroit newspapers online. The long-time subscriber to the Detroit newspapers had praised the hometown newspaper for its coverage and said it was "good enough" and better than going online to read the news.

But today, an article by Mike Malott probably means the amount and type of news in the Livingston County newspaper will change. At least 10 percent of the staff is being laid off, according to the article. Executive Editor Rich Perlberg declined to specify the total number of layoffs, but said the number was "more than 10" from a total work force of 95.The layoffs included Managing Editor Maria Stuart and Metro Editor-Features Henry "Buddy" Moorehouse.

Perlberg blamed declining advertising.

I found it ironic that Stuart's March 29th column was "What would you do to save a co-worker's job?" She wrote about the efforts of the Howell Education Association. She's followed that up with "The Search for Silver Linings," calling it my chance to say goodbye.

"Lesson learned: In this fast-changing day and age, we should treat every conversation we have as if it is our last. We should leave nothing unspoken."

Moorehouse, who worked for the newspaper for 26 years, also penned a piece: Thank you and goodbye.

Job in Detroit
It's good news that journalism jobs in Michigan are opening. A reTweet of @NancyAndrews: We are posting our job opening for digital host/tv web anchor today. @elishaanderson is in charge of hiring. #dfpchanges

Update: Here's the job posting.

(Did you see that hash tag? #dfpchanges - go to search.twitter.com, type that in, and you can see all the tweets that will tell you about the Detroit Free Press changes; you can even get an #dfpchanges rss feed)

That reminds me that @BillSeitzler said Scripps & Fox create local news sharing deal in Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa; complete story on Broadcasting and Cable.

"Starting this month, the service "will pool content-gathering resources at general market news events, allowing the stations to save on duplicate efforts," the groups said in a statement. "By reducing costs, the stations will be able to increase their focus and resources on specialized franchise reporting." "

In Detroit, the stations are WJBK (Fox) and WXYZ (ABC).

TVNewsDay also reported:

"Content produced by the local news service can be used across multiple platforms, including over-the-air broadcasts, and online and mobile reporting. All employees involved in the shared operation will remain employees of their respective news organizations."

Oakland Press stopping paycheck
The Oakland Press is making news again. Hat tip to Paper Tiger No More, which led me to T.C. Cameron's blog The Write Referee and the post "Sacked by Citizen Journalism." Cameron says that an email informed him the newspaper would no longer pay for the syndicated version of The Write. A followup email invited him to post for free as a citizen journalist - an offer refused.

Cameron is no fan of citizen journalism, a big component of The Oakland Press' strategy.

Cameron says in his blog:

"Citizen journalism is the ingenious creation of editors lacking for legitimate journalistic resources and the financial inducements to compensate said legitimate journalists. As advertising revenue plummets, so does pay for real writers. What newspapers and an endless list of Internet blog sites offer is byline stardom in return for copy. The byline is the payment for the copy. All the newspapers pay for is the editor responsible for making sure it's true -- that's code for a once-over to make sure all the key facts of the story seem to be in place -- and the online platform they publish within."

However, you'll remember that The Oakland Press's executive editor Gil Gilbert said in December 2008 that Citizen Journalism will shape the new face of the Oakland Press.

The paper offered an academy to train citizens interested in contributing to the news organization in mid-Michigan. The first classes had 53 people participating.

Another Gilbert article in January said Citizen Journalism off to a good start, second class scheduled.

Gilbert acknowledged in that article that the idea of citizen journalism attracted some negative attention.

"Where it will lead is anyone’s guess, but it could be interesting. Our goal is to be more of a true voice of the people."

For now, it looks like it will be one less blog on the Oakland Press' web site.

Still waiting to see if other bloggers, like Tim Skubick, will follow. Of course, since Skubick also is now blogging for The Dome, perhaps not him.