Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Alternative Owners

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

It seems no media outlet is safe from the consolidation and economic changes hitting the biz, as Chicago's own Reader just got sold to Tampa-based Creative Loafing Inc., according to Editor & Publisher magazine. The city's well-known alternative weekly, with an average circulation of about 135,000, was founded back in 1971.

The paper - which was purchased along with the Washington City Paper- will join the collection of Creative Loafing, which owns alt weeklies in Tampa, Sarasota, Atlanta and Charlotte. For more, check out E&P's news brief: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003616208

Chicago media critic and blogger Michael Miner - reacting to the news - wrote that there's some apprehension at the Reader, with the thought that the paper won't continue the kind of "serious journalism the Reader is known for" under the new ownership. Writing in News Bites, Miner notes: "How the Reader will change, and how much it will change, are questions that preoccupy everyone concerned at the moment." (For more: http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/news-bites/)

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Monday, July 23, 2007

Eyeballing Ethics

Monday, July 23, 2007

Perceptive Gene Policinski hit another bulls-eye in a recent First Amendment Center essay of the risky business of reporters getting too close to their key sources. This sensitive issue has heated up in recent weeks after MSNBC.com identified 143 journalists who had contributed to political candidates or organizations. That sticky story was followed by two sexier ethics capers involving TV reporters in Los Angeles and Chicago. Both broadcast brouhahas involved attractive women reporters and men they covered professionally.

Policinski writes that "there's no requirement in the First Amendment that journalists and news sources, particularly in government, automatically be antagonists. But there certainly is the proviso that the press is not part of government, formally or informally." Carried to a personal level, he says, means "maintaining a healthy skepticism about those on whom you report. Keeping that distance, mentally or physically, can be difficult."

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Defining the News Media

Monday, July 23, 2007

Journalists, judges and just about everybody else has an opinion on how bloggers fit into the news media universe. Many university-trained working journalists scoff at the idea that bloggers are part of the profession. But there are plenty of smart people who are convinced that journalism is an act of communication, rather than a white-collar vocation. Now, the CIA is weighing in the side of including bloggers as a vital component of the news media. Govexec.com reports that the CIA's final rule on processing fees for Freedom of Information Requests adopts an earlier federal government definition of "news media" that includes "alternative media" that is electronically transmitted. Read more about it, including the outlook for those nasty FOIA fees.

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Proposed Legislation Tries to Shed Light on FOIA Problems

Monday, July 23, 2007

An op-ed piece by David Carr in the July 23, 2007 New York Times reflects on the need for greater transparency in government activity, citing some government agencies that have Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that are more than 15 years old. The column asserts that the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act of 2007, sponsored by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), would streamline the efficiency of FOIA by stiffening the penalties for agencies that fail to comply with the 20-day deadline on FOIA requests.

However, Senator John Kyl (R-Arizona) has expressed concerns over the security risks that he feels the bill poses in its present form. According to Kyl’s press secretary, Ryan Patmintra, the senator doesn’t dispute the need for greater FOIA efficiency, but “wants to make a good bill better” by suggesting improvements that would preserve the security of government operations.

Most everyone in the news industry agrees that something needs to be done soon. Paul J. Boyle, senior vice president of the Newspaper Association of America, says that the current FOIA system is “broken” and “needs to be repaired.” This bill, he says would put “real deadlines” behind already-existing statutes and give agencies an “incentive to comply.”

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Insights on Eco-Reporting

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The Society of Environmental Journalists’ summer edition of SEJournal has an interesting interview with reporter Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 5-part series “Altered Oceans” that he and others at the Times produced. At a time when resources devoted to investigative reporting are declining, Weiss offers insights to anyone trying to pitch investigative stories to editors. The interview, by Mike Dunne, touches on a number of areas, including:
 The evolution of the idea for the series (interesting – Weiss was new to the beat)
 The challenges in selling a long-term project to editors (can you say ‘travel’ without first gulping?)
 The choice to focus the series on environmental challenges already taking their toll - over gloomy forecasts for the future (provides more immediacy and relevance)
 The role of the reporter as ‘translator’ in making heaps of scientific data understandable to the public (the need for someone to stitch together the work of many scientists, each looking at very specific areas of research)
 The challenges of producing a multi-media product (‘storytelling is storytelling, no matter what the medium.’)
 The reaction by readers (‘The response was big. Really big.’)

You can view the LAT series “Altered Oceans” at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Bad Ad News

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

It's more of the same for beleagured newspaper executives: The speed of the downturn in newspaper ad revenue has accelerated since the beginning of 2007, according to a Wall Street Journal article on July 18. You can read more here:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118471859134569679-7SEc8U7GAYLdAU_0upCRHWAU2cU_20070816.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Citing a Newspaper Association of America (NAA) report, the article notes that total print and online ad revenue was down 4.8 percent from the first quarter a year earlier. Unfortunately for publishers, online ad gains haven't made up for the loss in revenue from the nose dive in print advertising.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Shunning Newsprint...And the News

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Today's young Americans are "estranged from the daily newspaper and rely more heavily on television than on the Internet for their news," according to a newly released study "Young People and News" from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.
Though most experts agree that young people pay less attention to the news than their counterparts 20 or 30 years ago, the study comes at a time when many experts disagree on how much attention today's teens pay to current events and news. Some argue that young people are harnessing the Internet to become civically engaged in ways not seen in previous generations. This study - funded by the Carnegie Corp.- seems to contradict that conclusion. The researchers surveyed 1,800 randomly sampled people of all ages and found that teens don't make following news a regular part of their day.
Check out the full report for yourself: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/carnegie_knight/young_news_web.pdf

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Student Journalism Rights: Step by Step Toward Acceptance?

Monday, July 16, 2007

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a law last week that protects Oregon high school students and college journalists from censorship by school administrators and also gives students the right to sue their school if they feel their right to expression has been violated. Click here (http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707130314 ) for a Statesman Journal (Salem, Ore.) story on the law detailing how:

+ The Oregon law is the country's first in more than a decade to protect high school journalists and the first ever to cover both high school and college journalists under one statute. (This new ruling adds to the list of six states that currently have laws protecting high school journalists from censorship; all were passed before 1996.)

+ A 2005 Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (Hosty v. Carter) allowed college administrators to impose prior review and restraint on student newspapers if the publication is not a designated public forum for student expression. (This ruling covers three Midwestern states but has been cited by administrators nationwide to justify tightened controls over high school and college publications.)

+ According to the Student Press Law Center, a wave of similar laws is currently being pursued in other states (including Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vermont).

+ Many student press advocates consider the law a victory – yet consider the final version somewhat watered down by amendments (including removal of a provision that would have allowed punishment for administrators that censor student publications, along with another that would have designated college publications public forums.)

To see Warren Watson's piece on this legislation, visit www.jideas.org

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sweet Notes

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

*Pete Weitzel, founder of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, an MTF grantee, will be honored by the National Press Club on July 16 with the John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award. Weitzel, the former editor of The Miami Herald who also launched the National Freedom of Information Coalition, will receive the Aubuchon award along with the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. A complete list of the 2007 National Press Club Award winners can be found here.

*Speaking of Freedom of Information, July 4 marked the 41st anniversary of congressional passage of the Freedom of Information Act. Check out the nifty Neiman Watchdog profile about the stubborn California congressman who waged a 12-year battle in support of a law giving the American people a right to know the facts regarding the activities of their government. All journalists owe a debt of gratitude to John E. Moss.

*While many of the nation's news organizations continue to reduce staff, tighten budgets and squeeze editorial resources, it's refreshing to watch a privately-held news and information company invest in its product. Bloomberg News is on track to expand its 2,300-strong news operation by more than 10 percent this year. A recent Financial Times report says Bloomberg has already hired 180 new reporters this year and plans to add another 60 more journalists by the end of 2007.

*Slate media guru Jack Shafer weighed in with a thoughtful piece on the connection between quality and newsroom head counts. While careful not to discount the economic turmoil that has slashed editorial payrolls at most mainstream news organizations, Shafer looks at the 1972 staff sizes at the Washington Post and The New York Times. He said both of these newspaper heavyweights were able to publish quality products 35 years ago with far fewer journalists than they currently employ in 2007. He notes that many of the staff upgrades made in the last three decades helped improve coverage in business, international and specialized feature sections, as well as investigative reporting. Of course, the future quality challenge for all news organizations is how scarce resources are managed and deployed. Despite the fundamental changes in the definition of news and how best to present it, the truest measure of quality should always be tied to providing information that allows citizens to make better-informed decisions.

*The spate of collaborations, partnerships and acquisitions involving new and mainstream media organizations was bound to produce some rough sailing. Forbes.com reports that the media revolution is now being co-opted by alliances once deemed unholy. Bloggers who become part of a big media company sometimes face alienating new wave purists. Some also have found the harsher journalistic standards of mainstreamers a daunting challenge. Others appreciate the rigor. "I'm coming in with a lot to learn," said Brian Stelter, a 21-year-old whiz kid who recently joined The New York Times. "What I was doing at TVNewser was journalistic, but it wasn't always journalism."

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Friday, July 6, 2007

Cutting Back on Diversity?

Friday, July 06, 2007

UNITY's president is calling for media companies to begin collecting and releasing the racial and ethnic breakdown of employees laid off or taking buyouts in the past year's flurry of journalism job loss. According to UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel, the group will be brainstorming in the coming weeks ways to slow the loss of talented diverse staffers in the newsroom. Personally, she's advocating for companies to collect and release the racial and ethnic breakdown numbers of departing staffers as a way to track the situation.

You can read Lincoln Michel's column here: http://www.unityjournalists.org/presidents/przmsg_070507.html

What do you think is the best way to address journalism diversity erosion in a tumultuous business time?

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Monday, July 2, 2007

2007 is Journalists' Deadliest Year So Far

Monday, July 02, 2007

According to mid-year statistics released last week by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), the worldwide journalist death toll has reached 100 during 2007, surpassing the level reached in mid-2006, when 68 journalists had been killed. (There were a total of 168 journalists killed in 2006—the worst year on record.)

This year’s milestone was reached in Iraq, where 57-year-old veteran journalist Hamed Sarha was killed by an unidentified gunman on his way home, leaving a widow and five children. During his career, Sarha had reported for various publications and for the Iraqi news agency. The dangers of reporting in Iraq are emphasized by INSI’s tally of 214 journalists killed since the beginning of the occupation in March 2003.

For more information and a detailed account of the casualties, visit http://www.newssafety.com/casualties/2007.htm.

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