March 10th, 2009 | Leave a comment »
A classic example of headline editoralizing can be found from Fox News today.
In a story about the Senate passing the $410 billion bill, Fox News made no attempt to hide which way it fell on the issue.
The original headline, as you can see to the right, was:
Senate Passes Huge Spending Bill for Obama
and this bit, which looks like it may have been pasted from a pre-vote story:
The Senate was scheduled to vote Tuesday and send the $140 billion bill chock full of lawmakers’ pet projects and significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy research and other programs to President Obama.
To the network’s credit, it updated the headline, rather quickly, to something resembling objectivity:
Senate Passes Huge Spending Bill,
Heads to Obama for Signature
And the new subheading reads:
The Senate approved the measure by voice after it cleared a key procedural hurdle by a 62-35 vote.
Sixty votes were required to shut down debate.
As the24-hour news networks and online operations continue to rush to publish (or in this case, republish), I can only suspect more bias will creep into headlines, but will then be… edited out.
Tags: AP, Associated Press, editorializing, Fox News, Headlines
Posted in This is Journalism | Leave a comment »
March 4th, 2009 | Leave a comment »
The New York Times has an interesting
story on how The Knoxville News Sentinel, and other papers, have teamed up with Yahoo! (YHOO) to sell ads in print and online and how the partnership worked – really well. In a two-week trial of the system, Terry Widener said revenues were “about a seventh of the amount she typically sells in an entire year.”
The partnership has two distinct advantages.
First, local advertisers can target users based on their browsing history, which helps decide which ads are relevant to the reader.
“One is a new ad system from Yahoo, currently installed at about 100 newspapers, that allows them to sell graphical ads on their sites that are aimed at specific audiences, like car buyers or sports enthusiasts. The system puts users into those groups based on the pages they visit online, a technique known as behavioral targeting.”
The other advantage of the partnership is the ability to advertise products and businesses on a local level.
“Between its print and online editions, The Ventura County Star, for example, reached about 56 percent of its local audience. With the addition of the Yahoo pages, it now reaches 85 percent of Ventura residents, and it can also tell advertisers that they can reach Yahoo’s audience in the larger Los Angeles market.”
This is just a small piece of good news for the newspaper business, but it shows there are still successful solutions to be found by those willing to find them.
Tags: Advertising, Knoxville News Sentinel, New York Times, NYT, online content, Yahoo
Posted in Advertising | Leave a comment »
February 18th, 2009 | Leave a comment »
A new design will be up today or tomorrow is up…. still tweaking.
Posted in journalistical | Leave a comment »
February 7th, 2009 | Leave a comment »
[via Bloomberg.com]
In a recent Q & A with Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, he talked about, among other things, the move towards a paid content system, yet again.
In the discussion, Keller talked about three possible ways for The Times to make money:
- A subscription model (but not Times Select)
“Times Select was not the answer, but it’s possible we just put the wrong stuff behind the wall.”
- A micro-payment model
“The idea is that readers may not pay a subscription fee for a new Web site, but they might pay a few pennies every time they click on a page, if it was simple and frictionless.”
- New reading devices – which currently are dominated by Kindle downloads and Times Reader users.
“So some people are paying for The Times online. Just not enough of them. So far.”
Tags: Bill Keller, charging, New York Times, NYT, online content, paid content
Posted in This is Journalism | Leave a comment »
January 31st, 2009 | Leave a comment »
I recently opened a paper for school talking about the less work, more stories mentality that has crept into today’s journalism. However, this is not what I was imagining.
The South Bend Tribune wants its reporters to be more productive. And by productive, they mean keep a log of everything they do.
“We mean everything, from the most mundane county council advance to the beginning interview in the most ambitious investigation that may or may not see the light of day (or publication).”
Virginia Black, assistant managing editor/news, sent out a memo to the staff of the Tribune Thursday.
I understand trying to keep reporters on task, but this is taking it to an extreme.
Tags: South Bend Tribune
Posted in Newsroom Happenings | Leave a comment »
January 30th, 2009 | Leave a comment »
In response to possible cuts in BBC’s Scottish offices, workers across the United Kingdom are voting on whether or not to proceed with a company-wide strike – A move that would have a monstrous effect for news in the U.K.
[via guardian.co.uk]
Tags: bbc, strike, U.K.
Posted in Media Fights Back | Leave a comment »
January 29th, 2009 | Leave a comment »
It is an interesting time to be a student entering the world of journalism. None of the major publications have a serious grasp on where the medium is heading and seem to have adopted a trial-and-error approach to social features and interactivity.
In about a year, I will graduate and be in an overflowing job market. The problem may not be necessarily finding a (decent) job, but maintaining it. Newspapers around the country are laying off (talented) reporters and editors.
Prognostications are not great for the business of newspapers either. The saddest news come from the closures that are being threatened around the country.
Just take a glimpse:
- The Baltimore Examiner will close February 15 (dead link).
- The Tucson Citizen will look for a buyer until March 21.
- The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will look for a buyer until March 10, at which time, they will move to an online-only format.
- The Rocky Mountain News has already passed its January 16 deadline to find a buyer.
Even many of those who have been able to keep their jobs have been subjected to a forced unpaid leave for a week, courtesy of Gannett and the MediaNews Group.
One of the biggest questions I still have is: Are media outlets going to move to a type of crowd-sourcing for their reporting? Sacrificing quality and increasing quantity, all to improve the bottom line. Hopefully, this won’t happen on a widespread scale, but it is something to think about.
I think 2009-10 will be a transitional time for journalism. The aim of this blog is to chronicle the change. I hope to average 5-7 posts a week and will always strive to post more if possible.
As Hunter S. Thompson said: “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
Posted in journalistical | Leave a comment »
