The News About The News

The economy changes the game

Saturday, November 15, 2008

By: Sarah Harl

At the recent Atlantic Coast region meeting of AP sports writers, the economy was the main topic of discussion.

Many papers would like to see the AP move toward an a-la-cart pricing concerning sports stories. Their argument is that larger papers are getting charged more to run AP stories, even though smaller newspapers use more AP coverage.

The pay-for-what-you-use plan would help out larger newspapers who are just as affected by the declining economy as smaller papers.

The sports gurus talked about everything from not only the declining number of talented sports journalists, but the fact that they now must hire less talented journalists due to budget.

They are now having to create online packages, or special sections to attract readership. Instead of writing the news, they are now worried, more than ever, about selling the news.

There was no word on the outcome of the discussion, but one thing is certain: the economy, should it not rebound, has shifted the game. It's the fourth quarter. How these writers respond will determine the outcome of the game.

Journalism as a balancing act

Friday, November 14, 2008

By: Hannah Pickett

Last week while working at a small town newspaper, readers were outraged by my editor's choice of a leading headline following the results of the 2008 Presidential election. The title read: "It's an Obama Nation!"

Think about it. An "Obama Nation" sounds and looks a lot like the word, abomination. The play on words infers that Obama is abominable meaning loathing, disgusting, and hatred.

My editor is a very educated individual. He is also very conservative and very much backed the McCain/Palin campaign. Regardless of his personal belief, his job as a journalist was to report the news of the presidential election results-unbiased.

The article went on to point conservative politics' strengths in America and the repercussions the country will and is going to face with Obama in the White House. In a very negative fashion, the editor also knocked on the Democratic presidents in the past, saying that Republicans are the best thing to happen to this country.

This week there were quite a few letters to the editor in reponse to this article as you can imagine. All but one were shredded and "forgotten about." The one letter published just said something about the headline being rude, but the facts backing it up. The rest of the letters were protesting the article in general.

It would have been one thing if this article ran on the opinion page where opinions are welcome and getting on a soapbox is actually invited. But this was the front page, above the fold and therefore completely inappropriate.

In life we have to wear many different hats concerning our roles. In this case, the editor wore the hat of an angry Republican and misplaced the hat of being an impartial journalist. Ethics matter. I am a Republican and was deeply offended at this article.

Our president ...

By: Katie Schaefer

A bunch of leaflets were slipped in to hundreds of copies of The Brown and White student newspaper at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania last week.

Editors don't know how this could have happened because they checked them all before all of the copies went out for the night. They even checked with distributers and they don't know how it could have happened either.

They haven't caught who did this, but it makes me wonder how we can still have such racism in the world.

This is the 21st century and we still have problems with racism. Racism will probably always be an issue but it's something that people should get over because our president is black.

He is the person that we trust to help change the world and people are still saying things about the color of his skin.

How exactly does it make a person feel to have a president that is black? Honestly it doesn't bother me, but it must really bother whoever put this leaflet out because they did it in a paper that would reach a lot of people.

Maybe they were trying to get students to think differently about their president but it's too late now. He's already elected and there's nothing they can change about it.

YouTube bids on search terms

Thursday, November 13, 2008

By: Allison McNeal

As the media grows increasing more dominant, companies are starting to open up online bidding.

YouTube recently stated that they will be releasing a new program called Sponsored Videos, which will lets users promote their videos by bidding on keywords.

The program will work by allowing users to decide which of the videos that have been uploaded they want to promote through site search.

The individuals then decide which keywords they want to target.

Google has also created automated tools that help users place bids for the keywords in an automated online auction and also set spending budgets.

When people use keywords in search terms for videos, YouTube will display relevant videos alongside the search results.

Cnet.com gives an example of if a film studio is on YouTube, they may bid on the words "movie trailer" to obtain those rights.

This new bidding seems to be a huge step in allowing online companies to make money off of their users.

YouTube currently has around 80 million users, but Google's cheif executive officer Eric Schmidt said that YouTube was not generating the kind of revenue the company hoped for.

Matthew Lui, a YouTube product manager, also agreed with Schmidt and said that the companies plans to implement this product was challenging.

"We've been working on this for months," Lui said. "The key was [that] we wanted to make sure we got it right."

"YouTube is a video discovery platform," he said. "We've been integrating with Google AdWords for some time, and now we're at a place where it can be win and win."

Will Google profit from the keyword bids?

The Sponsored Videos are priced on a cost-per-click basis, and only U.S. users can bid on video keywords.

The producers of Sponsored Videos are not certain on whether the program will generate revenues or boost YouTube's ratings.

YouTube has recently surpassed Yahoo to become the second Web search provider, behind Google.

According to cnet.com, "Google has launched other ad formats, such as posting links near videos, enabling visitors to purchase goods found in the clip."

This company also has signed deals that will bring full-length TV and film content to the site.

Even though Google is expanding their target audience, YouTube will have to wait and see if consumers are embracing this new technique.

Paying for stories

By: Callie McBroom

Crowdfunding is the practice of receiving mini donations through the internet to help fund a venture. It has worked for bands, film makers, and political figures, and now MediaShift is asking if it could work for newspapers.

This site references two local newspapers, Spot.us and Representative Journalism, that are giving the process a try.

Spot.us or anyone else comes up with a story idea, and people pledge money toward the story. Once a freelance Journalists is covering the story, people can donate up to 20% of the total cost of the story to help fund it. After the journalist has written the story, news organizations can pay the full cost to receive exclusive rights, or the story will be posted online for all to see.

Representative Journalism hires a journalist to cover a specific community or issue. The community then supports that journalist to write stories.

There are some bloggers who are using crowdfunding to raise money as well.

Representative Journalism believes that this process can provide high quality journalism, familarize a community with a journalist, and help members of the community value the news in the area.

This could be a good idea if it's used correctly. If not, crowdfunding could lead to conflicts of interest, biased stories, and narrow story selection.

If people are paying for the news, they will demand only that in which they are interested. This could be a big problem potentially for truth and ethics in reporting.

Associated Press still thriving

By: Erin Floro

The Associated Press is a huge nonprofit news organization owned by 1500 newspapers and employs 3,000 journalists in 97 countries. The AP sells to over 15,000 news outlets worldwide, including 5,000 radio and TV stations and 4,000 Web sites.

Last year revenues were $710.3 million and showed a 6 percent increase due to this year’s election. Tom Curley, CEO of the 162-year-old AP, reports $30 million in the bank for the organization. The AP has avoided layoffs and has diversified its business.

The biggest source of revenue 27 percent comes from U.S newspapers, which are facing their own revenue problems. Many have announced plans to cancel their AP subscriptions. Curley believes they are just blowing smoke and using these threats to negotiate.

Jim Willse, editor of the Star Ledger of Newark, N.J. reasoned that canceling is due to shrinking revenue and layoffs, not that the AP is invaluable. His paper did print an entire issue without any AP stories in September to prove it was possible to live without the service.

Other news organizations are sprouting up around the country. CNN is launching their wire service in December and GlobalPost is starting an international network of correspondents in 2009.

Under Curley, the AP has a vision for the news organization to set up ways to share premium breaking news yet it can’t start up a portal that would compete with those they sell their stories to, somewhat of a catch-22.

Economy hurts even the big boys of media

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

By Peter Merchlewitz

The recent economic stutter is on everyone's minds these days. Can I afford to go back to school? Can our family make the annual holiday vacations to distant relatives? The list goes on and on.

One would be surprised to find that this crisis doesn't affect just us mere mortals, trying to get by, day to day. According to The Editors Weblog, it appears that even media giants such as The New York times are quickly trying to figure out what cuts they can make to meet their ends meet before the Repo Man comes knocking at their door.

The bottom line for the short-term financial picture for the Times is that it owes $453 million more than it has.

Blodget reports, based on recent NYTCo. filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

What NYT has:
• $46 million of cash
• $366 million owed to it by advertisers
Total: $412 million

What NYT owes:
• $398 million of short-term debt (due in May)
• $161 million of accounts payable (newsprint, travel, etc.)
• $100 million of payroll (salaries)
• $159 million of other expenses
• $50 million owed on long-term debt and rent
Total: $865 million

So the question is, what can the NYT do to cut costs and remain afloat? Will cutting jobs be enough? Will they need to end print editions?

Whatever they decide to do, they'll need to find a solution that both allows them to maintain their status and have the resources to provide quality news coverage before it's too late.

The Glitz, The Glamour, and The Glory

By: Kelsey Knutson

The media has a solid reputation for sticking its nose into business that does not belong to them. However, isn't the media supposed to seek out the truth and report it?

But we must ask, what truths do we as a society need to care about? Does my well-being depend and hang in balance on whether Jennifer Aniston is pregnant or not? Or can I not sleep peacefully if I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is dating... or what her sexual orientation is for that case? (You can tell that I do actually pay attention this stuff.)

Television shows like E! and Access Hollywood are dedicated to giving us updates on the lives of movie starts and music idols. Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Paula Abdul, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie. But, who cares?

The answer is everyone cares. The real question is, why?

It's human nature for us to want to know what is going on with other people's lives. So why not inquire about the lives of the rich and famous and... somewhat... talented?

This interest goes beyond Hollywood. We now see special features and articles in gossip magazines about our political figures and sports heros.

The media feeds into our interest of other people's lives.

The media gives us information and opportunity. And above all, it gives us access.

Newspapers consider merger to stay afloat

By: Erin Floro

All across the country newspapers are facing an economic crisis, with more than 24,000 jobs being cut this past year. The Internet is taking over not only their readers but also television, radio, and magazine audiences.

With this decline and dropping revenues, some newspapers are trying to restructure to stay alive. This is the case for the Star-Telegram, a Fort Worth Texas paper. Staffed with 400 journalists its newsroom was once considered huge for a paper its size. This paper has been a moneymaker for decades.

On Friday, November 7, the Star-Telegram announced it may collaborate with the Dallas Morning News, it’s oldest rival. Advertising, its major source of revenue dropped 17.5 percent in September. Annual revenue is $40 million lower than 2006. Stock price of its parent company, the McClatchy Co., fell 87 percent last year. Analysts have speculated bankruptcy.

The Star-Telegram has eliminated 250 positions three times this year, accounting for one-fifth of the work force. Its historic headquarters building in downtown Fort Worth has been put up for sale, shocking to many who want the presence of the paper to remain in the business district.

Employees of the newspaper are also very concerned about job security with the approaching merger.

Falling circulation has affected both papers. In the past year, the Star-Telegram circulation fell to 3.9 percent while the Morning News reported a 9 percent drop in only six months. They are looking at combining their daily print runs as printing is a major expense.

With only 220 journalists, including those who work online, declining revenue, and their overwhelming debt, the Star-Telegram believes that the consolidation with the Morning News makes sense.

Mind blowing tools

By: Sarah Keller

The web is constantly finding bigger and better ways to demonstrate reporting. In an article from the New York Times today, it discussed how google has now made up a search engine that people can go onto to see if they have flu like symptoms. This search engine even has the ability to say in advance what location is going to get hit with the flu next.

This just blows my mind that something like this can be reported about. In my last blog I talked about the how people can view a map and click on a state to see how many people voted for which presidential candidate, I then said who knows what they will think of next. Well this is definitely another step in altering our world with online reporting, I really cannot wait to see what people will think of next to report about online.

Perfect Match

By: Alex Jones

Recently the Des Moines Register published a story about Shannon Michelle Rew, an Indianola resident who had an affair with a 15 year old boy.

Rew being 37 herself was attracted to the boy after her daughter had dated him for 6 months. There seems to be an epidemic of older adults targeting young children. My thought is where is the balance?

It seems that the media only portrays naughty priests or attractive cougars on the prowl. I want average Joe's to create a better balance of who is portrayed in the media for corrupting the youth with their sex.

Where are the men in these stories? The middle school basketball coach that seduced his young female player. I want to know where the heterosexual males fall along this story? They're out there so why are they not getting the media coverage that bubbly soccer moms or priests are getting?

Who is to say one is worse than the other?

Associated Press plays god

By: Kathryn Lisk

Romenesko posted a blog informing editors that after Thursday, Nov. 14 at 3 a.m. EST, an Associated Press change will go into effect.

"The AP will use the title and first and family names on the first reference," said Romenesko's blogger. Essentially, instead of writing "President Bush" in first reference, AP style will ask for "President George Bush". This also applies for "President-elect Barack Obama" and other commonly known leaders.

I understand why the change is being made, but can't help from wondering what it's like to work for the Associated Press style team. This group of individuals dictates how thousands of reporters around the globe write.

Obviously this change will only cause minor shifts in the stories that are reported. However, the AP Stylebook demands specific rules on hundreds of words, phrases, numbers, etc. They play an extremely important and powerful role in today's journalism world.

It starts here and sometimes ends here

By: Shauna Agan

It has happened so recently lately that one does not know if they are watching the entertainment or politics. While politics appearing on the late night television shows is not a new trend, it has sure become a trend in recent years.

In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run for office in the California gubernatorial race. This was not just any announcement though. He made his announcement to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.

His announcement proved to be successful when he was elected as the governor of California. Maybe that is why Senator John McCain also chose to use this form of medium to announce his bid for presidency in March of 2007.

Although there was already much speculation that McCain would run for president, he made it official on The Late Show with David Letterman. His announcement proved to be successful for a while as he claimed the GOP seat in the bid for presidency.

Following McCain, another GOP candidate, Fred Thompson also entered the race using the late shows as his media option. In Sept. 2007, Thompson announced during "The Tonight Show" that he would run for President of the United States.

A week after the elections, Leno was the first person to receive an interview with McCain, who had been defeated.

So many politicians are resorting to the late night entertainment media to announce their candidacy and give interviews to, but why? Does it have anything to do with the ‘serious’ media options such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. is not good enough?

I believe it has to do with the relaxed atmosphere these hosts provide to the politicians. When giving interviews to other journalists in media, the politicians feel as if they are being stuck between a rock and a hard place when some of the questions are asked. Hosts such as Leno and Letterman put a humorous light on the situation.

I also believe it has a lot to do with the American public. More individuals watch the late shows than watch actual news channels, so it is a smart move for these candidates to announce their bids for presidency via entertainment programs. It grabs the attention of the public.

I believe using the late night entertainment media is a very smart decision on the politician’s half.

Is it necessary to keep a tally?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

By: Jessica Hartgers

Many of you may have heard of the most recent suicide at Southeast Polk High School. You probably heard that it was another teenage boy who committed suicide and he is the fourth student to do so in the last seven months.

My problem with the way journalists are reporting this subject is that they all seem to be keeping a tally to the number of students to commit this act. Journalists seem to be focusing on the total number and the timeline that things have occurred, focusing on the first and the latest.

I know the timeline and number of students is just a fact of the case, but is it necessary to keep bringing the previous cases up in each news story. In a way the journalists are making readers relive each death.

Journalists need to leave previous suicides out of the story.

Palin in the news

By: Jessica Hamell

I’m so relieved the election is over but why is there still all this publicity about Sarah Palin? She is getting more news than McCain is and he was the one running for president.

There has been so much news about who her first interview would be with. She was invited on Oprah but she decided that shouldn’t be her first interview. This sort of stuff should not make news.

The New York Times wrote an article today about Palin. The said “She put herself on full display, in interviews with NBC and Fox News before Mr. McCain had a chance to take a no-victory lap on The Tonight Show. And she has many more appearances scheduled throughout the week, including a star turn at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami on Thursday.” She shouldn’t have gotten invited for an interview before McCain. That seems like a slap in the face towards McCain to me.

Now there are rumors about her running in the 2012 election. O please No!!!

Newspapers downturn

By: Jessica Hamell

So now that the election is over will everything get better? Will our economy and newspaper industry be saved. I hardly think so.

The Kansas City Star is letting go of 50 employees. They are in their third round of cost cutting in nearly 5 months and nothing is getting better. The said 2008 is “one of the most challenging years in Star history.” All of them will receive severance pay, benefits continuation and outplacement services. If that is the case then why not keep them and just cut their wages. The newspaper won’t be making much more money by letting go of these employees if they keep giving them money.

These newspapers are trying to do everything they can to save themselves but nothing is working. When will all this stop.

“Many newspapers, including The Star, are attracting record numbers of readers to their news and advertising content. But most new readers are coming through the papers’ online Web sites, while readership and advertising revenue from their core daily printed products continue to soften.” Why don’t more papers make people pay for online subscriptions? That is where they are losing money, I think that would be a very good idea. If people pay to for an online subscription the cost of printing the product is taken out of the equation and money could be made.

It's about time Kenny

By: Gabe Gilson

The funniest sports caster on ESPN finally has a new gig. Unfortunately for him, it is not as big of a deal I was hoping for.

Kenny Mayne now is the star of his own show Mayne Street, which was the idea of ESPN. The thing about this show that makes me rather unexcited for it is the fact that it only appears on espn.com. This truly is a bit of a bummer because a show that is half an hour of Kenny being Kenny that would appear on ESPN one night a week would most likely get tremendous ratings.

So far, there has only been one episode of the show online in which Mayne and Scott Van Pelt did a four minute bit on how Mayne had a hard time saying Rafael Nadal’s name when signing off at the end of the show Sports Center. If one would fully understand Mayne’s dark, sarcastic humor then it would be hard to do anything but laugh.

In this new technological era, this show got me thinking. Is it possible that the new, hip thing is going to be television shows only available to view online? I certainly hope this is not the case because I like to sit down and watch television. Every now and then, when I miss Monday’s How I Met Your Mother on CBS, I like watching the replay online. This is a lot different than only being able to watch the show online. For everybody’s benefit, I hope we can always be able to watch our television shows on television.

Tired of hearing about it

By Kellie Green

The election is over and we know our 44th president but the media keeps printing about the outcome. I understand that it is a huge excitement that we finally know our new president but when does the media stop?

As I was reading the newspapers and some online blogs I kept coming across stories about Barack Obama and his views and how people are against them. In in an article in USA Today it talks about how the Catholic Bishops are going to fight Obama on his views of abortion.

I know that Facebook is not really a newspaper or deals with journalism but it is a media source because so many people use it. When I enter Facebook I always see people putting on their status how our country is going to fall and how we picked a communist for a president.

I just don't understand when it will all end. There are so many people against the idea of Obama but he is now our president and we have to stand behind him.

I just don't understand when the discussion of the new president will end. The New York Times is even running an article on a man named Howard Dean helped the President win the election. It just seems like enough is enough and I think people are tired of hearing about it.

A whole new level

By; Sarah Keller

In class we have been talking about the web and how everything is starting to be published online. You can do so much more things with web sites. We also talked about how you could look at a map and click on states to see how many votes each state had for which presidential candidate, you can even look at previous years votes. I found this to be really cool so I decided to take another look at it.

I am very impressed with the way the map shows the state winners for each candidate. This is taking reporting to a whole new level, which I find very impressive. I only wonder what people will think of next to put up on newspaper web sites. I would just like to congratulate the New York Times for being so clever as to think of something like this to put up on their site, because it really is drawing people in to look at their paper and it is impressive.

Newspapers need to kick it into high gear

By: Erin Floro

Consumers buy newspapers in record numbers when a historical event happens. Such was the case last week when Barack Obama was elected president.

This enthusiasm for the post- election editions proves that newspapers still matter and are valuable keepsakes of a memorable event. People can preserve these souvenirs better than YouTube videos or blogs.

Our nation also turned to newspapers after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and after Hurricane Katrina. It shouldn’t have to be some shocking event to capture a reader’s attention.

Circulation won’t be retained with vague news stories or boring accounts of civic meetings and press conferences. Newspapers need to rejuvenate themselves and ignite their readers on a daily basis. They need to report on stories that will grab people’s attention and pique their interest and then have them talking about it.

If newspapers don't succeed in this they could possibly become extinct.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

© Blogger template On The Road by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP