The I-Time Media Observer

Why Cleveland Plain Dealer Wants to Aggregate Northeast Ohio Bloggers

John Kroll, Director of Training and Digital Development for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, issued a call on January 15, 2010 for bloggers and Twitter users in Northeast Ohio, USA, to register with Cleveland.com, The Plain Dealers website.  According to Kroll, “Northeast, Ohio, has a thriving online community, filled with creative and thoughtful bloggers as well as lively Twitter users.”

Some of the best political blogs I’ve ever read are produced by Ohio bloggers. I think The Plain Dealer is smart to try to aggregate bloggers in its circulation area, so readers will get to them by going through Cleveland.com. I wanted to know what The Plain Dealer expected to gain, so I emailed Kroll on January 17, 2009. He responded within an hour, with the following:

One of the the traditional roles of newspapers is to create a common ground for the whole community. We want to bring that online. Cleveland.com   is the region's biggest and most popular site, so it just makes sense to host community-wide projects like this.

The more we can make Cleveland.com a community resource, the greater the likelihood we can continue to sustain the reporting that digs out  the truth and shares the good news. To do that, we have to acknowledge that we're not the only source of news and commentary. (This is one of  several moves we're making. Another is to increase our use of outside links to supplement our stories; the directory will help us find alternative voices.)

And, finally, we want to know what we're missing. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of interesting, well-written, informed blogs in the area. But most of them exist in bubbles, invisible beyond their small audiences. We would like to expand our knowledge of the talent in Northeast Ohio, and we think our readers would, too.

If you want to read Kroll’s entire Plain Dealer post, see “Northeast Ohio bloggers and tweeters: Register with us to reach a new audience.”

Note: This post can also be found at The Blogging Journalist, one of my other blogs.

Technorati Tags: John Kroll,The Cleveland Plain Dealer,Cleveland.Com,Northeast Ohio Bloggers

Washington Post Criticized For Printing Articles From The Fiscal Times

Mike Allen, Politico, January 2, 2010 -- “Critics are calling on The Washington Post to stop printing news articles from The Fiscal Times, a new “independent digital news publication” funded by Peter G. Peterson, a former Wall Street financier and longtime advocate of changes to Social Security.”

To read more, please see “Critics question Post partnership.” Also see “Wash. Post turns news pages over to conservative billionaire Peterson's news service” and  “The Fiscal Times to Launch in Early 2010”

For an article from The Fiscal Times, see “Support grows for tackling nation's debt.”

Technorati Tags: The Fiscal Times,Peter G. Peterson,The Washington Post,Politico's Mike Allen

How Newsgathering Has Changed For The News Tribune Of Tacoma, Washington, USA

On January 3, 2009, Karen Peterson at The News Tribune, a McClatchy Company newspaper in Tacoma, Washington, USA, published online her “Top 10 list for how newsgathering has changed in the past decade at The News Tribune.”  See “What a difference a decade makes.”

I think number 10 is highly relevant for any newspaper trying to stay afloat, especially newspapers in smaller markets. It reads:

10. Learning to change. To keep up with the pace of change, we have had to temper our perfectionist tendencies. Instead of spending months fine-tuning every small change, we prefer to launch “pilot projects.” When we decided to start producing videos, for instance, we simply bought a camera and asked our photographers to experiment with it. Sometimes they brought back usable videos; sometimes they didn’t. Some of our blogs flourished; others tanked. But we learned and perfected in the process. We still strive for quality, but we try not to let our fear of failure prevent us from trying something new.

I like this attitude. I also like the idea that, “Mojos, or mobile journalists, now rove the community taking pictures, interviewing people and blogging.” And, according to Peterson, The News Tribune conducts “two-way conversation with readers.” That’s an attitude from the blogosphere, and a good one.

Technorati Tags: The News Tribune,Karen Peteson,Mobile Journalism

Boston Globe’s Publisher Announces New Appointments, Added Responsibilities

Christopher M. Mayer, who will become  “publisher of The Boston Globe and head of the New England Media Group on January 1, 2010,  “sent a memo” to the Globe’s staff on December 21, 2009, “announcing new appointments and added  responsibilities to his leadership team,” according to Boston.Com. See “Incoming Globe publisher names new team.”

Mayer succeeds P. Steven Ainsley, who “became publisher of The Boston Globe in September 2006,” according to The New York Times Company, owner of The Globe. Mayer was named publisher on October 29, 2009.

Technorati Tags: Christopher M. Mayer. P. Steven Ainsley,The Boston Globe,Boston.Com,New England Media Group,The New York Times Company

Sun-Times Media Sells Photo Assets

Phil Rosenthal, the Chicago Tribune’s media writer, notes in a December 20, 2009, post that the Chicago Sun-Times has sold its valuable photo archives. “Sun-Times Media's photo sale puts focus on maximizing assets.” According to Rosenthal:

Sun-Times Media management looked at the photos in its extensive archives, including shots from the Chicago Sun-Times and the late great Chicago Daily News, and what it saw was an untapped asset.

Rosenthal said, “No media company these days can afford to overlook an asset, and sure enough this one has been sold.”

Technorati Tags: Phil Rosenthal,Chicago Tribune,Chicago Sun-Times,Sun-Times Media.

New York Times’ Bill Keller: ‘No Further Staff Cut Planned or Foreseen’

“Of course, we have no guarantees of what the future holds. But, anxiety-fed gossip notwithstanding, there is no further newsroom staff cut planned or foreseen, no "next round" on the agenda,” New York Times Editor Bill Keller has  assured Times employees The New York Observer reported today. See “Keller: There Is 'No Next Round' of Layoffs.

Keller said, according to the December 18, 2009, memo:

It is my fervent hope that we will never endure another month like this one. Indeed, while the business climate remains cloudy, there are some hopeful signs -- in the heft of the paper, in the display ads on the website -- that we are over the worst of the economic upheaval.

According to Keller, “The company is hard at work on some promising ways to boost revenues and get back on a path to growth, More to come.

Technorati Tags: New York Times Layoffs,The New York Observer,Bill Keller

‘The Internet Didn't Kill Newspapers’

“The Internet didn't kill newspapers. Newspapers committed suicide,” contends Robert Kahn in a thought-provoking perspective at Courthouse News Service headlined “Newspapers, R.I.P.”

According to Kahn, “Newspapers put a noose around their own neck and sawed most of the way through one leg of a three legged stool - the legs are advertising, circulation, and news.”

Kahn does a good job of explaining how “newspapers put a noose around their own neck.”

Technorati Tags: Newspapers' Future,RIP,Corthouse News Service,Robert Kahn

Dayton Daily News to Demote 10 Managers

“The Dayton Daily News, owned by Cox Ohio Publishing, will be demoting 10 managers in the editorial department to staff/reporter positions,” according to the Dayton Business Journal. For details, see “Dayton Daily News restructures newsroom.”

Technorati Tags: Dayton Daily News,Cox Ohio Publishing,Dayton Business Journal

The Elizabethtown Advocate

Dan Robrish, described by York Daily Record reporter Tom Knapp as “an 11-year veteran of the Associated Press in Philadelphia,” [Pennsylvania, USA], “plans to launch the Elizabethtown Advocate,” a weekly, “in late January” [2010]. See “Elizabethtown could get a newspaper.”

Elizabethtown is located in south central Pennsylvania.

According to Knapp’s December 16, 2009, report, “The Advocate will launch as a six-page broadsheet that will grow as it builds a core of advertisers, Robrish said.”

Technorati Tags: The Elizabeth Town Advocate,Dan Robrish,Lancaster Online,Tom Knapp

Houston Chronicle’s ‘New Society Team’

On December 14, 2009, the Houston Chronicle of Houston, Texas, USA, introduced what it called “a dynamic new society team, Douglas Britt and Lindsey Love. They're poised to provide up-to-the-minute, 21st-century-style multimedia coverage, combining print and online journalism with social networking savvy,” according to the Chronicle.

If you want to know more about their mission, see “The Chronicle introduces its new society writers.”

Technorati Tags: Houston Chronicle,New Society Team