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March 11, 2010 by David
Unless you are familiar with the media spotlight, it is difficult to appreciate the power of the media.
If you are a victim and need help, there are few tools more effective than the media’s megaphone. Witness the aid that poured into Haiti, largely thanks to the blanket coverage of the world’s media and news cable channels, particularly CNN.
Media remain proud of their ability to impact, for good or for ill, the people they cover. A familiar refrain in journalism circles goes: “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”
Carl Lavin, a managing editor at Forbes and Forbes.com, recently mentioned that the 20 small businesses featured in the publication’s “America’s Most Promising Companies” have enjoyed a signficant boost in funding, directly attributed to the coverage. At a time when small businesses are struggling for financing of any kind, be it loans or venture capital investment, the 20 companies—including QED, a promising biotech company in my region of Northeast Ohio—have raised $19 million in investments in a matter of months. The list was published in October.
In this case, journalists comforted some of the most innovative risk taskers among the entrepreneurial ranks. A good use of the media’s power.
February 25, 2010 by David
The next time you think newsgathering is doomed, consider AOL and the New York Times. They both employ an arsenal of journalists and are expanding their coverage of hyperlocal news.
AOL now employs 500 journalists. In fact, the company once known for digital access and canned content hired 150 journalists last year, when nearly every other newsgathering organization was trimming jobs.
This expansion may not be the most significant for AOL. Business Insider recently reported that AOL plans to expand its network of hyperlocal news blogs, Patch, from 30 sites to hundreds by the end of the year.
(I wrote about the expansion of Patch and other hyperlocal coverage in this article.)
Meanwhile, The Local, the Times’ hyperlocal project started last year, is expanding from five sites in New York and New Jersey into the East Village of New York City. The project will be run by New York University’s journalism faculty and students through its Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, according to David Kaplan of PaidContent.org.
“The collaboration is similar to the one the Times has with the citizen journalism initiative at The City University of New York. CUNY has been involved with The Local since its inception and it was recently handed oversight for two Brooklyn sites. The East Village outpost is expected to launch in the fall,” Kaplan wrote.
So, if you are not yet convinced that hyperlocal coverage is one of most significant themes in the journalism world this year, just think of AOL and the Times. Oh, and think of CNN, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald…….
February 19, 2010 by David
One of the first stories I reported as a young journalist in Southeast Florida focused on business owners’ “off-season” struggles. To secure the necessary interviews, I started walking along a major thoroughfare in Delray Beach and before long, came upon a small clothing business. As I walked in, I noticed a sign on the door. “Closed.” It was mid-afternoon.
“I almost didn’t come in,” I said to the owner, indicating the sign.
“Oh?” she said. “I must have forgotten to flip it over. I haven’t had a customer all day.”
Instantly, I had the opening for my story, thanks to some local-level or shoe-leather reporting.
Increasingly, media are finding such golden nuggets of local information without opening those doors, or wearing down their shoe leather.
Earlier blog posts and this article describe the value and use of hyperlocal news sources, from small business owners to residents who blog. A recent national survey from Cision, a software company that services public relations firms, and a professor at George Washington University now offers addiitional insight into the extent to which journalists are utilizing social media for their reporting.
As Jack Loechner of the Center for Media Research reports, 89 percent of the journalists surveyed said they turn to blogs for story research. In another measure, 55 percent of journalists who responded said social media was important or somewhat important to their reporting efforts.
Much of the information provided is local, up-front and personal. But not all. Social media helps journalists find such fundamental facts as the contact information for a valuable new source. Or it can offer a deeper dive, such as the viewpoint on a complicated trend.
“Newspaper journalists (72 percent) and those writing for Web sites (75 percent) use social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook for online research,” Loechner wrote.
This reliance on social media certainly raises questions about sourcing and accuracy. (Even though a blogger says the door sign shows “closed,” how does the reporter know that is true?)
Another question also comes to mind: If media in significant numbers are using these sources to gather information, doesn’t that mean these same channels are becoming increasingly effective tools for those who wish to provide information to the media?
Seems as if the two-way dialogue smart media are creating is rapidly coming together.
February 09, 2010 by David
I’ve got one word for you: “hyperlocal.”
OK. So that’s a cheap ripoff of the famous line from “The Graduate” but the promise of hyperlocal may soon equal that of the “plastics” industry urged to be Dustin Hoffman’s future.
Recently, I detailed in this article how the media’s rush to increase its local connections would impact communities, accelerate the pace of news and greatly impact how business and thought leaders effectively communicate with a variety of audiences.
Now, Steve Safran of LostRemote, a blogger who covers the local media space, reports that the New York Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miami Herald, The Tribune Co. and Dow Jones Local are forming relationships with Outside.in, the aggregator and distributor of hyperlocal information that depends on bloggers and other local sources for its extremely local news.
One newspaper editor commented to me that the race for hyperlocal content is “nearly manic” as is the search for a way to make money providing it to readers. A journalism professor commented on the ethical and accuracy concerns associated with allowing bloggers and citizen journalists to provide so much content.
It will be fascinating to watch how the media—and the businesses that use them for communications—figure this out.
February 01, 2010 by David
Numerous media are trying new approaches to draw in readers, raise circulation and advertising revenue. Bloggers, tweeters and targeted coverage are all part of the mix.
Sometimes it’s the tried and true methods, combined with the best of the new, that work best. The New York Times has gained 1,100 readers in the Bay Area alone, thanks to a special edition and talented news team. The paper only claimed about 40,000 area readers before the new local news effort.
Pumping up coverage is one way media are trying to enhance their dialogue with readers. Here is a recent article I wrote about the fight for local readers and its impact on those they cover. Businesses and organizations seeking to connect with new and current customers are being impacted as well.
One big question in 2010: Can other media create a similar result?
January 22, 2010 by David
If you are like me, you have been spending some portion of your day consuming news about Haiti and its residents. The coverage has been gripping. As mentioned in a previous post, the tweets and Twitter lists concerning the earthquake’s aftermath have been excellent sources of information. My wife and I also have been watching the news channels in the evening. Some of the reports about survivors and the family members sitting watch while rescue efforts struggle against the clock have been heartrending.
This coverage chronicles for history the human tragedy and, yes, a few against-all-odds victories. Breaking news coverage reminds us what those first moments and days were like after an event. Want to recall what you really felt and knew immediately after 9/11? Review the media coverage from that day, and it will come flooding back. (I have weeks of front pages from that period in my basement.)
Without the huge number of journalists in Haiti, the world’s outpouring of support would be less impressive. Without those photos, stories, videos and other coverage, millions may not have been moved to action, and the extraordinary efforts taking place today would have occurred outside the view of a grateful public. Without the media, this disaster would fade quickly, as the world’s attention turned to other matters.
Yet, for all the good the coverage does for Haiti, it comes at a cost. Hundreds of journalists and their support staff have flooded into Haiti, stretching its diminished resources, and consuming the food and water the Haitians desperately need.
Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute offered a fascinating blog post on this point. He goes so far as to urge journalists not to go to Haiti, to pass on the chance to cover what is likely the breaking news story of 2010.
“The country is clogged with people who cannot find enough to eat or drink,” he wrote. “If you go, you must be self-sufficient. Everything is expensive. I have a friend who paid more than $200 for 10 gallons of gas—either that or wait in line for two days, he said.”
Anderson Cooper is doing a phenomenal job for CNN, but he has the help of as much as 50 co-workers, all of whom need a place to sleep, as well as food and water.
Tompkins also quotes reports from Slate and The New Republic, raising similar points.
In a disaster such as this, journalists labor to chronicle the human suffering, and to do some good. They do it for the victims, as well as the rest of the globe. But the cost of this coverage can sometimes be high.
January 14, 2010 by David
Pre-Haiti, as most news events this week should be cataloged, Tim Arango and David Carr of the New York Times published an insightful profile of Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News. Out of the many points they made about the man who helped build Fox, this one really stuck out:
“At a time when the broadcast networks are struggling with diminishing audiences and profits in news, he has built Fox News into the profit engine of the News Corporation. Fox News is believed to make more money than CNN, MSNBC and the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC and CBS combined. The division is on track to achieve $700 million in operating profit this year, according to analyst estimates that Mr. Ailes does not dispute.”
Pre-Haiti, this statement raised a few questions, such as:
Why does this news organization seem to thrive when many others are struggling?
How could it dominate its competition so convincingly?
Does its widely-perceived conservative political approach to news coverage appeal to so many, or does the perceived liberal political approach of other mainstream media frustrate so many?
Post-Haiti, these questions tend to take a back seat. Covering breaking news is an expensive undertaking. More often than not, media spend money hand-over-fist sending journalists to the scene, expanding news space in print and eliminating commercials on broadcast. Overtime skyrockets as journalists jazzed at updating a fixated world on the most gripping story of the year work round the clock to communicate, to connect and to bring hope to those isolated by disaster.
Consider some of the media chronicling the misery of the Haitian people.
Fox News
CNN
MSNBC
The Miami Herald
The Washington Post
The New York Times coverage includes a Twitter list, which allows you to expand your sources of information.
Pre-Haiti, Charles Pelton, a former journalist, wrote a controversial article that appears on paidContent.org titled: “How to turn journalists into profit centers.” Pelton recently came under fire for proposing that Post reporters attend a series of sponsored salon dinners, where the paper essentially sold access to its reporters.
The journalists straining to cover the Haitian aftermath are revenue drains. And that is how it should be.
January 07, 2010 by David
Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.
Or rain.
Or blow.
The weather always makes news.
Right now, as I write this post, it is snowing like crazy in Cleveland. And in Minneapolis. And across the country. Great for kids; bad for commuters. And HUGE news.
“Arctic blast blamed for deaths”—CNN.
“Rollovers, icy roads snarl commute”—Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“Latest traffic and weather conditions”—Cleveland Plain Dealer
Most newspaper reporters used to grouse whenever they were assigned a weather story. “Big news,” they’d say. “The sun came up today.”
One of the best I’ve seen at covering the weather was Jim Carney, an Akron Beacon Journal reporter and former colleague. If a kid stuck his tongue to a frozen flag pole during a storm, Jim could find it, interview the poor kid, arrange for a photo and get the story in time for the next day’s paper.
If a thunderstorm destroyed a neighborhood’s trees, Jim could find the kind resident who, armed with a chainsaw, worked overtime to clear the brush from the road.
Now, the media do so much more than cover the weather, of course. They let you, the readers, cover it as well. Have an interesting photo? Post it on your newspapers’ Web site and let your neighbors marvel at your photography. Or better yet, post it, then send out an email blast alerting all your contacts that the media have published your work.
Other media solicit tweets, video, commentary. All in the name of telling the world about the millions of personal stories created as we cope with dramatic weather.
Yes, the sun will likely come up tomorrow. But the media—and their readers—will keep reporting on the weather. After all, no snowflake is exactly the same. And no person’s story of braving the arctic blast, snarled roads, icy conditions or massive drifts is exactly the same, either.
If you see any particularly interesting photos or media coverage from the nation’s latest snowstorm, pass them along. Why should the media have all the fun?
December 23, 2009 by David
From the hilarious to the sobering, here are some perspectives helping us look back on the events that dominated the news and the media in 2009.
Google Wave and the newsroom from Leah Betancourt of Mashable: Newsrooms are experimenting with this melding of real time reporting and social media platforms.
Uncle Jay explains: Jay Gilbert, a longtime Cincinnati radio personality, offers a creative and funny take on the year’s events. Uncle Jay is always worth a laugh.
Reflections of a Newsosaur reflects on mass newspaper closings: Alan Mutter, businessman, journalist and consultant, details the closings of more than 140 papers, but then ends with a section titled, “The irrepressible optimism of publishers.”
More reflecting, this time on what people talked about on Twitter: Chris Crum breaks out by sector the top topics on Twitter. Iran’s election, Michael Jackson, Harry Potter and American Idol lead their respective categories.
David Carr’s review of the year in newspapers: The New York Times’ media columnist has a great line about the future moves newspapers need to make: “So what is the next step? Not to go all Mary Poppins, but with a little bit of pluck, I think the media industry can work from here.”
Joe Strupp’s review of 2009 in newspapers:Strupp’s Editor & Publisher is threatening to close in 2010 after more than 100 years in publication. This gives you an idea of his list of top 10 media events in 2009.
This is just a sample of the 2009 reviews circulating. If you have others to share, send us a link.
December 17, 2009 by David
One of the fun things to do at this time of year is to reconnect with old friends, joke about the good times and the events of the past year and scoff about the predictions for the year to come.
I had the opportunity recently to catch up with an old friend who has remained in the newspaper business. This friend, let’s call him Mike, largely because that’s his name, has refrained from using Twitter, or other social media. As we spoke, he bragged about recording my contact information on a Rolodex card, rather than electronically. Keep in mind that Mike is an accomplished journalist. He has a Pulitzer Prize to his name. For Mike, journalism is a passion and a craft meant to serve the public. If you want to reach him, pick up the phone, or perhaps type an email on a good day. Never tweet.
Mike likely missed the CNN story this week focusing on the top viral videos of the year from YouTube.com. Susan Boyle led the pack with more than 120 million views! What Mike would give for that kind of readership, I can only imagine.
Which brings us to one of the top questions of the year in journalism. Will readers pay for online content? A Boston Consulting Group survey found that “consumers are willing to spend small monthly sums to receive news on their personal computers and mobile devices. In a survey of 5,000 individuals conducted in nine countries, BCG found that the average monthly amount that consumers would be prepared to pay ranges from $3 in the United States and Australia to $7 in Italy, according to the Center for Media Research at Media Post.
A pay-for-online-content business concept appears inevitable.
So here are a few predictions for 2010:
Susan Boyle will not repeat as the top viral video, but the winner’s numbers will exceed 120 million.
More newspapers will close, but still more will turn the corner and begin to grow revenue. A large part of this growth will come from a variety of pay-for-content plans on the Web.
As for my friend, Mike? He will get a Twitter account. And I will follow him!
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