Archive for the ‘Journalists’ Category

Re: When is advertising journalism?

In response to the previous post, Brian Duggan, Donica Mensing and I began an interesting disucssion via email. The question: Is advertising capable of being journalism ever?” Brian Duggan said: Ads provide objective information, yes, but to what degree? Does that baked potato in your Locals BBQ ad always look picturesque for every customer? Ask yourself [...]

When is advertising, journalism? Sometimes

A lot of people in the hardcore journalism world don’t think advertising is journalism (it’s threatening) and many people don’t believe advertising should be in journalism schools. But I think advertising is journalism and belongs in J-schools. Advertising can serve the same purposes and affect the same goals as journalism when done a certain way [...]

What questions does your company ask you?

Has anyone asked you these questions lately?

  1. What has happened in the “external” world that could affect the way we do business?
  2. What challenges and threats do we face as an organization from the “external” world?
  3. What are the opportunities we should be taking advantage of in order to: a. Make us more sustainable as an organization
    b. Help us be a better company?
  4. What information do you have that you think is important to share with others in the Innovation Station group?
  5. What are the important strengths of [your publication/branch/company]?
  6. What weaknesses are preventing us from being a better organization?
  7. Make some notes about what you think our vision, values and mission are as an organization.
  8. What challenges have we failed to meet in the past two to three years and why have we failed to meet them?
  9. What challenges have we met well in the past two to three years and what helped us to meet them?
  10. What is the most important outcome that you would like to see emerging from Innovation Station? Why do you think it is so important?

News is a customer service

It irks me that our industry is currently having a debate about who the customer is; readers or advertisers. The above Harvard Business blog talks about finding out how people read, something I’ve been whining about for a year now. A very anthropological, anti-focus group approach is what he suggests. I’d agree. Annie points out that [...]

Ask not what SND can do for you,
but what you can do for SND

Capitalize on this focusing point right this second. Do not wait for people to forget you screwed up. Move forward NOW! There are points in history where the world or a group or a culture pay attention to something and change quickly. They are called paradigm shifts. This is one of those opportunities.

Take everyone’s advice. Members have provided a lot of feedback not normally available. Do it. Then make sure there is a place for members to regularly provide feedback from today on into forever. Where the hell can we go to be heard other than when you piss us off? Nowhere. So make somewhere for us to go when we’re not pissed.

SND is no longer a society of print journalists, get over it. Many members lement that we’re no longer true to our craft. We’re not prepress people anymore. It’s odd that we can call ourselves forward thinking and still lement about that fact. It’s a tough world. I know, I just graduated and had to spend the last year ignoring print in order to ensure I could get a job. I still suck at new media, we all do. Let’s get better. Web design has just started, it’ll be like 2004! It’s like getting all your pages in color all over again. There are a limited number of web usability conventions and it’s not all that different than print.
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Journalists must get uncomfortable to move forward the Poynter way

Creativity in journalism is an uncomfortable process. It involves twisting your brain into odd shapes, looking in strange places, talking to people others don’t talk to. Then you have to find ways to relate that story through complicated methods, such as writing, photographing, graphing, networking, videoing and hundreds of other new methods.

One lesson we learned from Poynter, then, is that it’s okay to be uncomfortable. Get used to being uncomfortable and spending time on the line between absolute failure and glorious success. More than that, it’s important to be creative and critically think about everything you do. Media is not a safe, happy place. If you’re satisfied with what you’re doing and comfortable, you’re not learning or working hard enough.

Should you ask your audience what they want?

Ed Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, wrote a column for the Miami Herald yesterday titled, “What readers want vs. what they need.” It represents in one concise package the cultural divide that is preventing so many newsrooms from progressing. This column neatly identifies some of the tenets of journalism [...]

If your newspaper is still relevant, why would it close?

The “future of journalism” discussion usually gets framed in the context of editorial content. We ask questions like: “how can we better connect with readers?” “how can we use technology to build communities?” “how do we ingrain ourselves into the conversation of existing communities?” or “how do we become a vital part of readers’ lives?” Some [...]