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News is a customer service

Michael Higdon — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:44:17 +0000

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 [...]

Get the Best Work from Your Oldest Staffers: Join Thursday’s Webinar from Fix Journalism

Michael Higdon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:08:04 +0000

Register now for Thursday's Webinar and learn how to manage a new generation of staffers. The Baby Boomers Generation -- also known as Gen Old -- is reshaping your newsroom. How do you get the best work out of your youngest staffers? Join me, of Fix Journalism for Managing Old Folks: Helping the Old Generation of Journalists Succeed in Your Newsroom. This one-hour Webinar will:

Identify who falls into this generation and understand how they have come to be defined
Identify contributions Baby Boomers can make in the newsroom
Describe five keys to helping Baby Boomers succeed
Offer tips to put their talents to work for your news organization
Explore how to turn the success of Baby Boomer staffers to your newsroom's advantage

Sign up now for Managing Old Folks and learn how to successfully manage your staffers to create a more productive newsroom and a more satisfied work force. When Old Folks succeed, your whole newsroom benefits. Stay tuned for our webinar next week: Managing Women: How to Help the Women in your Newsroom Succeed.

How to identify the women in your newsroom and how they have come to be defined
Identify contributions women can make to your newsroom
Describe five keys to helping women succeed
Offer tips on how to put their talents to work for you
Explore how to turn women's success to your advantage

OR Sign up for News University's webinar: Managing Millennials: Helping the Next Generation of Journalists Succeed in Your Newsroom Seriously?

Making information valuable

Donica Mensing — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:14:26 +0000

Journalists write stories. Most stories are intended to convey information. The strategic thinking that should be the next step — who needs this information, how might they act on it, how will they find it, how will they share it, how is it useful to them? — gets little attention in most newsrooms. This piece [...]

Why do you do journalism?

Michael Higdon — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:17:52 +0000

At the Poynter Institute we were asked “Why do you do journalism?” Why, amongst all the hell we endure through the economy, through reader scorn, low pay and crazy hours, do you do journalism? For some people it’s a moment; a tangible anecdotal moment. For others it’s a purpose or a concept or a goal. [...]

Continue to follow me on Twitter for Newspaper Association of America News Challenge Fellowship

Michael Higdon — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:55:49 +0000

Follow me @MikeHigdon or follow the new hashtag #naaf09

Changing the j-school curriculum

Donica Mensing — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:11:57 +0000

Kim Pearson, a guest contributor on E-Media Tidbits at Poynter, writes the following about the need for more computational thinking in journalism: There’s no longer an argument about whether journalists need to be digitally literate. Today, newsgathering requires the ability to write programs that scrape public records databases and design interfaces that make the information [...]

Why stay after the beatings?

Annie Flanzraich — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:50:27 +0000

Working for a newspaper in today’s economy is like being in an abusive relationship. It has its brilliant highs — experimenting with new technologies, connecting with readers like never before, getting the story first and right, building lasting relationships with sources and colleagues and becoming the articulate, hard-hitting reporter you always knew you could be. [...]

A Freudian slip or a message to readers?

Michael Higdon — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:49:02 +0000

I know this is just a typo, so I took the news organization's name out. Anyway, it's kind of an interesting accident, don't you think?

Pew’s State of Journalism Report due out Monday

Brian Duggan — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:29:15 +0000

Pew's annual report about journalism's prospects for 2009 is due out on Monday. According to an Associated Press story: "The state of journalism is bleak, but an annual study of the industry suggests all hope should not be lost." In other news, Pew has an interesting story about the changing face of the Washington press corps, the group of journalists responsible for communicating the going ons of our national leaders. What Pew found was a dramatically depleted press corps for mainstream media outlets (regional bureaus for newspapers have been especially hit hard) but at the same time more and more newsletters for specialized interests (climate change, ag policy, etc...) are emerging. There's also been a dramatic increase in the number of foreign corespondents covering Washington.

The purpose of IDEO and our think tank experience

Michael Higdon — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:55:16 +0000

My brain is absolutely dead right now. I've been asked to be on another panel but I really just want to take a nap. So I leave you with this: a pivotal scene in the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that absolutely relates to what we are supposed to do with the IDEO process. PS. People in the room next to me are still discussing the panel (which I will eventually write about and post a video of).