First Draft by Tim PorterNewspapering, Readership & Relevance in a Digital AgeASNE Notes: Huffington, Diller, Mossberg- March 29, 2007 From an ASNE panel just ended on the "digital revolution" -- ahem -- with Walter Mossberg, Barry Diller, Arianna Huffington and Don Graham of the Washington Post: Huffington is talking about Huffington Post's plan to work with Jay Rosen's new project. NewAssignment.net, in covering the 2006 presidential campaign. We'll have a citizen journalists in every state, she says. What's a citizen journalists, asks Diller. Mossberg, not missing a beat, jumps in: "It's like citizen surgey." Rim...http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000577.html News, Improved on Pressthink- March 29, 2007 Jay Rosen was kind enough to invite Michele McLellan and I to write about News, Improved on Pressthink. Here's the beginning of the piece: Back in the day -- that day when the newspaper was as much as part of daily American life as the cell phone now is -- back in that good ol' day, newsrooms were run and staffed mostly by autocratic, tough-talking men, news was what those men said it was, by God, and no one on the editorial side (and not too many on the business side, either) worried about...http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000576.html Notes from ASNE: Changes Underway; Six Things to Do- March 28, 2007 After beating ASNE over the head the last couple of years for not openly confronting the innovation stagnation in the news industry, it's good to report that this year is different. Yes, the room still looks more like the convention of podiatrists down the hall in the Washington Marriott than a gathering of news media innovators, but the conversation about change had definitely changed. In addition to our session on News, Improved (get the presentation here), there are panels featuring media...http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000575.html Poynter Blurbs the Book- March 27, 2007 Poynter online did a nice piece today on News, Improved. The sub-head reads: "A new book explains how news organizations can train their staffers to become innovators. To welcome change. To be nimble." Well, the book does do that -- but it also says you've got to work at all that pretty hard. The piece also proves I'm better at quoting than being quoted. Read it here....http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000574.html Staff Investment Most News Organizations Would Still Rather Not- March 27, 2007 A new Knight Foundation study, commissioned to conclude with the ending of our Tomorrow's Workforce project and the release of our book (News, Improved), finds that only three in 10 news organizations have increased spending on staff development in the last five years. Worse, 20 percent have decreased spending on training and 10 percent don't spend a nickel. And this at a time when the news industry faces its greatest challenges of learning new skills. (Read a summary and stats of the summary...http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000573.html The Real Heroes of Newspapers- March 13, 2007 Newsroom budget cuts are routine these days (and will remain so for some time). It's also routine for top editors to resign before, or amid, these reductions, throwing their careers on the swords of journalistic quality. These martyred journalists - Dean Baquet, late of the L.A. Times and now relocated in the N.Y. Times Washington bureau, is the poster child for them - are hailed as heroes by their colleagues (whom they've left behind in the trenches) and some of their peers (who perhaps see a..http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000572.html News, Improved. The State of the News Media, Not.- March 13, 2007 Depending on how you see it, I ... A) ... couldn't have picked a worse time to write a book about how newspapers can use focused, strategic learning to reinvent themselves - because according to the State of the News Media 2007 report released today they are withering away at a steadily increasing rate. Or ... B) ... couldn't have picked a better time to write a book about how newspapers can use focused, strategic learning to reinvent themselves - because now more than ever they need good...http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000571.html |