From Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac:
It's the birthday of Nicholas Sparks, born in Omaha, Nebraska (1965). He wrote The Notebook (1996) and A Walk to Remember (1999), and he said: "Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It's one of themost enjoyable moments in life."
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Was This Checkbook Journalism?
This Associated Press article again raises the ethical issue of checkbook journalism. Did NBC do anything wrong here, or was this OK. I'm interested in your opinions and feedback.
Journalists' group slams NBC for flying boy home
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) - The Society of Professional Journalists condemned NBC News for practicing ``checkbook journalism'' by chartering a jet that carried a New Jersey man involved in a bitter custody battle and his son home from Brazil.
David Goldman, who successfully fought the Brazilian family of his now-deceased ex-wife for custody of 9-year-old Sean, granted an interview to Meredith Vieira of NBC's ``Today'' show that aired Monday.
NBC said Goldman was booked for ``Today'' before the network invited him on the plane. The network had already arranged for the plane to bring its own employees home for Christmas, NBC News spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said. If NBC hadn't brought the Goldmans' home, one of its rivals would have, she said.
``We've covered this story exceptionally well,'' she said. ``Their going on the plane did not affect our coverage of the story or getting them booked at all.''
NBC News told viewers that it had paid for the Goldmans' trip home, she said. The network showed pictures of the Goldmans on the plane and on ``Nightly News'' featured a brief interview by correspondent Jeff Rossen with David Goldman while both were on the plane.
The journalists' group said NBC News jeopardized its integrity with the arrangement.
``Paying for access taints the credibility and neutrality of what you are doing,'' said Andy Schotz, chairman of the SPJ ethics committee. ``There is now a motive for people to be helping you, to be telling you what you want to hear.''
Most news organizations say they don't pay for interviews. But critics say the commonly used practice of paying to license photos or video from a subject matter or paying for someone's travel is a way of getting around the restriction.
At the same time SPJ criticized NBC News for its conduct with the Goldmans, CNN and ABC paid for cell phone pictures taken by Jasper Schuringa, the man who helped subdue an alleged terrorist who tried to take down a Detroit-bound plane. Both also interviewed Schuringa but denied any connection between the payments and interview.
Kapp said she believed NBC News did nothing wrong by chartering the plane.
The Goldmans ``were invited on as guests,'' she said. ``This was not a booking strategy.''
Journalists' group slams NBC for flying boy home
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) - The Society of Professional Journalists condemned NBC News for practicing ``checkbook journalism'' by chartering a jet that carried a New Jersey man involved in a bitter custody battle and his son home from Brazil.
David Goldman, who successfully fought the Brazilian family of his now-deceased ex-wife for custody of 9-year-old Sean, granted an interview to Meredith Vieira of NBC's ``Today'' show that aired Monday.
NBC said Goldman was booked for ``Today'' before the network invited him on the plane. The network had already arranged for the plane to bring its own employees home for Christmas, NBC News spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said. If NBC hadn't brought the Goldmans' home, one of its rivals would have, she said.
``We've covered this story exceptionally well,'' she said. ``Their going on the plane did not affect our coverage of the story or getting them booked at all.''
NBC News told viewers that it had paid for the Goldmans' trip home, she said. The network showed pictures of the Goldmans on the plane and on ``Nightly News'' featured a brief interview by correspondent Jeff Rossen with David Goldman while both were on the plane.
The journalists' group said NBC News jeopardized its integrity with the arrangement.
``Paying for access taints the credibility and neutrality of what you are doing,'' said Andy Schotz, chairman of the SPJ ethics committee. ``There is now a motive for people to be helping you, to be telling you what you want to hear.''
Most news organizations say they don't pay for interviews. But critics say the commonly used practice of paying to license photos or video from a subject matter or paying for someone's travel is a way of getting around the restriction.
At the same time SPJ criticized NBC News for its conduct with the Goldmans, CNN and ABC paid for cell phone pictures taken by Jasper Schuringa, the man who helped subdue an alleged terrorist who tried to take down a Detroit-bound plane. Both also interviewed Schuringa but denied any connection between the payments and interview.
Kapp said she believed NBC News did nothing wrong by chartering the plane.
The Goldmans ``were invited on as guests,'' she said. ``This was not a booking strategy.''
Monday, December 28, 2009
Lee Grady Resigns as Editor of Charisma Magazine
Lee Grady resigns as editor of 'Charisma'
After 10 years as editor of Charisma magazine, J. Lee Grady has resigned to pursue international ministry through The Mordecai Project. He will be replaced by Marcus Yoars as the third editor of the magazine, which has focused on the charismatic renewal since 1975.
Grady will continue as a "contributing editor" of Charisma. "This is a positive move for Lee, whose international ministry has really expanded in recent years," said Steve Strang, the magazine's publisher and founder.
At 34, Yoars is the same age Grady was when he came to Charisma 17 years ago. "We see this transition as very strategic," said Strang, president and CEO of Strang Communications. "It comes at the same time we will be relaunching Charisma with a special issue in April 2010 that coincides with the Empowered 21 conference in Tulsa, Okla.
"It will be one of our largest issues in years," Strang added. "We will also be announcing some exciting new digital versions of Charisma about the same time."
Christianity Today wrote about Grady's role at Charisma and his traveling ministry in a feature in its November issue. The award-winning author and journalist has ministered internationally through his ministry, The Mordecai Project, which focuses on empowering women for leadership and confronting the abuse of women around the world.
In 2009 Grady worked only half time with Charisma while he preached in conferences and churches in 10 foreign nations and 16 states. He has also accepted the position of editor of Experience, the official magazine of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church under which he is ordained. He will relocate to Georgia.
Yoars has been editor of Ministry Today, a sister publication at Strang Communications, for the last three years. Strang Communications in Lake Mary, Fla., has also published Christian Retailing magazine since 1986.
Still Fit to Print the News
from Dan Kennedy at The Guardian:
Still fit to print the news
Despite the economic tsunami and hungry web rivals, the great US newspaper apocalypse of 2009 wasn't as bad as feared
At a moment when the newspaper business is hanging by a thread, it seems strange to suggest that maybe things aren't that bad. After all, as the Newsosaur, Alan Mutter, points out, 142 American newspapers shut their doors in 2009, and nearly 15,000 jobs at US newspapers have disappeared during the past year.
Yet if you had believed the headlines, you would have expected the mediascape to look a lot worse for print.
Last December, Tribune Company, whose holdings include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy. Wall Street bad boy-turned-online provocateur Henry Blodget was predicting the New York Times's parent company would run out of cash. Right on cue, the Times Company threatened to close its second largest newspaper, the Boston Globe, which at one time was projected to lose $85m this year. And Hearst similarly announced it might shutter the San Francisco Chronicle in the face of mounting losses.
As 2009 draws to a close, all of those papers are still alive, if not especially healthy. The largest papers to stop printing in 2009 were a pair of second-ranked city dailies, always vulnerable during a recession: Denver's Rocky Mountain News, which went out of business, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which moved to be online-only. For most folks living in other large metropolitan areas, surprisingly little has changed.
If there are any lessons to be drawn from this state of affairs, it may be that despite wrenching changes in the newspaper business, the underlying health of newspapers is not as bad as had been supposed.
"Journalists are ... starting to discover that the industry might not be as dead as they have been portraying it to be," writes media economist Robert Picard. "A number of stories have reported that the drop in advertising due to the recession appears to be near bottom, that profits and share prices are rising, and there is no wholesale rush to the web by print newspaper readers."
In pulling together the threads for this commentary, what struck me were three themes that help explain why the dire predictions of months past did not come entirely true.
Corporate debt made many newspapers look a lot sicker than they really were
The paradigmatic company is Tribune, which had amassed $8.2bn in debt in the course of assembling a newspaper-and-broadcasting empire.
By some accounts, every one of Tribune Company's operating units would be operating in the black if it weren't for the debt under which they are staggering. As New York Times media reporter Richard Pérez-Peña wrote at the time of Tribune's bankruptcy, the typical newspaper continues to post gross profits of between 10% and 20%.
That's a margin for which bosses at supermarket chains would kill. But it's barely enough – and, in some cases, it's not enough – to cover the massive debt repayments incurred by the likes of Tribune, McClatchy and GateHouse Media. Yet, given that most newspapers are still earning more than they're spending, it makes eminent good sense for those struggling chains to keep publishing.
There are still plenty of newsroom jobs that can be eliminated
It pains me to write those words. I don't like to see fellow journalists lose their jobs, and I want my students to find gainful employment after they graduate. But the truth is that newspapers experienced an unprecedented rise in prosperity between 1960 and 2005, as former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll pointed out in an interview with National Public Radio.
During that golden age, newspaper companies were awash in so much money that they couldn't help but invest some of it in journalism. For instance, Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said following a round of cuts earlier this year that her paper still employed some 800 full-time journalists – more than double the number that worked at the Post during the Watergate glory days of the 1970s.
Thus, when a large regional paper such as the Boston Globe concentrates on its local mission and eliminates nearly all of its staff-produced international and national reporting, it is merely returning to the model that prevailed before the 1960s and 1970s. It's hardly an admission of defeat if most of the Globe's non-local stories (it still maintains a robust Washington bureau) are from the Associated Press, Reuters, the NYT and other news services.
Newspaper executives are finally coming up with innovative ideas to extract money from readers and advertisers
Here we are seeing just the bare beginnings of a trend. But if we can extrapolate it into the future, we might discern a brighter picture.
Rupert Murdoch's fulminations aside, pay walls for basic web access won't work. But readers have demonstrated some willingness to shoulder higher prices for print delivery, and to pay for enhanced electronic delivery in the form of Kindle subscriptions, iPhone applications and specialty products like Times Reader. The long-rumored Apple Tablet and other platforms represent money-making opportunities as well.
And misguided though Murdoch's crusade against free content might be, he may yet push a number of newspaper companies to cut a deal with Google's principal competitor, Microsoft's Bing, to create an online aggregator that would share advertising revenues with content-producers.
Alan Mutter warns that we shouldn't get too excited, writing: "If unbridled cost cutting and raw optimism are enough to save newspapers, they will be just fine. If it takes more than chopping expenses and praying for the economy to rebound – which seems to be the prevailing industry strategy – then, unfortunately, we haven't seen the last newspaper close."
In the long run, we are likely to see newspapers continue to shrink, break apart and close, as small, specialised websites move in on their turf. But as John Maynard Keynes observed, in the long run, we're all dead.
For the moment, it's enough to note that the Great Newspaper Apocalypse of 2009 didn't quite live up to its advance billing. That's a non-development for which we should all be grateful.
Still fit to print the news
Despite the economic tsunami and hungry web rivals, the great US newspaper apocalypse of 2009 wasn't as bad as feared
At a moment when the newspaper business is hanging by a thread, it seems strange to suggest that maybe things aren't that bad. After all, as the Newsosaur, Alan Mutter, points out, 142 American newspapers shut their doors in 2009, and nearly 15,000 jobs at US newspapers have disappeared during the past year.
Yet if you had believed the headlines, you would have expected the mediascape to look a lot worse for print.
Last December, Tribune Company, whose holdings include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy. Wall Street bad boy-turned-online provocateur Henry Blodget was predicting the New York Times's parent company would run out of cash. Right on cue, the Times Company threatened to close its second largest newspaper, the Boston Globe, which at one time was projected to lose $85m this year. And Hearst similarly announced it might shutter the San Francisco Chronicle in the face of mounting losses.
As 2009 draws to a close, all of those papers are still alive, if not especially healthy. The largest papers to stop printing in 2009 were a pair of second-ranked city dailies, always vulnerable during a recession: Denver's Rocky Mountain News, which went out of business, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which moved to be online-only. For most folks living in other large metropolitan areas, surprisingly little has changed.
If there are any lessons to be drawn from this state of affairs, it may be that despite wrenching changes in the newspaper business, the underlying health of newspapers is not as bad as had been supposed.
"Journalists are ... starting to discover that the industry might not be as dead as they have been portraying it to be," writes media economist Robert Picard. "A number of stories have reported that the drop in advertising due to the recession appears to be near bottom, that profits and share prices are rising, and there is no wholesale rush to the web by print newspaper readers."
In pulling together the threads for this commentary, what struck me were three themes that help explain why the dire predictions of months past did not come entirely true.
Corporate debt made many newspapers look a lot sicker than they really were
The paradigmatic company is Tribune, which had amassed $8.2bn in debt in the course of assembling a newspaper-and-broadcasting empire.
By some accounts, every one of Tribune Company's operating units would be operating in the black if it weren't for the debt under which they are staggering. As New York Times media reporter Richard Pérez-Peña wrote at the time of Tribune's bankruptcy, the typical newspaper continues to post gross profits of between 10% and 20%.
That's a margin for which bosses at supermarket chains would kill. But it's barely enough – and, in some cases, it's not enough – to cover the massive debt repayments incurred by the likes of Tribune, McClatchy and GateHouse Media. Yet, given that most newspapers are still earning more than they're spending, it makes eminent good sense for those struggling chains to keep publishing.
There are still plenty of newsroom jobs that can be eliminated
It pains me to write those words. I don't like to see fellow journalists lose their jobs, and I want my students to find gainful employment after they graduate. But the truth is that newspapers experienced an unprecedented rise in prosperity between 1960 and 2005, as former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll pointed out in an interview with National Public Radio.
During that golden age, newspaper companies were awash in so much money that they couldn't help but invest some of it in journalism. For instance, Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said following a round of cuts earlier this year that her paper still employed some 800 full-time journalists – more than double the number that worked at the Post during the Watergate glory days of the 1970s.
Thus, when a large regional paper such as the Boston Globe concentrates on its local mission and eliminates nearly all of its staff-produced international and national reporting, it is merely returning to the model that prevailed before the 1960s and 1970s. It's hardly an admission of defeat if most of the Globe's non-local stories (it still maintains a robust Washington bureau) are from the Associated Press, Reuters, the NYT and other news services.
Newspaper executives are finally coming up with innovative ideas to extract money from readers and advertisers
Here we are seeing just the bare beginnings of a trend. But if we can extrapolate it into the future, we might discern a brighter picture.
Rupert Murdoch's fulminations aside, pay walls for basic web access won't work. But readers have demonstrated some willingness to shoulder higher prices for print delivery, and to pay for enhanced electronic delivery in the form of Kindle subscriptions, iPhone applications and specialty products like Times Reader. The long-rumored Apple Tablet and other platforms represent money-making opportunities as well.
And misguided though Murdoch's crusade against free content might be, he may yet push a number of newspaper companies to cut a deal with Google's principal competitor, Microsoft's Bing, to create an online aggregator that would share advertising revenues with content-producers.
Alan Mutter warns that we shouldn't get too excited, writing: "If unbridled cost cutting and raw optimism are enough to save newspapers, they will be just fine. If it takes more than chopping expenses and praying for the economy to rebound – which seems to be the prevailing industry strategy – then, unfortunately, we haven't seen the last newspaper close."
In the long run, we are likely to see newspapers continue to shrink, break apart and close, as small, specialised websites move in on their turf. But as John Maynard Keynes observed, in the long run, we're all dead.
For the moment, it's enough to note that the Great Newspaper Apocalypse of 2009 didn't quite live up to its advance billing. That's a non-development for which we should all be grateful.
E-books Spark Battle in Publishing Industry
From today's Washington Post:
E-books spark battle inside the publishing industry
You can read lots of books on Amazon's Kindle -- but the device's interface design isn't exactly on the cutting edge. (Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post)
By Marion Maneker, Washington Post Staff Writer
The evolution of publishing from print to digital has caused a schism in the reading world. There are now two constituencies: readers (and writers) on the one hand, and the publishing world on the other. And they don't want to hear each other.
Readers want books that are plentiful and cheap, publishers want to preserve their profit, and authors want a larger share of revenue. The conflict has created a strident internecine battle inside the publishing industry.
At issue are the price and timing of e-books, and who owns the rights to backlist titles. While publishers, agents and Amazon.com bicker, there is little time for conceiving new content that satisfies customer demand. If the book business doesn't tune in to that demand, it could wind up as a transitional source for the e-readers.
We know that readers want content, because it's clear they're not dazzled by the device. Consumers have made Amazon's limited and rudimentary device a hit, which speaks to their desire for books that are cheaper and easier to obtain. It surely isn't the device's design or functionality. Both are closer to the computer aesthetic of the 1980s than today's digital world. The Kindle may have lots of titles available -- but good luck using the device to decide what to read next.
But publishers have ignored this demand. In response, several conglomerates have aggressively moved to protect their legacy. Macmillan recently announced a plan to delay the publication of e-books and offer enhancements that will justify a higher price. This tactic is aimed at Amazon's policy of trying to set $9.99 as the expected price for an e-book. Most are priced much higher -- but that's beside the point. Amazon and publishers are fighting over this fiction, not the reality.
Because Amazon's customers have made it clear that $9.99 is still too high for their taste. Most titles in the company's list of top 100 Kindle bestsellers are priced below $9.99, and the most popular price point is $0.00. But publishers can't hear this, because they're a little distracted right now.
The New York Times recently played up friction between publishers and agents over the electronic rights to backlist books. Random House has sent a letter to literary agents claiming to hold these rights even though it lost a court case on the subject. But agent, e-book publisher and blogger Richard Curtis puts the issue in perspective when he points out that few books are actually at stake here, because electronic rights became a contractual standard in 1990.
The real battle here is not over who controls the backlist rights but what royalties the publisher will pay. Stephen Covey caused a lot of consternation at Simon & Schuster last week when it was announced that he was taking his best backlist titles and publishing them with RosettaBooks, the e-book publisher that tangled with Random House on the issue and won.
RosettaBooks is offering Covey half of the publishing proceeds, not the 25 percent or less he'd get from Simon. Publishers want these backlist books to add dollars to their bottom line; authors want to get a higher royalty for the backlist titles because the publisher doesn't need to make any further investment to generate sales. There's not a lot of room here to meet in the middle.
The stalemate ignores an important shift that digital publishing accelerates. The success of the book business over the past two decades was about expanding the supply of books. Growth came through increased volume, more titles and more title availability. That's the story of the six big conglomerates and the growth of the superstores. But digital publishing inverts that formula -- its magic is in the way it meets demand efficiently.
Barnes & Noble discovered that recently when the first of its Nook devices landed in the hands of reviewers. David Pogue and Walt Mossberg have both judged it a dud. The device seems to be a great packaging concept (dual-screen reader) marred by sloppy execution (slow navigation and refresh rates) that may leave them forever playing catch-up.
Just building a device is not enough to capture sales. Amazon's advantage is its customer base and brand loyalty. BN's was going to be better functionality. If the books-and-mortar giant cannot make the breakthrough, more devices are coming to market -- and one of them will make a meaningful move forward.
This doesn't need to mean the end of book publishing. Publishers can no longer be vast containers of intellectual property distributed in paper form to bookstores, supermarkets and warehouse clubs. But they don't have to be: They can become highly selective distributors to bookstores, supermarkets and price clubs. That's the lesson of the television, music and movie businesses.
But if the publishers want a role in the e-books business, they'll need to get over it and get on with it, embracing lower-priced e-books with higher author royalties. That seems unlikely. Because it's now clear that publishers just don't want to listen to what their customers are telling them.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Ft. Wayne Christian Station Gets Reprieve
Christian radio site extends ‘survival’
Remedy.fm secures 3 years of donations, out-of-state sponsor
Rosa Salter Rodriguez
Remedy.fm, the Christian-based Internet radio station that broadcasts uplifting music and messages aimed at teens, has gotten a new lease on life.
Told it would need to close by Jan. 31 if new sources of revenue were not found, the station has secured $342,000 in gifts and pledges for each of the next three years, station founder Char Binkley said Tuesday.
“We’re calling it our Christmas miracle because eight weeks ago we were pretty sure we were going to be closing,” she said.
The money will allow the station to obtain independent non-profit status beginning in 2010, Binkley said. Until then, the station will continue to operate under the non-profit status of Taylor University Broadcasting, whose board granted the reprieve Monday.
Binkley said the American Bible Society in New York City became the station’s sponsoring organization and Taylor University became its sponsoring university, meaning the station will use Taylor exclusively for student internships and volunteer training.
Three contributions of $30,000 a year for three years were provided by individuals, Binkley said. He said that staff members plan to continue to solicit contributions, including pledges of $100 per month per year.
Though the station will continue, its three salaried and 17 part-time employees have taken 25 percent pay cuts under the new “survival budget,” Binkley said.
Restoring the cuts will be the first priority when additional money is raised, she said. No one will lose a job, and all employees decided to stay because “they are all so committed to this ministry,” she said.
The station also plans to stay at its current storefront studio at 327 E. Wayne St., Binkley said.
Heard at www.remedy.fm, the station has documented listeners in 99 countries and all 50 states, with the largest concentration in Indiana and surrounding states. The station’s Web site registered its 1 millionth unique visitor in May.
Remedy.fm secures 3 years of donations, out-of-state sponsor
Rosa Salter Rodriguez
Remedy.fm, the Christian-based Internet radio station that broadcasts uplifting music and messages aimed at teens, has gotten a new lease on life.
Told it would need to close by Jan. 31 if new sources of revenue were not found, the station has secured $342,000 in gifts and pledges for each of the next three years, station founder Char Binkley said Tuesday.
“We’re calling it our Christmas miracle because eight weeks ago we were pretty sure we were going to be closing,” she said.
The money will allow the station to obtain independent non-profit status beginning in 2010, Binkley said. Until then, the station will continue to operate under the non-profit status of Taylor University Broadcasting, whose board granted the reprieve Monday.
Binkley said the American Bible Society in New York City became the station’s sponsoring organization and Taylor University became its sponsoring university, meaning the station will use Taylor exclusively for student internships and volunteer training.
Three contributions of $30,000 a year for three years were provided by individuals, Binkley said. He said that staff members plan to continue to solicit contributions, including pledges of $100 per month per year.
Though the station will continue, its three salaried and 17 part-time employees have taken 25 percent pay cuts under the new “survival budget,” Binkley said.
Restoring the cuts will be the first priority when additional money is raised, she said. No one will lose a job, and all employees decided to stay because “they are all so committed to this ministry,” she said.
The station also plans to stay at its current storefront studio at 327 E. Wayne St., Binkley said.
Heard at www.remedy.fm, the station has documented listeners in 99 countries and all 50 states, with the largest concentration in Indiana and surrounding states. The station’s Web site registered its 1 millionth unique visitor in May.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
McDonald's to Offer Free Wi-Fi
McDonald's Will Serve Up Free Wi-Fi
DOUGLAS MCINTYRE
McDonald's will offer free Wi-Fi at almost all of its U.S. restaurants starting early next year. Until now, the fast food chain has been charging $2.95 for two hours of service. McDonald's U.S.A. Chief Information Officer David Grooms told The Wall Street Journal that the service will operate in 11,000 of the firm's 14,000 American outlets.
The benefits of the program are simple: McDonald's hopes people will linger at its stores and buy more food and coffee. This probably increases its competition with Starbucks (SBUX), where many people get work done while using the Wi-Fi connections.
But the plan doesn't come without a risk. McDonald's will lose the revenue it now gets from the millions of people who spend $2.95 for the Wi-Fi service. The fast food company hasn't said how many people pay for Wi-Fi each year, but the number is probably in the millions across the 11,000 stores that offer the service.
McDonald's probably doesn't care about the lost income since it's not a huge sum compared with overall sales. More important, it appears ready to break even or lose money on some items to increase market share in a slow economy -- it's hard to imagine that the company makes much money on $1 meals and $1 breakfast offerings.
McDonald's can offer free Wi-Fi and $1 food because it can afford to. It has decided, to some extent, that taking traffic from competition trumps margins, at least for now.
DOUGLAS MCINTYRE
McDonald's will offer free Wi-Fi at almost all of its U.S. restaurants starting early next year. Until now, the fast food chain has been charging $2.95 for two hours of service. McDonald's U.S.A. Chief Information Officer David Grooms told The Wall Street Journal that the service will operate in 11,000 of the firm's 14,000 American outlets.
The benefits of the program are simple: McDonald's hopes people will linger at its stores and buy more food and coffee. This probably increases its competition with Starbucks (SBUX), where many people get work done while using the Wi-Fi connections.
But the plan doesn't come without a risk. McDonald's will lose the revenue it now gets from the millions of people who spend $2.95 for the Wi-Fi service. The fast food company hasn't said how many people pay for Wi-Fi each year, but the number is probably in the millions across the 11,000 stores that offer the service.
McDonald's probably doesn't care about the lost income since it's not a huge sum compared with overall sales. More important, it appears ready to break even or lose money on some items to increase market share in a slow economy -- it's hard to imagine that the company makes much money on $1 meals and $1 breakfast offerings.
McDonald's can offer free Wi-Fi and $1 food because it can afford to. It has decided, to some extent, that taking traffic from competition trumps margins, at least for now.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Washington Times to Publish Last Sunday Paper
Washington Times to publish last Sunday paper
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Washington Times says it will publish its last Sunday edition this weekend.
The newspaper made the announcement Monday, saying it will produce Monday through Friday editions that focus on its ``distinctive news and opinion content.''
The new print edition will be sold for $1 at retail outlets and newspaper boxes in the Washington area. The current weekday edition is 50 cents and Sunday's paper costs $1.
The Times said earlier this month that it would cut staff as it aims to improve its multimedia presence.
The Times is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the much larger Washington Post. It was founded in 1982 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Washington Times says it will publish its last Sunday edition this weekend.
The newspaper made the announcement Monday, saying it will produce Monday through Friday editions that focus on its ``distinctive news and opinion content.''
The new print edition will be sold for $1 at retail outlets and newspaper boxes in the Washington area. The current weekday edition is 50 cents and Sunday's paper costs $1.
The Times said earlier this month that it would cut staff as it aims to improve its multimedia presence.
The Times is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the much larger Washington Post. It was founded in 1982 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Americans Buying Fewer Books
Survey Finds Consumers Buying Less Books Due to Current Economy
Nearly 34 percent of Americans are cutting down on the number of books they purchase due to the economic downturn of the past two years, according to newly released data from PubTrack Consumer.
The PubTrack Consumer survey polled Americans of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds regarding what impact the current economic climate has had on their book-buying habits. In addition to finding that more than one-third of Americans have reduced their book purchases, the survey also discovered that 19 percent of consumers are either buying more used books or swapping books with others due to the economic downturn—14 percent of men reported they were more likely to adopt this frugal behavior now, while more than 23 percent of women said they were doing so.
Another gender disparity emerged when respondents were asked whether the economic climate has impacted their book buying in any way. While 57 percent of men said that the economy had made such an impact on them, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of women said that it had such an impact.
Other findings in the survey included the following:
• Nearly 13 percent reported buying fewer hardcover books and more paperbacks.
• Roughly 12 percent are buying books only at deep discounts or on sale.
• More than 10 percent are going to lower cost outlets for their book purchases.
• Only 2.6 percent of consumers are buying more books as a less expensive alternative to other forms of entertainment.
• Less than 2 percent said they were buying more e-books to download.
• Seniors (consumers over the age of 65) are the least likely age group to be cutting back on book buying due to the economy (26 percent).
Nearly 34 percent of Americans are cutting down on the number of books they purchase due to the economic downturn of the past two years, according to newly released data from PubTrack Consumer.
The PubTrack Consumer survey polled Americans of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds regarding what impact the current economic climate has had on their book-buying habits. In addition to finding that more than one-third of Americans have reduced their book purchases, the survey also discovered that 19 percent of consumers are either buying more used books or swapping books with others due to the economic downturn—14 percent of men reported they were more likely to adopt this frugal behavior now, while more than 23 percent of women said they were doing so.
Another gender disparity emerged when respondents were asked whether the economic climate has impacted their book buying in any way. While 57 percent of men said that the economy had made such an impact on them, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of women said that it had such an impact.
Other findings in the survey included the following:
• Nearly 13 percent reported buying fewer hardcover books and more paperbacks.
• Roughly 12 percent are buying books only at deep discounts or on sale.
• More than 10 percent are going to lower cost outlets for their book purchases.
• Only 2.6 percent of consumers are buying more books as a less expensive alternative to other forms of entertainment.
• Less than 2 percent said they were buying more e-books to download.
• Seniors (consumers over the age of 65) are the least likely age group to be cutting back on book buying due to the economy (26 percent).
Top Ten Religion News Stories of 2009
Top 10 religion news stories of 2009
by Scott Lamb
One hundred religion journalists, members of the Religion Newswriters Association, took a survey and ranked the 2009 religion news stories in order of importance.
Here are the results:
1. President Obama pledges a new beginning in Muslim-U.S. relations and reaches out to the world’s Muslims during a major speech at Cairo University.
2. Health-care reform, the No. 1 topic in Congress for most of the year, involves faith-based groups appealing strongly for action to help “the least of these,” and others, such as the Roman Catholic bishops, for restrictions on abortion funding.
3. Because Maj. Nidal Hasan, the accused gunman in the Fort Hood massacre, was considered a devout Muslim, the role of that faith in terrorism again comes under review; some fear a backlash.
4. Dr. George Tiller, regarded as the country’s leading abortion doctor, is gunned down while ushering in his Wichita Lutheran church. Scott Roeder, charged with his murder, is described as a man suffering from delusions and professing radical religious beliefs.
5. Mormons in California come under attack from some supporters of gay rights because of their lobbying efforts in the November 2008 election on behalf of Prop. 8, which outlawed gay marriage. Later in the year, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire approve gay marriage, but it is overturned by voters in Maine.
6. President Obama receives an honorary degree and gives the commencement speech at Notre Dame after fierce debates at the Roman Catholic university over Obama’s views on abortion.
7. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America votes to ordain gay and lesbian clergy who are in a committed monogamous relationship, leading a number of conservative churches —known as the Coalition for Renewal—to move toward forming a new denomination.
8. The recession forces cutbacks at a great variety of faith-related organizations—houses of worship, relief agencies, colleges and seminaries, publishing houses.
9. The Episcopal Church Triennial Convention votes to end a moratorium on installing gay bishops, ignoring a request from the archbishop of Canterbury. At year’s end Los Angeles chooses a lesbian, Mary Glasspool, as assistant bishop. Earlier, an elected bishop in Upper Michigan, Kevin Thew Forrester, is rejected because of his extreme liberal views.
10. President Obama’s inauguration includes a controversial invocation by Rick Warren and a controversial benediction by Joseph Lowery, as well as a pre-ceremony prayer by gay Bishop Gene Robinson.
by Scott Lamb
One hundred religion journalists, members of the Religion Newswriters Association, took a survey and ranked the 2009 religion news stories in order of importance.
Here are the results:
1. President Obama pledges a new beginning in Muslim-U.S. relations and reaches out to the world’s Muslims during a major speech at Cairo University.
2. Health-care reform, the No. 1 topic in Congress for most of the year, involves faith-based groups appealing strongly for action to help “the least of these,” and others, such as the Roman Catholic bishops, for restrictions on abortion funding.
3. Because Maj. Nidal Hasan, the accused gunman in the Fort Hood massacre, was considered a devout Muslim, the role of that faith in terrorism again comes under review; some fear a backlash.
4. Dr. George Tiller, regarded as the country’s leading abortion doctor, is gunned down while ushering in his Wichita Lutheran church. Scott Roeder, charged with his murder, is described as a man suffering from delusions and professing radical religious beliefs.
5. Mormons in California come under attack from some supporters of gay rights because of their lobbying efforts in the November 2008 election on behalf of Prop. 8, which outlawed gay marriage. Later in the year, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire approve gay marriage, but it is overturned by voters in Maine.
6. President Obama receives an honorary degree and gives the commencement speech at Notre Dame after fierce debates at the Roman Catholic university over Obama’s views on abortion.
7. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America votes to ordain gay and lesbian clergy who are in a committed monogamous relationship, leading a number of conservative churches —known as the Coalition for Renewal—to move toward forming a new denomination.
8. The recession forces cutbacks at a great variety of faith-related organizations—houses of worship, relief agencies, colleges and seminaries, publishing houses.
9. The Episcopal Church Triennial Convention votes to end a moratorium on installing gay bishops, ignoring a request from the archbishop of Canterbury. At year’s end Los Angeles chooses a lesbian, Mary Glasspool, as assistant bishop. Earlier, an elected bishop in Upper Michigan, Kevin Thew Forrester, is rejected because of his extreme liberal views.
10. President Obama’s inauguration includes a controversial invocation by Rick Warren and a controversial benediction by Joseph Lowery, as well as a pre-ceremony prayer by gay Bishop Gene Robinson.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Covey E-Shift to Amazon Worries Publishers
This is an excerpt from a New York Times article. To read the entire piece, click here.Top Author Shifts E-Book Rights to Amazon.com
Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York’s largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers or other new ventures, bypassing traditional publishers entirely.
Stephen R. Covey (pictured), one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, has moved e-book rights for two of his best-selling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster, a division of the CBS Corporation, to a digital publisher that will sell the e-books to Amazon.com for one year.
Amazon, maker of the popular Kindle e-reader and one of the biggest book retailers in the country, will have the exclusive rights to sell electronic editions of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and a later work, “Principle-Centered Leadership.” Mr. Covey also plans to gradually make other e-books available exclusively to Amazon, which will promote them on its Web site.
The move promises to raise the already high anxiety level among publishers about the economics of digital publishing and could offer authors a way to earn more profits from their works than they do under the traditional system.
Top Ten Words of the Year
The Top 10 Words of the Year Are...
"Twitter" is No. 1, according to the Global Language Monitor annual survey of the English language, which just goes to show how social networking has become so ubiquitous.
"In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the aftereffects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words," said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. "Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters. Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds."
The top 10 words of 2009:
1. Twitter: The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters.
2. Obama: The word stem transforms into scores of new words, such as ObamaCare.
3. H1N1: The formal (and politically correct) name for swine flu.
4. Stimulus: The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the U.S. economy.
5. Vampire: Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love.
6. 2.0: The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything.
7. Deficit: Lessons from history are dire warnings here.
8. Hadron: Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider.
9. Healthcare: The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the United States.
10. Transparency: An elusive goal for which many 21st century governments are striving.
The top 10 phrases of 2009:
1. King of Pop: Elvis was '"The King," so Michael Jackson had to settle for "King of Pop."
2. Obama-mania: One of the scores of words from the Obama-word stem.
3. Climate Change: Considered politically neutral compared to global warming.
4. Swine Flu: Popular name for the illness caused by the H1N1 virus.
5. Too Large to Fail: Institutions that are deemed necessary for financial stability.
6. Cloud Computing: Using the Internet for a variety of computer services.
7. Public Option: The ability to buy health insurance from a government entity.
8. Jai Ho!: A Hindi shout of joy or accomplishment.
9. Mayan Calendar: Consists of various "cycles," one of which ends on 12/21/2012.
10. God Particle: The Hadron, believed to hold the secrets of the Big Bang.
--From the Editors at Netscape
"Twitter" is No. 1, according to the Global Language Monitor annual survey of the English language, which just goes to show how social networking has become so ubiquitous.
"In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the aftereffects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words," said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. "Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters. Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds."
The top 10 words of 2009:
1. Twitter: The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters.
2. Obama: The word stem transforms into scores of new words, such as ObamaCare.
3. H1N1: The formal (and politically correct) name for swine flu.
4. Stimulus: The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the U.S. economy.
5. Vampire: Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love.
6. 2.0: The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything.
7. Deficit: Lessons from history are dire warnings here.
8. Hadron: Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider.
9. Healthcare: The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the United States.
10. Transparency: An elusive goal for which many 21st century governments are striving.
The top 10 phrases of 2009:
1. King of Pop: Elvis was '"The King," so Michael Jackson had to settle for "King of Pop."
2. Obama-mania: One of the scores of words from the Obama-word stem.
3. Climate Change: Considered politically neutral compared to global warming.
4. Swine Flu: Popular name for the illness caused by the H1N1 virus.
5. Too Large to Fail: Institutions that are deemed necessary for financial stability.
6. Cloud Computing: Using the Internet for a variety of computer services.
7. Public Option: The ability to buy health insurance from a government entity.
8. Jai Ho!: A Hindi shout of joy or accomplishment.
9. Mayan Calendar: Consists of various "cycles," one of which ends on 12/21/2012.
10. God Particle: The Hadron, believed to hold the secrets of the Big Bang.
--From the Editors at Netscape
Monday, December 14, 2009
'Rev' Magazine Ceases Publication
Group Publishing to end ‘Rev! Magazine’
Citing the continuing recession, Group Publishing has announced that it will end publication of Rev! Magazine, initially called Vital Ministry magazine.
"For over 12 years, Rev! Magazine has provided thousands of pastors and other church leaders with practical and thoughtful articles and ideas for leadership, outreach, worship, preaching, administration, Christian education and discipleship," Group Publishing said.
"However, economies and times change. For the magazine industry in general, this recession has been particularly lethal, aggravated in great part by the paradigm shift of the culture moving rapidly away from printed periodicals to digital delivery systems.
"In addition, printing and postage costs have greatly increased in the last few years," the Loveland, Colo.-based publisher added. "All of these factors have created the ‘perfect storm' that hundreds of magazines have not been able to withstand. After long and diligent consideration, (Group) has made the difficult decision to discontinue the publication of Rev! Magazine. The January/February 2010 issue will be the last one published."
Rev! Magazine Managing Editor Lee Sparks told Christian Retailing that all staff members of the publication have found other positions within Group. "For example, I am now an editor for Group's Hands-On Bible curriculum and FaithWeaver curriculum," he said.
Group's Director of Church Leadership Dave Thornton told Christian Retailing that the company's church leadership department is working on a Rev! Magazine online strategy, which will be announced in April 2010.
E&P Ceases Publishing After 125 Years
Wow...this is really big news in the newspaper/magazine industry!
'Editor & Publisher' to Cease Publication After 125 Years
By Shawn Moynihan
NEW YORK Editor & Publisher, the bible of the newspaper industry and a journalism institution that traces its origins back to 1884, is ceasing publication.
An announcement, made by parent company The Nielsen Co., was made Thursday morning as staffers were informed that E&P, in both print and online, was shutting down.
The expressions of surprise and outpouring of strong support for E&P that have followed across the Web -- Editor & Publisher has even hit No. 4 as a Twitter trending topic -- raise the notion that the publication might yet continue in some form.
Nielsen Business Media, of which E&P was a part, has forged a deal with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, for the sale of eight brands in the Media and Entertainment Group, including E&P sister magazines Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter. E&P was not included in this transaction.
As news spread of E&P's fate, the staffers have been inundated with calls from members of the industry it covers, and many others, expressing shock and hopes for a revival. Staff members will stay on for the remainder of 2009.
Greg Mitchell, editor since 2002, has hailed the staff and accomplishments, including a dozen major awards and strong showing on the Web for many years. Some staff writers/editors have been at E&P for a quarter of a century. "I'm shocked that a way was not found for the magazine to continue it some form -- and remain hopeful that this may still occur," he said.
Editor & Publisher was launched in 1901 but traces its history to 1884 -- it merged with the magazine The Journalist, which had started on that earlier date.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Times-Union IT Staff Member Killed
Times-Union Mourning Loss Of Colleague
The Times-Union is mourning the loss of our Information Technologies Supervisor and friend Craig Norrell.
Craig was the son of our publisher Lane Williams Hartle.
Craig died this morning after a boating accident.
He was an avid boater and it was not uncommon for him to take late-night trips on Winona Lake even in severe conditions like the ones last night.
Craig's name was withheld from today's story in our print and online editions until his family was notified.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Craig's family, especially his wife Brenda, during this tragic time.
Craig's intelligence and humor will be missed by everyone here.
More information will appear in tomorrow's edition of the Times-Union.
----------------
previous story:
Boating Accident Claims Life Of Warsaw Man
Staff Report
Warsaw police and conservation officers from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources are investigating a boating accident on Winona Lake this morning that claimed the life of a Warsaw man.
A Warsaw woman called police at 4:17 a.m. today to report her husband missing. She told police that his boat also was missing, but that it was not unusual for her husband to take the boat out in the pre-dawn hours.
Later this morning, a small fishing boat was found capsized near a point approximately a quarter mile east of the boat ramp at the Kosciusko County fairgrounds.
At 9 a.m., a man's body was found on shore approximately 100 yards west of the boat ramp.
Police said it appears the boat capsized out in the lake and the man was able to reach shore before being overcome by water, wind and cold.
Temperatures overnight hovered in the single digits with a low of 6.3 degrees and winds were gusting to 35 miles per hour.
The name of the victim is not being released, pending the notification of family members.
The Times-Union is mourning the loss of our Information Technologies Supervisor and friend Craig Norrell.
Craig was the son of our publisher Lane Williams Hartle.
Craig died this morning after a boating accident.
He was an avid boater and it was not uncommon for him to take late-night trips on Winona Lake even in severe conditions like the ones last night.
Craig's name was withheld from today's story in our print and online editions until his family was notified.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Craig's family, especially his wife Brenda, during this tragic time.
Craig's intelligence and humor will be missed by everyone here.
More information will appear in tomorrow's edition of the Times-Union.
----------------
previous story:
Boating Accident Claims Life Of Warsaw Man
Staff Report
Warsaw police and conservation officers from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources are investigating a boating accident on Winona Lake this morning that claimed the life of a Warsaw man.
A Warsaw woman called police at 4:17 a.m. today to report her husband missing. She told police that his boat also was missing, but that it was not unusual for her husband to take the boat out in the pre-dawn hours.
Later this morning, a small fishing boat was found capsized near a point approximately a quarter mile east of the boat ramp at the Kosciusko County fairgrounds.
At 9 a.m., a man's body was found on shore approximately 100 yards west of the boat ramp.
Police said it appears the boat capsized out in the lake and the man was able to reach shore before being overcome by water, wind and cold.
Temperatures overnight hovered in the single digits with a low of 6.3 degrees and winds were gusting to 35 miles per hour.
The name of the victim is not being released, pending the notification of family members.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Should College Student Newspapers be Online?
Here is a really thought-provoking article from CTI about whether or not student newspapers from Christian colleges should be online or not. What do you think? This is an excerpt--to read the entire article click here.
Breaking the Bubble
Colleges debate student newspaper rules as Internet spreads stories far beyond campus.
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
As newspapers wrestle with questions about how much of their content to put online for free, Christian college newspapers are asking another question: Should they be online at all?
"You can't put the ketchup back in the bottle with the Internet," said Terry Mattingly, director of the Washington Journalism Center, a program run by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). "Freedom of the press belongs to the people who own one. For ten dollars a month, or for free, students can have their own forum."
Moving student papers online was high on the agenda at the National College Media Convention this October in Austin, Texas. Michael Ray Smith, a Campbell University professor who led a session on going digital, said, "It's definitely on the radar, and Christian schools are working furiously, trying to figure out the tension."
Students are already taking big issues to the Web. At Calvin College in September, Chimes posted a story online about a controversial board memo banning faculty from gay advocacy. Westmont College's Horizon liveblogged during last November's campus fire that destroyed 20 percent of its buildings. And Cedarville University placed Cedars' website behind a password-protected firewall after campus controversy in 2008. (The website is now publicly accessible.)
Mattingly urges his students to publish online so they can practice immediate reporting.
"[Online reporting] has a much closer relationship to the world of journalism at the level of wire services and the Web than does a student paper that comes out every two weeks," he said. "And it doesn't cost you a red cent."
But this makes administrators nervous, especially at colleges that don't have strong journalism programs, Mattingly said. "It's one thing when you have pieces of dead tree pulp handed around on your campus. The minute you put it online, you're dealing with trustees, parents, donors, and potential students."
The number of CCCU schools that take journalism seriously is about 20, Mattingly said, leaving about 75 schools that aren't sure how to approach journalism as a craft.
Breaking the Bubble
Colleges debate student newspaper rules as Internet spreads stories far beyond campus.
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
As newspapers wrestle with questions about how much of their content to put online for free, Christian college newspapers are asking another question: Should they be online at all?
"You can't put the ketchup back in the bottle with the Internet," said Terry Mattingly, director of the Washington Journalism Center, a program run by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). "Freedom of the press belongs to the people who own one. For ten dollars a month, or for free, students can have their own forum."
Moving student papers online was high on the agenda at the National College Media Convention this October in Austin, Texas. Michael Ray Smith, a Campbell University professor who led a session on going digital, said, "It's definitely on the radar, and Christian schools are working furiously, trying to figure out the tension."
Students are already taking big issues to the Web. At Calvin College in September, Chimes posted a story online about a controversial board memo banning faculty from gay advocacy. Westmont College's Horizon liveblogged during last November's campus fire that destroyed 20 percent of its buildings. And Cedarville University placed Cedars' website behind a password-protected firewall after campus controversy in 2008. (The website is now publicly accessible.)
Mattingly urges his students to publish online so they can practice immediate reporting.
"[Online reporting] has a much closer relationship to the world of journalism at the level of wire services and the Web than does a student paper that comes out every two weeks," he said. "And it doesn't cost you a red cent."
But this makes administrators nervous, especially at colleges that don't have strong journalism programs, Mattingly said. "It's one thing when you have pieces of dead tree pulp handed around on your campus. The minute you put it online, you're dealing with trustees, parents, donors, and potential students."
The number of CCCU schools that take journalism seriously is about 20, Mattingly said, leaving about 75 schools that aren't sure how to approach journalism as a craft.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Warsaw Times-Union City Council Article
Here is the Times-Union reporter's story from city council, so you can compare it with yours. You'll notice that hers is much longer than most of yours.
City Approves Martin's Resolution
Jennifer Peryam
Times-Union Staff Writer
Warsaw City Council Monday approved a resolution that declares the Menard's subdivision as an economic development target area.
Martin's Supermarkets requested two lots of the subdivision be designated as an economic development target area.
Warsaw Economic Development Commission made the recommendation to the council to approve the area for the use.
The supermarket will be located along Husky Trail, Warsaw, and the residential subdivision that has not yet been built will be located behind the supermarket.
A preliminary hearing for the issue was Monday night and a public hearing will be at the city council's Dec. 21 meeting at 7 p.m. at city hall.
By designating the property an economic development target area, the city will permit Martin's to file a five-year tax abatement on real property improvements.
Along with the resolution, Martin's submitted a statement of benefits for those estimated real property improvements.
During Monday's meeting, Council President and City Councilman Joe Thallemer and councilmen Kyle Babcock, Jerry Patterson, Dan Hampton and George Clemens voted in favor of the resolution.
Councilman Jeff Grose was absent during Monday's meeting. Councilman Charlie Smith abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest. Smith is Lake City Bank's executive vice president and Rob Bartels, Martin's president, serves on the Lake City Bank board.
Steve Snyder, an attorney representing Martin's, spoke Monday night on behalf of the supermarket and said the area qualifies as an economic development target area.
Martin's is estimating creating approximately 180 jobs, 70 full time and 110 part time (32-34 hours per week), with $2.5 million per year in salaries and approximately $8.4 million in real property improvements.
"Martin's is not just building a building and filling it with food, but participating in the community and providing good jobs," Snyder said.
"What Martin's is saying is that they would like to come to Warsaw and things are tight and to throw additional requirements for modifying public streets as opposed to improving a parcel where they want to put their facility, they might need some help," Snyder said.
Snyder said Menard's, the developer, did not leave direct access to the parcels Martin's wants to develop other than through the Menard's parking lot and off Mariner Drive. He said that doesn't provide full access to the lots Martin's is requesting to develop on.
Snyder said there would need to be a curb cut onto Husky Trail.
Total real estate investments will include approximately $5,312,833; $1,145,200 in land improvement and site preparation; $183,513 for widening and improvements to Husky Trail and $3,984,120 for the construction of the supermarket.
"It's unfortunate that a lot of work that was done with regards to the site plan appears to now be undesirable and impossible for a normal development and that bothers me," Thallemer said.
He said he is concerned Menard's has not participated as well as it should have and now the city is being asked to pick up the mistake.
Thallemer said he was concerned if the council approved the lots to be an economic development target area, that would set a precedent for other commercial developers requesting abatements.
Bartels agreed with Thallemer that the development site has been a challenge.
"We have a road and a chunk of land, and I want to be the grocery store that's sitting on that property and serving the community," Bartels said.
Clemens, who also serves on the county's regional work force board, said he supported approving the lots as an economic development target area.
"I guarantee most every executive and city official would be chomping at the bit for another 180 jobs," Clemens said.
The council reviewed a letter from Wayne Luchenbill, Kosciusko Development Inc. chairman, supporting Martin's Supermarkets' request for a tax abatement.
In other business. the council approved a resolution to annex property owned by Roger Bair at 1305 W. Lake St., Warsaw.
City Approves Martin's Resolution
Jennifer Peryam
Times-Union Staff Writer
Warsaw City Council Monday approved a resolution that declares the Menard's subdivision as an economic development target area.
Martin's Supermarkets requested two lots of the subdivision be designated as an economic development target area.
Warsaw Economic Development Commission made the recommendation to the council to approve the area for the use.
The supermarket will be located along Husky Trail, Warsaw, and the residential subdivision that has not yet been built will be located behind the supermarket.
A preliminary hearing for the issue was Monday night and a public hearing will be at the city council's Dec. 21 meeting at 7 p.m. at city hall.
By designating the property an economic development target area, the city will permit Martin's to file a five-year tax abatement on real property improvements.
Along with the resolution, Martin's submitted a statement of benefits for those estimated real property improvements.
During Monday's meeting, Council President and City Councilman Joe Thallemer and councilmen Kyle Babcock, Jerry Patterson, Dan Hampton and George Clemens voted in favor of the resolution.
Councilman Jeff Grose was absent during Monday's meeting. Councilman Charlie Smith abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest. Smith is Lake City Bank's executive vice president and Rob Bartels, Martin's president, serves on the Lake City Bank board.
Steve Snyder, an attorney representing Martin's, spoke Monday night on behalf of the supermarket and said the area qualifies as an economic development target area.
Martin's is estimating creating approximately 180 jobs, 70 full time and 110 part time (32-34 hours per week), with $2.5 million per year in salaries and approximately $8.4 million in real property improvements.
"Martin's is not just building a building and filling it with food, but participating in the community and providing good jobs," Snyder said.
"What Martin's is saying is that they would like to come to Warsaw and things are tight and to throw additional requirements for modifying public streets as opposed to improving a parcel where they want to put their facility, they might need some help," Snyder said.
Snyder said Menard's, the developer, did not leave direct access to the parcels Martin's wants to develop other than through the Menard's parking lot and off Mariner Drive. He said that doesn't provide full access to the lots Martin's is requesting to develop on.
Snyder said there would need to be a curb cut onto Husky Trail.
Total real estate investments will include approximately $5,312,833; $1,145,200 in land improvement and site preparation; $183,513 for widening and improvements to Husky Trail and $3,984,120 for the construction of the supermarket.
"It's unfortunate that a lot of work that was done with regards to the site plan appears to now be undesirable and impossible for a normal development and that bothers me," Thallemer said.
He said he is concerned Menard's has not participated as well as it should have and now the city is being asked to pick up the mistake.
Thallemer said he was concerned if the council approved the lots to be an economic development target area, that would set a precedent for other commercial developers requesting abatements.
Bartels agreed with Thallemer that the development site has been a challenge.
"We have a road and a chunk of land, and I want to be the grocery store that's sitting on that property and serving the community," Bartels said.
Clemens, who also serves on the county's regional work force board, said he supported approving the lots as an economic development target area.
"I guarantee most every executive and city official would be chomping at the bit for another 180 jobs," Clemens said.
The council reviewed a letter from Wayne Luchenbill, Kosciusko Development Inc. chairman, supporting Martin's Supermarkets' request for a tax abatement.
In other business. the council approved a resolution to annex property owned by Roger Bair at 1305 W. Lake St., Warsaw.
Monday, December 7, 2009
City Council to Review Supermarket Resolution
Times-Union article from today's paper about tonight's city council meeting:
City To Review Martin's Supermarket Resolution
Jennifer Peryam
Times-Union Staff Writer
Warsaw City Council will review a request tonight from Martin's Supermarkets to approve the Menard's subdivision area as an economic development area.
Martin's Supermarket will be located along Husky Trail, Warsaw, and the residential subdivision that has not yet been built will be located behind the supermarket.
The council will meet at 7 p.m. at city hall.
Martin's Supermarkets is requesting Warsaw designate two lots of the subdivision as an economic development target area.
By designating the property as an economic development target area, the city would then permit Martin's to file a tax abatement on real property improvements.
Along with the resolution, Martin's will submit a statement of benefits for estimated real property improvements.
Martin's is estimating creating approximately 180 full- and part-time jobs and approximately $8.4 million in real property improvements.
The supermarket development will provide additional improvements, including work on Mariner Drive, that will benefit the area economically, according to City Planner Jeremy Skinner.
City To Review Martin's Supermarket Resolution
Jennifer Peryam
Times-Union Staff Writer
Warsaw City Council will review a request tonight from Martin's Supermarkets to approve the Menard's subdivision area as an economic development area.
Martin's Supermarket will be located along Husky Trail, Warsaw, and the residential subdivision that has not yet been built will be located behind the supermarket.
The council will meet at 7 p.m. at city hall.
Martin's Supermarkets is requesting Warsaw designate two lots of the subdivision as an economic development target area.
By designating the property as an economic development target area, the city would then permit Martin's to file a tax abatement on real property improvements.
Along with the resolution, Martin's will submit a statement of benefits for estimated real property improvements.
Martin's is estimating creating approximately 180 full- and part-time jobs and approximately $8.4 million in real property improvements.
The supermarket development will provide additional improvements, including work on Mariner Drive, that will benefit the area economically, according to City Planner Jeremy Skinner.
Another Magazine Forsakes Print, Goes Online
Pulpit Helps Becomes Disciple Magazine, Moves Online
CHATTANOOGA, TN (December 4, 2009)—Pulpit Helps Magazine, the monthly publication for pastors founded in 1975 by Dr. Spiros Zodhiates of AMG International and AMG Publishers, printed its final issue in November and will re-launch as online-only Disciple Magazine on Dec. 14, 2009.
“We knew 2009 would be a difficult year for us to make ends meet, with the overall economy down and advertisers fleeing from print media outlets,” said editor Justin Lonas, “but we’re extremely excited about the opportunity to reach many more readers that web publishing brings us.”
Disciple will be published bi-weekly at www.disciplemagazine.com and delivered to subscribers by e-mail after its December 14 launch. It will feature many of the same writers as Pulpit Helps and the same focus on equipping pastors and lay teachers to study and teach Scripture. The name change, according to Lonas, is designed to open the door to anyone with a desire to grow in the Word, not only those in formal ministry. “Faithful study of God’s Word is our legacy and will always be our bottom line,” he said.
Lonas said that Disciple Magazine’s focus was not just personal enrichment, but growth into Christ’s command to make disciples in Matthew 28:19. “There are a plethora of Christian publications around the world that focus on individual spiritual growth. We have purposed to be distinctive in tying personal growth to obedience to God’s kingdom purposes—growth not for growth’s sake, but for Christ’s mission,” he said.
Disciple Magazine will continue Pulpit Helps’ tradition of an all-volunteer writing staff, and encourages submission of articles for consideration. Additionally, they request that Christian publishers continue to send books for review, as each issue will contain both in-depth reviews and a “Recent Releases” listing.
Additionally, AMG is developing www.sermonhall.com, a searchable online database of 34 years worth of sermon outlines, illustrations, and quotes from Pulpit Helps. A combined subscription to both Disciple Magazine and Sermonhall.com will be $5.00 per month or $15.00 per year.
Submitted articles and books for review can continue to be sent to:
Justin Lonas
6815 Shallowford Rd., Chattanooga, TN 37421
editor@disciplemagazine.com
(423) 894-6060, ext. 261
www.disciplemagazine.com
www.sermonhall.com
CHATTANOOGA, TN (December 4, 2009)—Pulpit Helps Magazine, the monthly publication for pastors founded in 1975 by Dr. Spiros Zodhiates of AMG International and AMG Publishers, printed its final issue in November and will re-launch as online-only Disciple Magazine on Dec. 14, 2009.
“We knew 2009 would be a difficult year for us to make ends meet, with the overall economy down and advertisers fleeing from print media outlets,” said editor Justin Lonas, “but we’re extremely excited about the opportunity to reach many more readers that web publishing brings us.”
Disciple will be published bi-weekly at www.disciplemagazine.com and delivered to subscribers by e-mail after its December 14 launch. It will feature many of the same writers as Pulpit Helps and the same focus on equipping pastors and lay teachers to study and teach Scripture. The name change, according to Lonas, is designed to open the door to anyone with a desire to grow in the Word, not only those in formal ministry. “Faithful study of God’s Word is our legacy and will always be our bottom line,” he said.
Lonas said that Disciple Magazine’s focus was not just personal enrichment, but growth into Christ’s command to make disciples in Matthew 28:19. “There are a plethora of Christian publications around the world that focus on individual spiritual growth. We have purposed to be distinctive in tying personal growth to obedience to God’s kingdom purposes—growth not for growth’s sake, but for Christ’s mission,” he said.
Disciple Magazine will continue Pulpit Helps’ tradition of an all-volunteer writing staff, and encourages submission of articles for consideration. Additionally, they request that Christian publishers continue to send books for review, as each issue will contain both in-depth reviews and a “Recent Releases” listing.
Additionally, AMG is developing www.sermonhall.com, a searchable online database of 34 years worth of sermon outlines, illustrations, and quotes from Pulpit Helps. A combined subscription to both Disciple Magazine and Sermonhall.com will be $5.00 per month or $15.00 per year.
Submitted articles and books for review can continue to be sent to:
Justin Lonas
6815 Shallowford Rd., Chattanooga, TN 37421
editor@disciplemagazine.com
(423) 894-6060, ext. 261
www.disciplemagazine.com
www.sermonhall.com
'NewsHour' Cuts Name, Adds Correspondents
‘NewsHour’ cuts name, adds correspondents
“The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS is relaunching today as “PBS NewsHour,” as the evening newscast turns its focus to merging its online and broadcast operations.
Correspondents such as Hari Sreenivasan, a former reporter for CBS and ABC, will file dispatches for the program’s Web site and nightly program.
In addition, Jim Lehrer, the program’s longtime anchor, will be joined at the desk by a rotating series of partners: senior correspondents Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown.
“The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS is relaunching today as “PBS NewsHour,” as the evening newscast turns its focus to merging its online and broadcast operations.
Correspondents such as Hari Sreenivasan, a former reporter for CBS and ABC, will file dispatches for the program’s Web site and nightly program.
In addition, Jim Lehrer, the program’s longtime anchor, will be joined at the desk by a rotating series of partners: senior correspondents Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown.
Dangers of Internet Journalism Revealed
Here is a really excellent blogpost on the dangers of online journalism. This is an excerpt--to read the entire post click here.
What the "Black screen of death" story says about tech journalism
Posted by Ed Bott
I’ve spent the better part of the last 48 hours looking into the colossal fiasco that is the “Black Screen of Death” story. It’s a near-perfect case study in how Internet-driven tech journalism rewards sloppy reporting and how the echo chamber devalues getting the story right.
Here, let me walk you through the whole sordid, depressing episode.
On Friday, November 27, an obscure computer security company, Prevx, publishes a blog post accusing Microsoft of releasing security patches that cause catastrophic crashes in Windows PCs. The inflammatory headline reads: Black Screen woes could affect millions on Windows 7, Vista and XP. The post lacks even the most rudimentary technical details and is maddeningly vague. It goes unnoticed over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend.
Early Monday morning, November 30, Jeremy Kirk of the IDG News service sends a story out on the wire that is picked up by IDG flagship publications PC World and ComputerWorld. Conveniently, the story is posted at 7:05AM Eastern Time, ensuring that it will be at the top of news sites as Americans drag back into work after the long holiday weekend.
Here’s the first headline as it appeared at PC World and ComputerWorld early Monday morning: Latest Microsoft patches cause black screen of death According to the accompanying story, the patches “cause some PCs to seize up and display a black screen, rendering the computer useless” for millions of Windows users. The security company “hasn’t contacted Microsoft yet” and “Microsoft officials could not be immediately reached for comment.”
The story is echoed by dozens of other publications within an hour, some pointing specifically to PC World as the source. The rush of coverage catapults the accusations into the mainstream. At some point that morning, Microsoft’s security team goes into “fire drill” mode.
What the "Black screen of death" story says about tech journalism
Posted by Ed Bott
I’ve spent the better part of the last 48 hours looking into the colossal fiasco that is the “Black Screen of Death” story. It’s a near-perfect case study in how Internet-driven tech journalism rewards sloppy reporting and how the echo chamber devalues getting the story right.
Here, let me walk you through the whole sordid, depressing episode.
On Friday, November 27, an obscure computer security company, Prevx, publishes a blog post accusing Microsoft of releasing security patches that cause catastrophic crashes in Windows PCs. The inflammatory headline reads: Black Screen woes could affect millions on Windows 7, Vista and XP. The post lacks even the most rudimentary technical details and is maddeningly vague. It goes unnoticed over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend.
Early Monday morning, November 30, Jeremy Kirk of the IDG News service sends a story out on the wire that is picked up by IDG flagship publications PC World and ComputerWorld. Conveniently, the story is posted at 7:05AM Eastern Time, ensuring that it will be at the top of news sites as Americans drag back into work after the long holiday weekend.
Here’s the first headline as it appeared at PC World and ComputerWorld early Monday morning: Latest Microsoft patches cause black screen of death According to the accompanying story, the patches “cause some PCs to seize up and display a black screen, rendering the computer useless” for millions of Windows users. The security company “hasn’t contacted Microsoft yet” and “Microsoft officials could not be immediately reached for comment.”
The story is echoed by dozens of other publications within an hour, some pointing specifically to PC World as the source. The rush of coverage catapults the accusations into the mainstream. At some point that morning, Microsoft’s security team goes into “fire drill” mode.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Small-Town Feature/Color Story
Here is a very nice little "feel-good" feature story about a tiny town in the Yakima valley of Washington state. Think about how the reporter got the information for this story--to whom did he talk? Where did he get his details? This is an excerpt. To read the entire article, click here.
Small-town life, Harrah-style
By PHIL FEROLITO
Yakima Herald-Republic
HARRAH -- During the winter months, life in this Lower Yakima Valley farm town begins well before the first light.
Nearly two dozen pickups crowd the front of the Farm House Cafe and spill into the nearby Town Hall and the fire station parking lots.
It's 5:30 in the morning, and the glowing neon sign in the cafe's front window reads "Open."
Inside, the coffee is hot and the murmur and laughter of more than 20 farmers spills across the tables.
"We're all a tight mix," says Dale Rex, a retired Pacific Power area representative who now does some farming. "We're always here in the morning for coffee."
Outside, the town is dark and lifeless, except for a few more farmers pulling up in pickups.
The cafe is where the day begins in this town of not quite 600 people.
Nestled amid arid sagelands and sprawling hop fields deep within the Yakama Indian reservation, Harrah is the smallest town in Yakima County -- not quite 0.44 square miles.
Incorporated in 1946, it boasts two stores, a beauty salon, a tavern and the cafe. A stop sign at the junction of Harrah and Branch roads marks the only intersection.
Small-town life, Harrah-style
By PHIL FEROLITO
Yakima Herald-Republic
HARRAH -- During the winter months, life in this Lower Yakima Valley farm town begins well before the first light.
Nearly two dozen pickups crowd the front of the Farm House Cafe and spill into the nearby Town Hall and the fire station parking lots.
It's 5:30 in the morning, and the glowing neon sign in the cafe's front window reads "Open."
Inside, the coffee is hot and the murmur and laughter of more than 20 farmers spills across the tables.
"We're all a tight mix," says Dale Rex, a retired Pacific Power area representative who now does some farming. "We're always here in the morning for coffee."
Outside, the town is dark and lifeless, except for a few more farmers pulling up in pickups.
The cafe is where the day begins in this town of not quite 600 people.
Nestled amid arid sagelands and sprawling hop fields deep within the Yakama Indian reservation, Harrah is the smallest town in Yakima County -- not quite 0.44 square miles.
Incorporated in 1946, it boasts two stores, a beauty salon, a tavern and the cafe. A stop sign at the junction of Harrah and Branch roads marks the only intersection.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tiger Botched His PR Opportunity
More from a PR Pro on how Tiger Woods blew taking control of the communications. To read the entire article and some very enlightening blogpost comments, click here.
Playing a bad lie: How Tiger botched a PR opportunity
By Ari B. Adler
By not addressing his infidelity right away, Woods let rumors aggravate a bad situation
Sexing, texting and vexing—it’s a perfect storm of reputation destruction, and its latest victim is Tiger Woods. To make matters worse, instead of facing the publicity storm head on and getting control of the story as quickly as possible, he went into hiding. That left the story angles to those less concerned about his best interests.
It’s probably a sad testament to the times, but when Woods’ SUV ran over a fire hydrant and into a tree around 2:30 a.m. one night last week, there were plenty of people who immediately thought, “drunken driving.” When it became clear that wasn’t the case, the rumors started to expand to include painkillers, speeding and his wife chasing him out of the house with a golf club.
While the rumors and the news reports about them began to grow, Woods stayed mum. He would not talk to the press. He would not talk to police. Therefore, instead of having a bad-news story last a couple of days, he has instead been faced with a nonstop, daily thrashing of his reputation. Breaking news alerts and breathless anchors eager to share any update have now given way to the online posting of a voicemail to and “sexts” from an alleged mistress.
This type of rumor, innuendo and celebrity smackdown news has always been a possibility, but it was generally dealt with by PR pros with a shrug and, “Well, it’s the National Enquirer—no one really believes that stuff, anyway.” Now, what used to be considered salacious material best left to the tabloids is finding its way to online powerhouses like the Huffington Post and to mainstream juggernauts like CNN and ESPN.
The tagline from that 1990s cult-classic television show “The X-Files” has never been more relevant. “The truth is out there,” we were told, week after week. These days, however, PR pros need to remember that not only is the truth out there, it’s now available in electronic formats that are easily reproduced and distributed.
That means they need to be even more aggressive—both with their clients and with the media. They need to get clients to be 100 percent upfront with them about every potential PR attack. Then, they need to go on the offensive and get control of the story immediately.
In Woods’ case, the story became the story, which is the last thing he needed. In the statement he finally issued, Woods said, “Personal sins should not require press releases.” He should stick to golf and stop trying to dabble in public relations. Often, in media cases like this, a coverup becomes a bigger story than the initial indiscretion. Though it may be another sad testament to the times, a famous man cheating on his wife is a one- or two-day story. The ones drawn out in the headlines for weeks at a time are those in which only a few details are revealed at first and the rest trickle out.
Consider what would have happened if Tiger Woods had held a press conference upon being released from the hospital. It’s quite likely the basic story would have been:
“Tiger Woods announced today that his car accident occurred after he left his home following an argument with his wife over an extra-marital affair. The golf pro allegedly had a long-term relationship with a woman he met just months before his wife gave birth to their daughter. Woods said he is working through the matter with his wife and asked for privacy for all parties involved to assist in his family’s healing process.”
Anyone going on the offensive after that would have been seen as opportunistic and risked their reputations. By confessing and repenting publicly with the whole story, Woods would have positioned himself as a potential victim.
Going on the offensive isn’t going to change the facts, but it will make them less captivating and, therefore, less newsworthy. Besides, with today’s incredible-story-of-the-minute news industry and their attention-deficient audiences, it never takes long for the spotlight to shift.
Playing a bad lie: How Tiger botched a PR opportunity
By Ari B. Adler
By not addressing his infidelity right away, Woods let rumors aggravate a bad situation
Sexing, texting and vexing—it’s a perfect storm of reputation destruction, and its latest victim is Tiger Woods. To make matters worse, instead of facing the publicity storm head on and getting control of the story as quickly as possible, he went into hiding. That left the story angles to those less concerned about his best interests.
It’s probably a sad testament to the times, but when Woods’ SUV ran over a fire hydrant and into a tree around 2:30 a.m. one night last week, there were plenty of people who immediately thought, “drunken driving.” When it became clear that wasn’t the case, the rumors started to expand to include painkillers, speeding and his wife chasing him out of the house with a golf club.
While the rumors and the news reports about them began to grow, Woods stayed mum. He would not talk to the press. He would not talk to police. Therefore, instead of having a bad-news story last a couple of days, he has instead been faced with a nonstop, daily thrashing of his reputation. Breaking news alerts and breathless anchors eager to share any update have now given way to the online posting of a voicemail to and “sexts” from an alleged mistress.
This type of rumor, innuendo and celebrity smackdown news has always been a possibility, but it was generally dealt with by PR pros with a shrug and, “Well, it’s the National Enquirer—no one really believes that stuff, anyway.” Now, what used to be considered salacious material best left to the tabloids is finding its way to online powerhouses like the Huffington Post and to mainstream juggernauts like CNN and ESPN.
The tagline from that 1990s cult-classic television show “The X-Files” has never been more relevant. “The truth is out there,” we were told, week after week. These days, however, PR pros need to remember that not only is the truth out there, it’s now available in electronic formats that are easily reproduced and distributed.
That means they need to be even more aggressive—both with their clients and with the media. They need to get clients to be 100 percent upfront with them about every potential PR attack. Then, they need to go on the offensive and get control of the story immediately.
In Woods’ case, the story became the story, which is the last thing he needed. In the statement he finally issued, Woods said, “Personal sins should not require press releases.” He should stick to golf and stop trying to dabble in public relations. Often, in media cases like this, a coverup becomes a bigger story than the initial indiscretion. Though it may be another sad testament to the times, a famous man cheating on his wife is a one- or two-day story. The ones drawn out in the headlines for weeks at a time are those in which only a few details are revealed at first and the rest trickle out.
Consider what would have happened if Tiger Woods had held a press conference upon being released from the hospital. It’s quite likely the basic story would have been:
“Tiger Woods announced today that his car accident occurred after he left his home following an argument with his wife over an extra-marital affair. The golf pro allegedly had a long-term relationship with a woman he met just months before his wife gave birth to their daughter. Woods said he is working through the matter with his wife and asked for privacy for all parties involved to assist in his family’s healing process.”
Anyone going on the offensive after that would have been seen as opportunistic and risked their reputations. By confessing and repenting publicly with the whole story, Woods would have positioned himself as a potential victim.
Going on the offensive isn’t going to change the facts, but it will make them less captivating and, therefore, less newsworthy. Besides, with today’s incredible-story-of-the-minute news industry and their attention-deficient audiences, it never takes long for the spotlight to shift.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Journicide: New Word, Sobering Concept
Here's an excerpt from a stimulating blog entry by a seasoned journalist. The comments following the blog entry are especially illuminating. To read the entire entry, click here.
Journicide: A looming, lost generation of scribes
Vanishing employment opportunities and shrinking freelance compensation threaten to wipe out a substantial percentage of the next generation of professional journalists.
This journicide, to coin a term, is not merely going to be difficult and disappointing for the affected young people, who mostly will move on to find rewarding careers in other endeavors.
But the loss of a substantial portion of what would have been the next generation of journalists also will be tragic for society. The loss will deprive citizens in the future with the insights that only can be delivered by dedicated professionals with the time, skills and motivation to dig deeply into difficult stories.
Bloggers and other bloviators, this writer expressly included, will not take up the slack. Absent some miracle that motivates someone, anyone, to start fairly compensating journalists again, we are going to lose something that has been very important to our democracy throughout the life of the nation. I can’t imagine what it will be like without professional journalists, but I don’t think we will like the outcome.
Journicide has been under way since newspapers and other mainstream media began losing their formidable revenue-generating juju in 2006. The elimination of full-time professional journalism jobs since then has been so relentless that it has become remarkably, depressingly commonplace.
Paper Cuts reports that nearly 15,000 newspaper jobs were eliminated so far this year, putting the industry on track to rival, or potentially surpass, the nearly 16,000 jobs axed in 2008. Last month, the Associated Press zapped 90 positions to cut 10% of its payroll costs, and BusinessWeek pink-slipped a reported 130 individuals, or approximately a third of its staff.
As bad as things are for still-working and formerly employed journalists – and they are bad – the opportunities are even worse for journalists seeking their first gigs. There are two reasons:
First, young journalists trying to land entry-level jobs find themselves competing with seasoned pros who have been knocked off perches higher up in the food chain.
Second, the miserable state of the media business has combined with a sharp increase in the supply of available journalists to reduce compensation to humiliatingly low levels.
As a consequence, young journalists looking for opportunities to start careers – even the idealistic eager ones celebrated here by David Carr – are looking at an almost universally bleak economic landscape.
Salaried, entry-level positions at traditional news organizations are almost entirely unavailable, because the organizations are trying to avoid laying off any more staffers than they already have.
This leaves phalanxes of young journalists to compete among themselves for low- or no-pay internships and highly exploitive freelance opportunities that typically promise rich “exposure” but scant, if any, hard cash.
Journicide: A looming, lost generation of scribes
Vanishing employment opportunities and shrinking freelance compensation threaten to wipe out a substantial percentage of the next generation of professional journalists.
This journicide, to coin a term, is not merely going to be difficult and disappointing for the affected young people, who mostly will move on to find rewarding careers in other endeavors.
But the loss of a substantial portion of what would have been the next generation of journalists also will be tragic for society. The loss will deprive citizens in the future with the insights that only can be delivered by dedicated professionals with the time, skills and motivation to dig deeply into difficult stories.
Bloggers and other bloviators, this writer expressly included, will not take up the slack. Absent some miracle that motivates someone, anyone, to start fairly compensating journalists again, we are going to lose something that has been very important to our democracy throughout the life of the nation. I can’t imagine what it will be like without professional journalists, but I don’t think we will like the outcome.
Journicide has been under way since newspapers and other mainstream media began losing their formidable revenue-generating juju in 2006. The elimination of full-time professional journalism jobs since then has been so relentless that it has become remarkably, depressingly commonplace.
Paper Cuts reports that nearly 15,000 newspaper jobs were eliminated so far this year, putting the industry on track to rival, or potentially surpass, the nearly 16,000 jobs axed in 2008. Last month, the Associated Press zapped 90 positions to cut 10% of its payroll costs, and BusinessWeek pink-slipped a reported 130 individuals, or approximately a third of its staff.
As bad as things are for still-working and formerly employed journalists – and they are bad – the opportunities are even worse for journalists seeking their first gigs. There are two reasons:
First, young journalists trying to land entry-level jobs find themselves competing with seasoned pros who have been knocked off perches higher up in the food chain.
Second, the miserable state of the media business has combined with a sharp increase in the supply of available journalists to reduce compensation to humiliatingly low levels.
As a consequence, young journalists looking for opportunities to start careers – even the idealistic eager ones celebrated here by David Carr – are looking at an almost universally bleak economic landscape.
Salaried, entry-level positions at traditional news organizations are almost entirely unavailable, because the organizations are trying to avoid laying off any more staffers than they already have.
This leaves phalanxes of young journalists to compete among themselves for low- or no-pay internships and highly exploitive freelance opportunities that typically promise rich “exposure” but scant, if any, hard cash.
Washington Times Downsizes
From TPM LIve Wire:
Washington Times Announces 'Significant Staff Reduction'
Justin Elliott
The beleaguered Washington Times announced "significant" reductions to its staff of 370 today.
In response to "marketplace realities", "the company is aggressively working to achieve efficiencies of scale that must include significant staff reduction of its 370 personnel," said Publisher Jonathan Slevin.
The Times statement does not give an exact number of layoffs, and a spokesman did not respond to a phone call. Politico's Michael Calderone is hearing about 40% of the staff will be let go.
The release went out to reporters as Times staffers attended a hastily called meeting in the newspaper's ballroom this afternoon. Newsroom sources have told TPM that in recent days several people packed up their desk photos in anticipation they could be laid off with limited notice. Also, some staffers have been avoiding parking in the parking lot in case the gates are closed to force them to return equipment.
Among the changes to be made gradually through 2010 are: free circulation to targeted groups, an expansion of the Times' theconservatives.com, more partnership with United Press International (UPI), which, like the Times, is owned by the Unification Church.
The turmoil at the Times, which was founded by church leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon, began when three executives were fired in early November. The resignation of top editor John Solomon was announced a few days later. Solomon and the fired execs haven't been talking, but sources and reports point to a combination of Moon family politics and financial problems driving the chaos at the paper, which has long been subsidized by the Unification Church.
Adding to the trouble has been a very public set of allegations made by now-former editorial page editor Richard Miniter, who has accused the Times of religious discrimination and breach of contract.
Washington Times Announces 'Significant Staff Reduction'
Justin Elliott
The beleaguered Washington Times announced "significant" reductions to its staff of 370 today.
In response to "marketplace realities", "the company is aggressively working to achieve efficiencies of scale that must include significant staff reduction of its 370 personnel," said Publisher Jonathan Slevin.
The Times statement does not give an exact number of layoffs, and a spokesman did not respond to a phone call. Politico's Michael Calderone is hearing about 40% of the staff will be let go.
The release went out to reporters as Times staffers attended a hastily called meeting in the newspaper's ballroom this afternoon. Newsroom sources have told TPM that in recent days several people packed up their desk photos in anticipation they could be laid off with limited notice. Also, some staffers have been avoiding parking in the parking lot in case the gates are closed to force them to return equipment.
Among the changes to be made gradually through 2010 are: free circulation to targeted groups, an expansion of the Times' theconservatives.com, more partnership with United Press International (UPI), which, like the Times, is owned by the Unification Church.
The turmoil at the Times, which was founded by church leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon, began when three executives were fired in early November. The resignation of top editor John Solomon was announced a few days later. Solomon and the fired execs haven't been talking, but sources and reports point to a combination of Moon family politics and financial problems driving the chaos at the paper, which has long been subsidized by the Unification Church.
Adding to the trouble has been a very public set of allegations made by now-former editorial page editor Richard Miniter, who has accused the Times of religious discrimination and breach of contract.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
J-Student Gets Published in WORLD Magazine
Here is an inspiring story about how a sophomore journalism major at Patrick Henry College in Virginia got published in a major magazine. I hope it inspires you and plants the seeds that you, too, can be published in major media. Enterprising Journalism major, sophomore Julie Smyth is shown, left, with fellow Journalism major Brooke Butler on trip to "Newseum" in D.C.Journalism Sophomore Published in WORLD Magazine
By Sarah Pride
Read Julie Smyth’s article in WORLD: “Life Begins Again”
A darkened Town Hall at Patrick Henry College rang with music and laughter from the student-organized “Harmonicomedy.” Sophomore Julie Smyth, a Journalism major, checked her watch and slipped into the ladies’ bathroom, where she set her laptop on the counter with the sinks, taking advantage of the bathroom’s light to finish her latest assignment for Journalism 101. She hadn’t wanted to miss the show, and yet she knew she had to complete an assignment already overdue because of difficult interviews.
Smyth considered herself blessed to have obtained an interview at all. A local station in Bryan, Texas had broken the story earlier that week. Abby Johnson, director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan and a 2008 “Employee of the Year” for the abortion provider, had recently resigned her post after watching an abortion being performed. Seeking to discredit Johnson, Planned Parenthood made the story public, but then pro-life organizations picked up the story and suddenly Johnson’s startling conversion became a cause celebre for the pro-life movement. Smyth’s mother heard about it and passed the news on to her daughter.
Being an enterprising young journalist, Smyth decided to try for an interview. She put out calls on Wednesday, but by her Thursday deadline nobody had replied. But when the phone rang Friday morning, Smyth picked up the phone to find Johnson on the line.
“I was getting pretty discouraged,” admits Smyth. “But—wow! She called me back!”
During the interview, Johnson mentioned that she was scheduled for Fox News and the Huckabee Show that weekend. But Smyth talked to her first.
“I got to her before Huckabee did. That’s pretty cool!” Smyth enthuses.
Two days after she finally submitted her article, Smyth heard from Dr. Les Sillars, Director of Journalism at PHC, asking her to submit it for further publication. The next evening, she says Dr. Sillars e-mailed her to tell her that WORLD magazine wanted to publish her work.
“I thought she did a good job, so I sent it off,” relates Sillars. “Worldmag.com said it was one of the most-read stories of the weekend.”
Smyth looks back on her week-and-a-half of waiting, phone calls, interviews, and then unexpected success as “miracle after miracle.” She knew she couldn’t make the interview happen on her own. Nor did she ever expect that WORLD would publish her article, since most Journalism 101 students feel blessed simply to have their work printed in the PHC Herald, the student newspaper.
“It wasn’t because of my own talent,” says Smyth. “It was a gift from God.”
Read Julie Smyth’s article in WORLD: “Life Begins Again”
Tiger Woods' Silence Creating PR Storm
(CNN) -- From the time he putted a golf ball at the age of 2 on "The Mike Douglas Show," Tiger Woods has been a golden child.
While athletes in different professions dealt with doping scandals and other controversies, Woods continued to do what he did best: dominate the field of professional golf and rake in endorsements.
But it is that squeaky-clean image, and the tightly controlled persona Woods has cultivated over the course of his career, that experts say is fueling speculation and interest in the circumstances surrounding his recent car accident.
Publicist and crisis communications expert Howard Bragman said Woods' strategy of refusing to speak out is not working.
"It's not working by the measure of your goal, and your goal is to make the story go away," Bragman said. "His not speaking to the press has become the story, and that's the last thing you want."
Bragman said that means the tabloids can take the lead on the story rather than Woods getting out in front of it and controlling the flow of information. By his seeming evasive, Bragman noted, the appetite for details is heightened.
"We see him on Sundays, wearing red, holding trophies, but I don't think we really know that much about him, which is an anomaly in the world we live in right now with everyone knowing every little detail about Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and fill-in-the-blank," said Rick Ellington, managing editor of Sports Business Daily.
"I think [the story] has mushroomed because Tiger is notoriously private and keeps everything to himself, except what he wants to get out."
The golfing phenom appears to not want to reveal anything regarding what led up to a single-vehicle accident in his posh neighborhood near Orlando, Florida, where according to a police accident report Woods sustained minor injuries.
Law enforcement officials -- who said Tuesday that he would receive a careless driving citation -- had tried unsuccessfully to speak with Woods and his wife about the accident, in which he pulled out of his driveway in a 2009 Cadillac SUV and struck a fire hydrant, then a tree.
Speculation about what led up to the accident has run rampant among fans. Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, told police she used a golf club to break out a rear window of the vehicle and then pulled Woods from the SUV after she heard the crash from inside their home.
For his part, Woods has called his wife's actions "courageous" and insisted that he wants to keep the matter private.
Sports journalist and essayist Jim Huber, who has known Woods for 12 years, said it's hard to fathom the golfer being embroiled in controversy.
"As close as he has allowed me to get, I have never heard inkling to belie the fact that he has led anything other than an exemplary life," said Huber, a reporter and essayist for CNN's sister network TNT, who formerly hosted sports shows for CNN. "He values family life."
Woods also values his privacy, Huber said, and has an inner circle of very savvy advisers. How fans and the public react to the pro golfer will be determined by what happens in the days and weeks to come, Huber said.
"It's going to be a critical time," Huber said. "The fact that he's gone into hiding, I don't know if it's going to help or if it's going to continue to fuel the rumor mill."
Bragman, who is the chairman of media company Fifteen Minutes -- whose client roster is as varied as entertainers like Stevie Wonder and athletes including golfer Rosie Jones and WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes -- said Woods' wholesome image may also mean that neither he nor his team was prepared for the accident's fallout.
Ellington, whose publication covers the business side of sports, said that although some think Woods needs to say something to quell the rumors, his strategy of silence may also have value.
"The other train of thought is that by staying quiet, he can't possibly open himself up to more questioning or any more salacious headlines," Ellington said. "That's actually what he's done for most of his career. He's being very good managing what gets out and what doesn't, so he may be going on the assumption that that has worked before, so it will work now."
Ellington said it is too early to tell whether this incident will have a lasting effect on Woods' career. The initial reaction from sponsors such as Nike has been supportive.
If more scandalous details emerge, that could change, Ellington said.
But with the herculean focus Woods has as a golfer, Ellington said, it seems highly unlikely that he will let what happened throw off his game.
That championship mentality is also why the story has taken on a life of its own, he said.
"[Woods] is easily one of the most recognizable athletes, not just in the United States but worldwide," Ellington said. "If this was a story about Phil Mickelson instead of Tiger Woods, I don't think it would be getting as much press as it has."
Reflections on a Summer Newspaper Internship
I thought you might be interested in the impressions and reflections of one of Grace's current journalism students, Rachel Ramos, on her experience last summer as an intern with a small-town newspaper in Ohio. Note not only her editorial comments, but also some of the responses from readers of the paper.
http://www.timesreporter.com/opinion/x1373199559/Internship-was-never-monotonous
http://www.timesreporter.com/opinion/x1373199559/Internship-was-never-monotonous
Monday, November 30, 2009
Guidance for Media in Covering Suicides
From NPR:
Media Should Tread Carefully In Covering Suicide
by Michelle Trudeau
Scientists define a suicide cluster as three or more suicides in a specific location that occur over a short period of time. On average, there are five suicide clusters each year in the United States, according to psychiatric epidemiologist Madelyn Gould at Columbia University in New York City.
Gould has found that suicide clusters are a relatively rare event, accounting for fewer than 5 percent of all suicides in teenagers and young adults. The most distinctive feature about suicide clusters is that they occur almost exclusively in teenagers, she says.
"Suicides following the exposure to someone's death by suicide, was about two to four times higher among 15- to 19-year-olds than [in] other age groups," Gould says.
So what is it about teenagers that make them particularly vulnerable? For one, Gould says, adolescents are intensely focused on other teenagers and on imitating the behaviors of other teens. It's a developmental phenomenon that scientists call "social modeling."
And for adolescents, says Gould, "it's the peer group members who often serve as models. So during this age it's the peers that replace family members and other adults as the most influential group. And suicide is another behavior that can be modeled, unfortunately."
Another characteristic typical of teenagers that puts them at increased risk of suicide is their tendency to act impulsively. This behavioral inclination is a function of a still-maturing brain. Neuroscientists have found that complex cognitive functions — such as inhibiting impulsive behaviors, planning ahead, and problem solving — occur in the prefrontal cortex, a brain area that continues to develop throughout adolescence and well into young adulthood.
So until an adolescent's brain is more fully mature, he or she will tend to behave impulsively, neglect future consequences, and perhaps view suicide as an immediate solution to problems, especially if a friend or acquaintance has taken that route.
The Biggest Risk Factor
But the most significant and critical red flag that predicts adolescent suicide risk, according to Gould and other researchers, is the presence of an underlying mental health problem. In teens, that's most commonly depression, anxiety and alcohol or drug abuse.
“Even in the context of someone else's suicide, without that underlying vulnerability, they're not going to go on to attempt suicide or die by suicide," Gould says.
Community Parents Stand Guard After Teen Deaths
Gould is currently studying 50 suicide clusters that have occurred in the United States over the past decade, comparing the cluster suicides to young people who died by suicide but not in a cluster. She is doing what's called a psychological autopsy on each suicide: interviewing family, friends, teachers; checking school records, the teens' e-mails, phone calls.
"We want to try to understand why you have the tragedy of a suicide in one town but it does not lead to additional suicides. Yet in another town, it might lead to two, to three, or four more suicides," says Gould, whose research team is trying to identify what might initiate a suicide cluster.
Type Of Media Coverage Plays A Role
In preliminary findings, Gould reports that there is no one type of community that is more susceptible to suicide clusters than another. "Every community is vulnerable," she says. Gould has also identified a crucial characteristic that seems to play a critical role in suicide clusters. If the first suicide gets media attention, then it's more apt to trigger other suicides. So, Gould cautions, the way the media cover a suicide can be critical.
"We know from studies that have looked at the impact of the media that there is something called the 'dose-response association.' So the size of the increase in suicides following a suicide story is proportional to the amount, and the duration, and the prominence of the coverage."
There are ways that the media can cover a suicide that can actually help mitigate the risk of additional suicides, says psychiatrist Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, who regularly advises the media on how to report on a suicide. For example, they should report on the many complex factors that may have led up to the suicide and emphasize that 90 percent of people who kill themselves have mental health problems.
Clayton cautions, though, that using details about a suicide can increase the risk of suicide clustering. "Don't talk about the method, or show the place where the suicide occurred. And don't glorify it," she says.
Preventing More Deaths
In terms of prevention, one of the most highly effective deterrents to suicide, says Clayton, are physical suicide barriers. These can prevent access to deadly locations and have been shown to effectively prevent suicides.
"If you build barriers for bridges or put nets up, the suicide rates go down at the bridge, and [they] don't go up at the nearby bridges. If you build railroad barriers, the suicides go down."
Gould agrees barriers can prevent suicides, especially in impulsive teenagers. "If you can make it that much harder, at least you're buying time. And we have found that to be effective because the motivation to [commit] suicide is not constant. It waxes and wanes. And so you might get them past that impulsive urge."
In addition, suicide screening of all the teenagers in a community where a suicide has occurred is also effective in identifying kids with depression, anxiety or substance use. A new study by Gould, to be published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, confirms the value of schoolwide suicide screening. Her study shows that identifying teens at risk for suicide and offering them help does result in the teenagers' getting treatment for their mental health problems.
Resources For Suicide Prevention
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (8255), A Free, 24-Hour Hotline
TeenScreen National Center For Mental Health Checkups
American Foundation For Suicide Prevention
American Association Of Suicide Professionals: Upcoming Meeting
Media Should Tread Carefully In Covering Suicide
by Michelle Trudeau
Scientists define a suicide cluster as three or more suicides in a specific location that occur over a short period of time. On average, there are five suicide clusters each year in the United States, according to psychiatric epidemiologist Madelyn Gould at Columbia University in New York City.
Gould has found that suicide clusters are a relatively rare event, accounting for fewer than 5 percent of all suicides in teenagers and young adults. The most distinctive feature about suicide clusters is that they occur almost exclusively in teenagers, she says.
"Suicides following the exposure to someone's death by suicide, was about two to four times higher among 15- to 19-year-olds than [in] other age groups," Gould says.
So what is it about teenagers that make them particularly vulnerable? For one, Gould says, adolescents are intensely focused on other teenagers and on imitating the behaviors of other teens. It's a developmental phenomenon that scientists call "social modeling."
And for adolescents, says Gould, "it's the peer group members who often serve as models. So during this age it's the peers that replace family members and other adults as the most influential group. And suicide is another behavior that can be modeled, unfortunately."
Another characteristic typical of teenagers that puts them at increased risk of suicide is their tendency to act impulsively. This behavioral inclination is a function of a still-maturing brain. Neuroscientists have found that complex cognitive functions — such as inhibiting impulsive behaviors, planning ahead, and problem solving — occur in the prefrontal cortex, a brain area that continues to develop throughout adolescence and well into young adulthood.
So until an adolescent's brain is more fully mature, he or she will tend to behave impulsively, neglect future consequences, and perhaps view suicide as an immediate solution to problems, especially if a friend or acquaintance has taken that route.
The Biggest Risk Factor
But the most significant and critical red flag that predicts adolescent suicide risk, according to Gould and other researchers, is the presence of an underlying mental health problem. In teens, that's most commonly depression, anxiety and alcohol or drug abuse.
“Even in the context of someone else's suicide, without that underlying vulnerability, they're not going to go on to attempt suicide or die by suicide," Gould says.
Community Parents Stand Guard After Teen Deaths
Gould is currently studying 50 suicide clusters that have occurred in the United States over the past decade, comparing the cluster suicides to young people who died by suicide but not in a cluster. She is doing what's called a psychological autopsy on each suicide: interviewing family, friends, teachers; checking school records, the teens' e-mails, phone calls.
"We want to try to understand why you have the tragedy of a suicide in one town but it does not lead to additional suicides. Yet in another town, it might lead to two, to three, or four more suicides," says Gould, whose research team is trying to identify what might initiate a suicide cluster.
Type Of Media Coverage Plays A Role
In preliminary findings, Gould reports that there is no one type of community that is more susceptible to suicide clusters than another. "Every community is vulnerable," she says. Gould has also identified a crucial characteristic that seems to play a critical role in suicide clusters. If the first suicide gets media attention, then it's more apt to trigger other suicides. So, Gould cautions, the way the media cover a suicide can be critical.
"We know from studies that have looked at the impact of the media that there is something called the 'dose-response association.' So the size of the increase in suicides following a suicide story is proportional to the amount, and the duration, and the prominence of the coverage."
There are ways that the media can cover a suicide that can actually help mitigate the risk of additional suicides, says psychiatrist Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, who regularly advises the media on how to report on a suicide. For example, they should report on the many complex factors that may have led up to the suicide and emphasize that 90 percent of people who kill themselves have mental health problems.
Clayton cautions, though, that using details about a suicide can increase the risk of suicide clustering. "Don't talk about the method, or show the place where the suicide occurred. And don't glorify it," she says.
Preventing More Deaths
In terms of prevention, one of the most highly effective deterrents to suicide, says Clayton, are physical suicide barriers. These can prevent access to deadly locations and have been shown to effectively prevent suicides.
"If you build barriers for bridges or put nets up, the suicide rates go down at the bridge, and [they] don't go up at the nearby bridges. If you build railroad barriers, the suicides go down."
Gould agrees barriers can prevent suicides, especially in impulsive teenagers. "If you can make it that much harder, at least you're buying time. And we have found that to be effective because the motivation to [commit] suicide is not constant. It waxes and wanes. And so you might get them past that impulsive urge."
In addition, suicide screening of all the teenagers in a community where a suicide has occurred is also effective in identifying kids with depression, anxiety or substance use. A new study by Gould, to be published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, confirms the value of schoolwide suicide screening. Her study shows that identifying teens at risk for suicide and offering them help does result in the teenagers' getting treatment for their mental health problems.
Resources For Suicide Prevention
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (8255), A Free, 24-Hour Hotline
TeenScreen National Center For Mental Health Checkups
American Foundation For Suicide Prevention
American Association Of Suicide Professionals: Upcoming Meeting
Zondervan Pulls Book After Backlash
Zondervan pulls book after backlash
After encountering a backlash for what critics called its insensitive use of Asian themes, Zondervan has pulled from store shelves Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite.
"There is no need for debate on this subject," said Moe Girkins, Zondervan president and CEO. "We are pulling the book and the curriculum in their current forms from stores permanently."
Released Oct. 1, the leadership book came under fire from Soong-Chan Rah--author and associate professor of church growth and evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago--on his blog for promoting an "offensive" stereotype against Asians. The book featured martial arts, ninjas and Chinese symbols "in a non-essential manner that does not honor the heritage or culture of Asians," Rah wrote.
Girkins has named Stan Gundry as editor-in-chief of all Zondervan products "in order to avoid similar episodes in the future" and emphasized the company's commitment to products that promote spiritual growth. She also expressed support for Foster and White for a "valuable" message in the book concerning personal integrity, which the company hopes to present in a "better" format in the future.
On his blog, Rah called the move to pull the book a "tremendous act of repentance" and wrote that Zondervan "acted in the best interests of the body of Christ and for Christian witness above ego and profits. I am personally humbled by the actions of the authors and the publishers to take this radical step."
Foster and Wilhite have shut down their Web site, which now includes the message: "Due to an unfortunate conflict that arose around our use of Asian American themes, we have decided to close this chapter of Deadly Viper Character Assassins. This decision has been a very difficult one for us and one that we did not take lightly."
Quote of the Day from Christian Century
Quote of the Day:
"Neither new nor old models of news reporting can survive without the revenue to support them. We the people should demand high-quality reporting from news organizations. But we may also have to demand something of ourselves: the willingness to pay more for journalism. The future of democracy and the common good may depend on it. "
--The editors of Christian Century magazine, in an editorial in the Dec. 1 edition.
"Neither new nor old models of news reporting can survive without the revenue to support them. We the people should demand high-quality reporting from news organizations. But we may also have to demand something of ourselves: the willingness to pay more for journalism. The future of democracy and the common good may depend on it. "
--The editors of Christian Century magazine, in an editorial in the Dec. 1 edition.
Struggling Publishers Try Customization
From DMNews:
Struggling publishers try customization
Chantal Todé
One of the newer applications for digital print is in the beleaguered magazine and newspaper publishing segments, where both circulation rates and advertising revenues have taken a dive. Publishers seek new ways to deliver content that are more efficient than traditional mass-produced printed products, and digital print — with its ability to manipulate text and images for a personalized consumer experience — is gaining traction. The venue also enables publishers to customize both editorial content and ads.
Time Inc., along with American Express Publishing and Lexus, tested a customized magazine called Mine in March. Recipients of Mine were able to influence the content and the ads that appear in each issue. They also chose the delivery mechanism: print, online or smartphone. Content was drawn from Time Inc. magazines.
Examples of recent customized magazine covers range from putting the recipient's name on the cover to allowing them to upload their own image, but Mine allows consumers to influence content across an entire publication.
Wayne Powers, president of Time Inc. Media Group, said customization, "strengthens our relationships with advertisers and consumers."
At the Mine Web site, consumers choose which of eight different Time Inc. magazines they want to read. They also answer questions about their interests to help customize the ads, Time has a technology platform that aggregates content from the magazines chosen.
"There was a lot of development work done on our side to create the distribution mechanism," said Powers.
The printed version of Mine was distributed to 31,000 consumers every two weeks. While there are no other customization projects at the press currently, Powers insists the idea has legs.
A customized magazine like Mine "can work under a lot of different scenarios," he says. "It can be designed for a new product" and the content "might be more aligned with the interests of the consumer."
Early results from Mine show that recipients spent 45 to 46 minutes with the 36-page printed product. This is equal to the amount of time consumers typically spend with a 75-page to 100-page newsweekly, Powers says.
It is too early to tell whether this sector will grow. "Everybody is trying to figure out the economic model and the end-user experience," says John Conley, VP, publishing at Xerox's global business group.
One of the issues publishers face is cost, says Conley: "It is going to be expensive." In addition, publishers either need to know enough about their subscribers via a sophisticated CRM platform or they need to be able to give end users the ability to build content themselves.
"The user experience has to be very simple but very robust - that is a bigger issue today than the actual printing," says Alon Bar-Shany, VP and GM of the Indigo press division for HP's graphics solution business.
While the software to build these publications is already available and digital presses can handle this work, finishing is still an issue. Once these customized publications come off the presses, they need to be assembled precisely so that the pages for each recipient stay together.
"To really enable mass customization, you need to be able to customize the finishing as well," says Bar-Shany. "People are working on this, but there is currently still a lot of manual work done on the finishing side."
Other media companies are exploring customization as well. The Tribune Co., which publishes the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and operates several Web sites and local TV stations, sees potential in customization, says Paul Lynch, manager, commercial sales and logistics, at the Chicago Tribune.
The goal is to leverage Tribune's assets - which include content, customer data, a distribution network and relationships with marketers - "to create customized products that consumers and advertisers will be willing to pay for," he continued.
The company is using digital technology to improve efficiency and give consumers control over content. Trib Local is a digital product that uses the Web to gather content and printers to create and distribute it. It was launched to reach local markets in an economically feasible manner.
Using Kodak's reverse publishing software, Tribune Co. created a Web platform enabling members of each local community to upload articles and photos. Advertisers were able to pick a display ad template, add a headline and body text and pay for it with a credit card. The content is automatically aggregated and laid out into templates for specific community products and electronically sent to the printer.
There are now 80 Trib Local community Web sites and 19 distinct print products. Each print version represents 3 or 4 towns.
"Most people think the Web will kill print, but Trib Local is an example of the Web driving print," says Lynch.
Struggling publishers try customization
Chantal Todé
One of the newer applications for digital print is in the beleaguered magazine and newspaper publishing segments, where both circulation rates and advertising revenues have taken a dive. Publishers seek new ways to deliver content that are more efficient than traditional mass-produced printed products, and digital print — with its ability to manipulate text and images for a personalized consumer experience — is gaining traction. The venue also enables publishers to customize both editorial content and ads.
Time Inc., along with American Express Publishing and Lexus, tested a customized magazine called Mine in March. Recipients of Mine were able to influence the content and the ads that appear in each issue. They also chose the delivery mechanism: print, online or smartphone. Content was drawn from Time Inc. magazines.
Examples of recent customized magazine covers range from putting the recipient's name on the cover to allowing them to upload their own image, but Mine allows consumers to influence content across an entire publication.
Wayne Powers, president of Time Inc. Media Group, said customization, "strengthens our relationships with advertisers and consumers."
At the Mine Web site, consumers choose which of eight different Time Inc. magazines they want to read. They also answer questions about their interests to help customize the ads, Time has a technology platform that aggregates content from the magazines chosen.
"There was a lot of development work done on our side to create the distribution mechanism," said Powers.
The printed version of Mine was distributed to 31,000 consumers every two weeks. While there are no other customization projects at the press currently, Powers insists the idea has legs.
A customized magazine like Mine "can work under a lot of different scenarios," he says. "It can be designed for a new product" and the content "might be more aligned with the interests of the consumer."
Early results from Mine show that recipients spent 45 to 46 minutes with the 36-page printed product. This is equal to the amount of time consumers typically spend with a 75-page to 100-page newsweekly, Powers says.
It is too early to tell whether this sector will grow. "Everybody is trying to figure out the economic model and the end-user experience," says John Conley, VP, publishing at Xerox's global business group.
One of the issues publishers face is cost, says Conley: "It is going to be expensive." In addition, publishers either need to know enough about their subscribers via a sophisticated CRM platform or they need to be able to give end users the ability to build content themselves.
"The user experience has to be very simple but very robust - that is a bigger issue today than the actual printing," says Alon Bar-Shany, VP and GM of the Indigo press division for HP's graphics solution business.
While the software to build these publications is already available and digital presses can handle this work, finishing is still an issue. Once these customized publications come off the presses, they need to be assembled precisely so that the pages for each recipient stay together.
"To really enable mass customization, you need to be able to customize the finishing as well," says Bar-Shany. "People are working on this, but there is currently still a lot of manual work done on the finishing side."
Other media companies are exploring customization as well. The Tribune Co., which publishes the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and operates several Web sites and local TV stations, sees potential in customization, says Paul Lynch, manager, commercial sales and logistics, at the Chicago Tribune.
The goal is to leverage Tribune's assets - which include content, customer data, a distribution network and relationships with marketers - "to create customized products that consumers and advertisers will be willing to pay for," he continued.
The company is using digital technology to improve efficiency and give consumers control over content. Trib Local is a digital product that uses the Web to gather content and printers to create and distribute it. It was launched to reach local markets in an economically feasible manner.
Using Kodak's reverse publishing software, Tribune Co. created a Web platform enabling members of each local community to upload articles and photos. Advertisers were able to pick a display ad template, add a headline and body text and pay for it with a credit card. The content is automatically aggregated and laid out into templates for specific community products and electronically sent to the printer.
There are now 80 Trib Local community Web sites and 19 distinct print products. Each print version represents 3 or 4 towns.
"Most people think the Web will kill print, but Trib Local is an example of the Web driving print," says Lynch.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Should an Algorithm Determine Content?
From Beta Daily Finance:
Making online media pay: Demand Media vs. The Texas Tribune
Bruce Watson
This has been a tough year for the media business: as august newspapers and magazines like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Gourmet have closed their doors for good, other outlets are scrambling to develop strategies that will guarantee long-term economic survival while allowing them to continue producing quality content.
This month, Rupert Murdoch entered the fray, going toe to toe with Google (GOOG) over advertising revenues and access to News Corp.'s (NWS) online newspapers. As he tries to work out a revenue-sharing scheme with Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, it will be interesting to see how the Internet's low-cost distribution structure ultimately affects the production of news and other media.
Traditional newspapers and magazines use three revenue sources -- subscriptions, newsstand sales, and advertising -- to fund highly expensive news-gathering, writing, and editing operations. While some publications like Murdoch's Wall Street Journal have managed to make paid content work, most Internet sites provide content for free, which puts funding solely into the hands of advertisers. The question is whether Internet ads can generate enough revenue to fund media production.
Make It Cheaper and Make Lots of It
Demand Media, a company based in Santa Monica, California, offers one solution to this problem: lower the cost of producing content until it becomes profitable. It works like this: Demand uses an algorithm to scour the Internet, focusing on ads, keyword searches, and other publishing platforms, in order to determine the topics that people want to read about. A second algorithm then generates story ideas, predicts how much ad revenue they will generate, and determines how much they are worth. Freelance writers and videographers write or film the pieces for either a one-time payment, generally in the $10 to $15 range, or a cut of the ad revenue.
According to Wired, the Demand system currently produces somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 articles and videos per day; by next summer, it hopes to reach 1 million per month. This massive array of articles and videos -- and the resulting advertising -- has allowed Demand to achieve the holy grail of online content providers: it is profitable. In 2009, its owners anticipate revenues of $200 million.
As someone who has made a living from freelance writing, I tend to view Demand the same way that a cow views McDonald's. For a while, I looked into working for the Demand Studios: seduced by the possibility of getting on one of their premium sites, I considered the economics of churning out articles on relationships and personal finance for eHow. I soon realized that, at $10 to $15 per piece, I would need to work something like twelve hours per day to finance my irritating addiction to food, shelter and clothing.
Given that kind of schedule, I would have to forego things like organizing, proofreading, and editing my work. While I might get a lot of bylines, none of them would be pieces that I'd want prospective employers to see; more important, the breakneck pace wouldn't really give me much time to look for something better. In short, I could easily see a future in which my work for Demand would transform me into a sort of Internet serf, cranking out work on the Demand treadmill in the hopes of one day getting an assignment to something more prominent.
To be fair, Demand isn't quite the low quality content machine that its critics sometimes make it out to be. While eHow is jam-packed with slapped-together articles on topics like "How to select Mickey Mouse bath toys," "How to chew gum," and "How to tie your shoes," Demand also hosts premium sites -- like Trails.com and Golflink.com -- that feature well-written, well-edited articles. And Demand's Cracked.com transcends its namesake magazine, offering an endless stream of thought provoking lists about pop culture.
The End of the Cheap Road?
For writers, the real terror isn't Demand itself, but rather sites like GetAFreelancer.com that suggest where the cheap content road may ultimately lead. On Get a Freelancer, reverse-auctions pit writers from around the world against each other in a fight for the lowest possible price. Right now, for example, there is an open auction in which a company is trying to get a writer to produce forty 200-300 word articles about marriage. The current low bid, $93, means that the auction winner will make roughly $2.32 per article, or between $0.007 and $0.01 per word.
Apart from the steel-cage-match motif of Get a Freelancer, there is the question of value. At these prices, the site can't hope to produce articles that are fresh, new, or creative. While many are search-engine-optimized and highly clickable, they aren't the sorts of things that readers are likely to spend a lot of time on. Adding little to the sum of human knowledge, they are the writing equivalent of bubble gum: bright and shiny, but possessing no nutritional value.
Pay for Highly Focused Quality
On the other hand, Demand Media is highly profitable, which is more than one can say for The Texas Tribune. If Demand represents the scattershot, market-driven, profit-based end of the online content spectrum, the Tribune represents the other extreme. Very narrowly focused -- it only covers Texas politics at the state level -- the site has a staff of sixteen well-paid writers, editors and Web developers producing the kind of incisive, thoughtful, well-researched journalism that is generally associated with print newspapers.
The trouble is, this sort of well-written, vitally important content doesn't pay all that well. The Tribune, for example, is a nonprofit, largely funded by donations and sponsorships. In Texas, where state loyalty and identity borders on obsession, it seems like the Tribune model might work; in less affluent, less cohesive states like West Virginia or Michigan, it might be less effective. In general, the nonprofit model of news seems as inadequate an answer as the profit-driven model of content.
Comparing Demand and The Texas Tribune is admittedly problematic. After all, Demand is profit-driven, while the Tribune is nonprofit; Demand employs thousands of freelancers, while the Tribune has a small, cherry-picked staff; and Demand is designed to answer every question under the sun, while the Tribune covers the comparatively microscopic topic of Texas state politics. Perhaps most importantly, the Tribune is a news source, while Demand focuses solely on general-purpose content that doesn't have an expiration date.
While relevant, these differences obscure a more basic similarity: Demand and the Tribune are both focused on providing intriguing, eye-catching content that will inspire clicks. And, while their respective models are miles apart, they offer two possible solutions to the problem of profit and quality. The lingering question is if there is a way of navigating these two goals to produce information that is valuable to readers, scalable, and profitable enough to survive.
Making online media pay: Demand Media vs. The Texas Tribune
Bruce Watson
This has been a tough year for the media business: as august newspapers and magazines like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Gourmet have closed their doors for good, other outlets are scrambling to develop strategies that will guarantee long-term economic survival while allowing them to continue producing quality content.
This month, Rupert Murdoch entered the fray, going toe to toe with Google (GOOG) over advertising revenues and access to News Corp.'s (NWS) online newspapers. As he tries to work out a revenue-sharing scheme with Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, it will be interesting to see how the Internet's low-cost distribution structure ultimately affects the production of news and other media.
Traditional newspapers and magazines use three revenue sources -- subscriptions, newsstand sales, and advertising -- to fund highly expensive news-gathering, writing, and editing operations. While some publications like Murdoch's Wall Street Journal have managed to make paid content work, most Internet sites provide content for free, which puts funding solely into the hands of advertisers. The question is whether Internet ads can generate enough revenue to fund media production.
Make It Cheaper and Make Lots of It
Demand Media, a company based in Santa Monica, California, offers one solution to this problem: lower the cost of producing content until it becomes profitable. It works like this: Demand uses an algorithm to scour the Internet, focusing on ads, keyword searches, and other publishing platforms, in order to determine the topics that people want to read about. A second algorithm then generates story ideas, predicts how much ad revenue they will generate, and determines how much they are worth. Freelance writers and videographers write or film the pieces for either a one-time payment, generally in the $10 to $15 range, or a cut of the ad revenue.
According to Wired, the Demand system currently produces somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 articles and videos per day; by next summer, it hopes to reach 1 million per month. This massive array of articles and videos -- and the resulting advertising -- has allowed Demand to achieve the holy grail of online content providers: it is profitable. In 2009, its owners anticipate revenues of $200 million.
As someone who has made a living from freelance writing, I tend to view Demand the same way that a cow views McDonald's. For a while, I looked into working for the Demand Studios: seduced by the possibility of getting on one of their premium sites, I considered the economics of churning out articles on relationships and personal finance for eHow. I soon realized that, at $10 to $15 per piece, I would need to work something like twelve hours per day to finance my irritating addiction to food, shelter and clothing.
Given that kind of schedule, I would have to forego things like organizing, proofreading, and editing my work. While I might get a lot of bylines, none of them would be pieces that I'd want prospective employers to see; more important, the breakneck pace wouldn't really give me much time to look for something better. In short, I could easily see a future in which my work for Demand would transform me into a sort of Internet serf, cranking out work on the Demand treadmill in the hopes of one day getting an assignment to something more prominent.
To be fair, Demand isn't quite the low quality content machine that its critics sometimes make it out to be. While eHow is jam-packed with slapped-together articles on topics like "How to select Mickey Mouse bath toys," "How to chew gum," and "How to tie your shoes," Demand also hosts premium sites -- like Trails.com and Golflink.com -- that feature well-written, well-edited articles. And Demand's Cracked.com transcends its namesake magazine, offering an endless stream of thought provoking lists about pop culture.
The End of the Cheap Road?
For writers, the real terror isn't Demand itself, but rather sites like GetAFreelancer.com that suggest where the cheap content road may ultimately lead. On Get a Freelancer, reverse-auctions pit writers from around the world against each other in a fight for the lowest possible price. Right now, for example, there is an open auction in which a company is trying to get a writer to produce forty 200-300 word articles about marriage. The current low bid, $93, means that the auction winner will make roughly $2.32 per article, or between $0.007 and $0.01 per word.
Apart from the steel-cage-match motif of Get a Freelancer, there is the question of value. At these prices, the site can't hope to produce articles that are fresh, new, or creative. While many are search-engine-optimized and highly clickable, they aren't the sorts of things that readers are likely to spend a lot of time on. Adding little to the sum of human knowledge, they are the writing equivalent of bubble gum: bright and shiny, but possessing no nutritional value.
Pay for Highly Focused Quality
On the other hand, Demand Media is highly profitable, which is more than one can say for The Texas Tribune. If Demand represents the scattershot, market-driven, profit-based end of the online content spectrum, the Tribune represents the other extreme. Very narrowly focused -- it only covers Texas politics at the state level -- the site has a staff of sixteen well-paid writers, editors and Web developers producing the kind of incisive, thoughtful, well-researched journalism that is generally associated with print newspapers.
The trouble is, this sort of well-written, vitally important content doesn't pay all that well. The Tribune, for example, is a nonprofit, largely funded by donations and sponsorships. In Texas, where state loyalty and identity borders on obsession, it seems like the Tribune model might work; in less affluent, less cohesive states like West Virginia or Michigan, it might be less effective. In general, the nonprofit model of news seems as inadequate an answer as the profit-driven model of content.
Comparing Demand and The Texas Tribune is admittedly problematic. After all, Demand is profit-driven, while the Tribune is nonprofit; Demand employs thousands of freelancers, while the Tribune has a small, cherry-picked staff; and Demand is designed to answer every question under the sun, while the Tribune covers the comparatively microscopic topic of Texas state politics. Perhaps most importantly, the Tribune is a news source, while Demand focuses solely on general-purpose content that doesn't have an expiration date.
While relevant, these differences obscure a more basic similarity: Demand and the Tribune are both focused on providing intriguing, eye-catching content that will inspire clicks. And, while their respective models are miles apart, they offer two possible solutions to the problem of profit and quality. The lingering question is if there is a way of navigating these two goals to produce information that is valuable to readers, scalable, and profitable enough to survive.
Gerson on the Long, Slow Death of Journalism
From today's Washington Post:
Journalism's slow, sad death
By Michael Gerson
Like the nearby Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Newseum -- Washington's museum dedicated to journalism -- displays dinosaurs. On a long wall near the entrance, the front pages of newspapers from around the country are electronically posted each morning -- the artifacts of a declining industry. Inside, the high-tech exhibits are nostalgic for a lower-tech time when banner headlines and network news summarized the emotions and exposed the scandals of the nation. Lindbergh Lands Safely. One Small Step. Nixon Resigns. Cronkite removes his glasses to announce President Kennedy's death at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.
Behind a long rack of preserved, historic front pages, there is a kind of journalistic mausoleum, displaying the departed. The Ann Arbor News, closed July 23 after 174 years in print. The Rocky Mountain News, taken at age 150. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which passed quietly into the Internet.
What difference does this make? For many conservatives, the "mainstream media" is an epithet. Didn't the Internet expose the lies of Dan Rather? Many on the left also shed few tears, preferring to consume their partisanship raw in the new media.
But a visit to the Newseum is a reminder that what is passing is not only a business but also a profession -- the journalistic tradition of nonpartisan objectivity. Journalists, God knows, didn't always live up to that tradition. But they generally accepted it, and they felt shamed when their biases or inaccuracies were exposed. The profession had rules about facts and sources and editors who enforced standards. At its best, the profession of journalism has involved a spirit of public service and adventure -- reporting from a bomber during a raid in World War II, or exposing the suffering of Sudan or Appalachia, or rushing to the site of the World Trade Center moments after the buildings fell.
By these standards, the changes we see in the media are also a decline. Most cable news networks have forsaken objectivity entirely and produce little actual news, since makeup for guests is cheaper than reporting. Most Internet sites display an endless hunger to comment and little appetite for verification. Free markets, it turns out, often make poor fact-checkers, instead feeding the fantasies of conspiracy theorists from "birthers" to Sept. 11, 2001, "truthers." Bloggers in repressive countries often show great courage, but few American bloggers have the resources or inclination to report from war zones, famines and genocides.
The democratization of the media -- really its fragmentation -- has encouraged ideological polarization. Princeton University professor Paul Starr traced this process recently in the Columbia Journalism Review. After the captive audience for network news was released by cable, many Americans did not turn to other sources of news. They turned to entertainment. The viewers who remained were more political and more partisan. "As Walter Cronkite prospered in the old environment," says Starr, "Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann thrive in the new one. As the diminished public for journalism becomes more partisan, journalism itself is likely to shift further in that direction."
Cable and the Internet now allow Americans, if they choose, to get their information entirely from sources that agree with them -- sources that reinforce and exaggerate their political predispositions.
And the whole system is based on a kind of intellectual theft. Internet aggregators (who link to news they don't produce) and bloggers would have little to collect or comment upon without the costly enterprise of newsgathering and investigative reporting. The old-media dinosaurs remain the basis for the entire media food chain. But newspapers are expected to provide their content free on the Internet. A recent poll found that 80 percent of Americans refuse to pay for Internet content. There is no economic model that will allow newspapers to keep producing content they don't charge for, while Internet sites repackage and sell content they don't pay to produce.
I dislike media bias as much as the next conservative. But I don't believe that journalistic objectivity is a fraud. I was a journalist for a time, at a once-great, now-diminished newsmagazine. I've seen good men and women work according to a set of professional standards I respect -- standards that serve the public. Professional journalism is not like the buggy-whip industry, outdated by economic progress, to be mourned but not missed. This profession has a social value that is currently not reflected in its market value.
What is to be done? A lot of good people are working on it. But if you currently have newsprint on your hands, thank you.
Journalism's slow, sad death
By Michael Gerson
Like the nearby Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Newseum -- Washington's museum dedicated to journalism -- displays dinosaurs. On a long wall near the entrance, the front pages of newspapers from around the country are electronically posted each morning -- the artifacts of a declining industry. Inside, the high-tech exhibits are nostalgic for a lower-tech time when banner headlines and network news summarized the emotions and exposed the scandals of the nation. Lindbergh Lands Safely. One Small Step. Nixon Resigns. Cronkite removes his glasses to announce President Kennedy's death at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.
Behind a long rack of preserved, historic front pages, there is a kind of journalistic mausoleum, displaying the departed. The Ann Arbor News, closed July 23 after 174 years in print. The Rocky Mountain News, taken at age 150. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which passed quietly into the Internet.
What difference does this make? For many conservatives, the "mainstream media" is an epithet. Didn't the Internet expose the lies of Dan Rather? Many on the left also shed few tears, preferring to consume their partisanship raw in the new media.
But a visit to the Newseum is a reminder that what is passing is not only a business but also a profession -- the journalistic tradition of nonpartisan objectivity. Journalists, God knows, didn't always live up to that tradition. But they generally accepted it, and they felt shamed when their biases or inaccuracies were exposed. The profession had rules about facts and sources and editors who enforced standards. At its best, the profession of journalism has involved a spirit of public service and adventure -- reporting from a bomber during a raid in World War II, or exposing the suffering of Sudan or Appalachia, or rushing to the site of the World Trade Center moments after the buildings fell.
By these standards, the changes we see in the media are also a decline. Most cable news networks have forsaken objectivity entirely and produce little actual news, since makeup for guests is cheaper than reporting. Most Internet sites display an endless hunger to comment and little appetite for verification. Free markets, it turns out, often make poor fact-checkers, instead feeding the fantasies of conspiracy theorists from "birthers" to Sept. 11, 2001, "truthers." Bloggers in repressive countries often show great courage, but few American bloggers have the resources or inclination to report from war zones, famines and genocides.
The democratization of the media -- really its fragmentation -- has encouraged ideological polarization. Princeton University professor Paul Starr traced this process recently in the Columbia Journalism Review. After the captive audience for network news was released by cable, many Americans did not turn to other sources of news. They turned to entertainment. The viewers who remained were more political and more partisan. "As Walter Cronkite prospered in the old environment," says Starr, "Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann thrive in the new one. As the diminished public for journalism becomes more partisan, journalism itself is likely to shift further in that direction."
Cable and the Internet now allow Americans, if they choose, to get their information entirely from sources that agree with them -- sources that reinforce and exaggerate their political predispositions.
And the whole system is based on a kind of intellectual theft. Internet aggregators (who link to news they don't produce) and bloggers would have little to collect or comment upon without the costly enterprise of newsgathering and investigative reporting. The old-media dinosaurs remain the basis for the entire media food chain. But newspapers are expected to provide their content free on the Internet. A recent poll found that 80 percent of Americans refuse to pay for Internet content. There is no economic model that will allow newspapers to keep producing content they don't charge for, while Internet sites repackage and sell content they don't pay to produce.
I dislike media bias as much as the next conservative. But I don't believe that journalistic objectivity is a fraud. I was a journalist for a time, at a once-great, now-diminished newsmagazine. I've seen good men and women work according to a set of professional standards I respect -- standards that serve the public. Professional journalism is not like the buggy-whip industry, outdated by economic progress, to be mourned but not missed. This profession has a social value that is currently not reflected in its market value.
What is to be done? A lot of good people are working on it. But if you currently have newsprint on your hands, thank you.
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