This is an excerpt--to read the entire article click here.
Washington Post, Baltimore Sun to share stories, photos, news content starting in 2009
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN , Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Washington Post and The (Baltimore) Sun, facing cost pressures as advertising revenue continues to sink, said Tuesday that they will share some stories, photos and news content starting next year.
The two newspapers said they will exchange some of their daily Maryland news and sports articles and may tap into stories that each company gives to the LAT-WP News Service.
The companies said the agreement will allow them to benefit from each other's areas of expertise, with The Washington Post harnessing the Sun's regional coverage and the Baltimore paper tapping the Post's federal government coverage.
The newspaper sector has been squeezed as readers and advertisers continually move to the Internet, with the economic downturn further worsening its struggles. Content-sharing partnerships represent one approach newspapers across the country have been using to retain or expand coverage while trimming staff.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Journalism Prof. on the Future of Newspapers
Here is a really thought-provoking interview with a very knowledgeable friend who is both an experienced newspaperman and also a journalism professor at a Christian college. This is an excerpt. To read the entire interview, click here.
Prof. Smith on future of papers
Interview with Prof. Michael Ray Smith (pictured), Department of Mass Communication, Campbell University, Buies Creek, N.C.
The San Diego paper is up for sale, the Miami paper is up for sale, the Minneapolis paper has missed an interest payment, the Chicago Tribune empire is in bankruptcy ... on and on we could go ... can you foresee major metro areas in the U.S. suddenly being without the printed word as their primary reliable source of information? If so, is this something terrible and deplorable or just an economic fact of life?
No. Here’s the benefit of a city. As long as we have cities, we will have commuters, who will want to read the news on the bus, train and subway. They tend to read on the way into work and the way home from work. Those commuters represent a strong, repeat audience.
Can adjustments be made to fill the gap and if so what would they be?
Absolutely. Content providers, once called newspapers, are experimenting with on-demand delivery particularly to mobile telephones. Telephones are computers and computers make moving information more convenient than ever. In some cases, information alerts and bursts can be downloaded from a source at work or home or even in transit and then read while on the road. As you know, reading now includes listening and viewing with the added feature that audiences can do their own indexing or searching to add to their interest in an audience.
Are there any metro areas that you think will always have papers, and if so which ones and why?
Two or three come to mind. 1) Washington, D.C., is the political capital of the nation and it is ripe not only for competing voices but as a nexus of political news that may be shared or sold to others as part of their news package. 2) New York City is the financial capital of the nation and the intersection of entertainment, popular culture, wealth and power, which makes it a city that will attract an audience that is restless to be in the know. 3) Los Angeles is the entertainment capital and it is hungry for information that will help audiences sense the direction of its No. 1 export.
WashPost's Use of 'Scare Quotes' Questioned
Over in GetReligion there's an interesting discussion of the Washington Post's use of "scare quotes." Here is an excerpt--to read the original blogpost, click here.
Scare quotes scare me
Posted by Mollie
The Washington Post covered a new Bush administration rule that protects the conscience rights of health care workers. Or, as the Washington Post scare quotes it, “right of conscience.”
We get the scare quotes in the headline and again in the second paragraph:
The Bush administration today issued a sweeping new regulation that protects a broad range of health-care workers — from doctors to janitors — who refuse to participate in providing services that they believe violate their personal, moral or religious beliefs.
The controversial rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor’s office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their “right of conscience.” It would apply to more than 584,000 health-care facilities.
Are the words “they believe” in the first paragraph necessary? Obviously if they didn’t believe these beliefs, they wouldn’t be, well, their beliefs. Right? And the regulation isn’t sweeping, as the story goes on to note in great detail.
Anyway, it’s not like conscience rights are previously unheard of or were just invented by Mike Leavitt, the Health and Human Services Secretary behind the ruling. So I really don’t get the scare quotes. One of my best friend’s parents met because her father served as a conscientious objector during Vietnam at a hospital where her mother was interning. Does the Washington Post refer to such Mennonites as “conscientious objectors” or just conscientious objectors? No scare quotes in this 2006 story. Why the difference? Is it one thing to have a conscientious objection to war and another to have a conscientious objection to abortion?
Scare quotes scare me
Posted by Mollie
The Washington Post covered a new Bush administration rule that protects the conscience rights of health care workers. Or, as the Washington Post scare quotes it, “right of conscience.”
We get the scare quotes in the headline and again in the second paragraph:
The Bush administration today issued a sweeping new regulation that protects a broad range of health-care workers — from doctors to janitors — who refuse to participate in providing services that they believe violate their personal, moral or religious beliefs.
The controversial rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor’s office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their “right of conscience.” It would apply to more than 584,000 health-care facilities.
Are the words “they believe” in the first paragraph necessary? Obviously if they didn’t believe these beliefs, they wouldn’t be, well, their beliefs. Right? And the regulation isn’t sweeping, as the story goes on to note in great detail.
Anyway, it’s not like conscience rights are previously unheard of or were just invented by Mike Leavitt, the Health and Human Services Secretary behind the ruling. So I really don’t get the scare quotes. One of my best friend’s parents met because her father served as a conscientious objector during Vietnam at a hospital where her mother was interning. Does the Washington Post refer to such Mennonites as “conscientious objectors” or just conscientious objectors? No scare quotes in this 2006 story. Why the difference? Is it one thing to have a conscientious objection to war and another to have a conscientious objection to abortion?
Could the Post Uncover Watergate Today?
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Student Newspaper Shut Down Over Article Review
Very interesting case involving prior restraint. How do you come down on it? This is an excerpt--to read the entire story click here.
Faribault superintendent shuts down student paper
FARIBAULT, Minn. - Faribault School District Superintendent Bob Stepaniak shut down the high school's student newspaper on Monday, after the student editors refused to allow the him review an article before publication.
The article in question was about the investigation into a middle school teacher who had been subject of a complaint about inappropriate communication with a student. The teacher has not been charged, but has been on paid administrative leave since September.
The newspaper's student editor Christen Hildebrandt offered to present the article to the district's attorneys, instead of to the administration, but Stepaniak refused and said in an e-mail: "We are at loggerheads and therefore I am shutting down the Echo (hopefully temporarily) until this issue is resolved."
Both the students and the superintendent claim they are on solid legal ground.
Stepaniak said the issue is about the fundamental question of whether a district's administration has the right to review articles prior to publication.
He pointed to a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, which upheld the right of administrators in a suburban St. Louis, Mo., school district to censor school newspaper articles about teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children.
"The issue here is clearly whether district administration can look at an article before publication. That's what it boils down to," Stepaniak said. "I'm very hesitant to give up that right or say we do not control the Echo as a student activity, even through there's a natural hesitation to oversee it."
Faribault superintendent shuts down student paper
FARIBAULT, Minn. - Faribault School District Superintendent Bob Stepaniak shut down the high school's student newspaper on Monday, after the student editors refused to allow the him review an article before publication.
The article in question was about the investigation into a middle school teacher who had been subject of a complaint about inappropriate communication with a student. The teacher has not been charged, but has been on paid administrative leave since September.
The newspaper's student editor Christen Hildebrandt offered to present the article to the district's attorneys, instead of to the administration, but Stepaniak refused and said in an e-mail: "We are at loggerheads and therefore I am shutting down the Echo (hopefully temporarily) until this issue is resolved."
Both the students and the superintendent claim they are on solid legal ground.
Stepaniak said the issue is about the fundamental question of whether a district's administration has the right to review articles prior to publication.
He pointed to a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, which upheld the right of administrators in a suburban St. Louis, Mo., school district to censor school newspaper articles about teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children.
"The issue here is clearly whether district administration can look at an article before publication. That's what it boils down to," Stepaniak said. "I'm very hesitant to give up that right or say we do not control the Echo as a student activity, even through there's a natural hesitation to oversee it."
Monday, December 15, 2008
Bad News for Magazines
From Media Daily News. This is an excerpt--to read entire article, click here.
2008: Magazines Ad Sales Plummet
by Erik Sass, Friday, December 12, 2008, 5:45 PM
As if there isn't enough bad news, 2008 has turned out to be the worst year in decades for magazines, as measured by total ad pages. Through the middle of December, consumer magazines are down 9.4% from last year, according to MIN Online; this compares with a 7.8% drop in 2001. Worse, magazines do not appear to be headed for a quick rebound like the last recession.
At this rate, 2008's losses will almost certainly be compounded in 2009--bringing two straight years of declines, which will result in more magazine closures and layoffs.
2008: Magazines Ad Sales Plummet
by Erik Sass, Friday, December 12, 2008, 5:45 PM
As if there isn't enough bad news, 2008 has turned out to be the worst year in decades for magazines, as measured by total ad pages. Through the middle of December, consumer magazines are down 9.4% from last year, according to MIN Online; this compares with a 7.8% drop in 2001. Worse, magazines do not appear to be headed for a quick rebound like the last recession.
At this rate, 2008's losses will almost certainly be compounded in 2009--bringing two straight years of declines, which will result in more magazine closures and layoffs.
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