Electric Fishwrap has moved

I’m not sure if I’m creating a blasphemous analogy on the anniversary of our nation’s founding by saying this but here goes.

It may come as a shock to some that newspapers need to make money. Yes, we are the guardians of the First Amendment, a voice for the voiceless and the afflicters of the comfortable.

Newsrooms everywhere are in a downward spiral. Tampa Tribune editor in chief Janet Coats, according to blogger and news intern Jessica DaSilva, decided to reorganize the newsroom and reprioritize the newspaper’s coverage.

Essentially, it’s a shakeup of the traditional beat system. From Mindy McAdams’ blog:

• Managing editors
• 5-6 audience editors — keep in touch with what the print, TV, online audiences want/need
• 5 sections of reporting (all the reporters for print, TV and Web are mashed up together in these groups):

1. Deadline — for breaking/daily news
2. Data — specifically for database stuff
3. Watchdog — for investigative reporting
4. Personal journalism — stuff for people’s every day lives like weather, health, entertainment
5. Grassroots — citizen journalism

Outside of these groups are three “finishing” groups for print, TV and online to determine what stories should be covered and with what medium.

Read more of McAdams’ blog. I really like how she lays out the system for news coverage.

(more…)

It is difficult for me to maintain my optimism about the industry when I see a layoff from somewhere around the country literally every day. So far the count for this year alone is nearly 6,000 newsroom jobs, and that’s just the announced amount. Assuredly the real total is much higher.

The LA Times is cutting 150 newsroom jobs and is reducing published pages by 15 percent. The Minneapolis Star Tribune union is working to cut 10 percent from the newsroom budget.

I thought community newspapers were relatively immune. But this downturn in the economy (not a recession?) has proved me wrong. Something is happening, and even my paper is not immune.

I do appreciate my editors’ candor. They give us regular updates on how the paper is doing with ad and subscription sales. Without giving away too many details, reporters have been told to watch their mileage (41 cents a mile now) and watch the number of hours they work past 7 p.m. (we get a 50-cent boost in pay for each hour between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.). We also have an open business reporter position that may remain open for quite some time.

But I am not one to complain without attempting to find a silver lining — or a solution. The silver lining: We are holding steady on circulation.

One thing is clear: we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results (Einstein quote). I’m not so sure about the solution.
(more…)

Most reporters know slight sociological tricks to get people to tell you information. Nothing illegal (at least, not in my reporting bag). Just ways to talk with people to help them help you.

SPJ’s FOI FYI blog has a great example of using sociology to help reluctant sources give you information. The basic premise is that people will give information more readily to those who are “tall, white, blue-eyed, trim, and male.” But what to do if you are none, or only some, of those?

One of the Idaho journalists said she would take a tall white guy with her to the police station and they would talk to him. After a few visits they would take her seriously too. I’ve used this technique when covering tribes. I noticed that if I drove around a reservation alone I would get dirty looks - I’m a white guy who looks like a federal BIA bureaucrat. So I would find a respected tribal member and have that person drive me around. People were more likely to accept me and give me access to information.

This is brilliant! Granted, this blog is talking about public records that we should have by right, however, I can see the implications for reporting with reluctant sources, too.

What happens when 13 news reporters try to build social networks into their beats?

I’m not sure, but you can follow it here, at Beatblogging.org.

Beats of every stripe and color, from the pharmaceutical industry to sports to education, are represented in the list.

For instance, Education Week started a Ning network of experts to help gather news:

We like the idea of using a “network” of well-connected experts, tech savvy administrators and principals, innovative teachers, ed. tech. industry players, and others, initially, to identify the top 10 ed. tech. problems schools are facing and how they should go about tackling those problems.

Look along the side of the Beatblogging page and you’ll find links to the news organizations and any Ning networks they have.

I am really happy to see news organizations taking the plunge with this idea. But I know a lot of newspapers, mine included, would balk because of legal ramifications. Nothing wrong with being careful, but if I recall correctly much of the paranoia about legal issues is widely untested.

But it seems reporters could build a closed social network to ask questions of sources who could answer at their leisure. That would be way better than calling each one on the phone or sending a blast email, in my opinion. But of course you would have to have sources who actually check Ning once in a while, too.

I know I’m late to the party on this (see post here from Ryan Sholin) . I have a valid excuse (selling my World of Warcraft accounts takes more time than I thought, yes I’m a video game dork).